Assessing the Role of Globalisation in the Rise of New Right Attitudes in Germany and Italy

This study examines the role of the various processes entailed in globalisation in the rise of the New Right in Italy and Germany. The first section aims to clarify what is meant by the term globalisation, for it is more easily used than defined. Thus, several perspectives, such as those of the tranformationalists and the hyperglobalists, are taken into account. Then, economic and cultural globalisation considered to be the most influential forms of globalisation are analysed in depth.
The second part specifically examines the Italian and the German cases by analysing the political and ideological discourse of successful New Right cultural movements and parties, e.g. the Italian Northern League and National Alliance. This analysis explains the difference between the populist New Right and the extreme right, and how the rise of New Right parties can be linked with the strengthening of cultural and economic globalisation.

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Chapter II - Italy and Germany: New Right as Culture and Politics:
New Right in Italy: Lega Nord and Alleanza Nazionale:
As we have seen the various aspects and dimensions of globalisation have had a huge impact on the economics, politics, and culture of nation states. The intensification of worldwide interactions prompted by its increased speed linked to the availability of modern technology, the advent of 'hypercapitalism,' global financial markets, and its global competitive conditions, the rise of supraterritoriality and the weakening of the tradition Westphalian political system, the Americanisation of national cultures, and the constant rise of immigration influx have all affected people's lives. Italian sociologist Umberto Melotti has defined the process of globalisation affecting his country as 'the ultimate act of a drama' due to:
"the formation and extension of the capitalist system to a global scale, with all ist contradictions. Beyond that it represents the first chapter in a new stage in history. This stage is characterised by the transformation of the world into a new configuration of multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural, multilinguistic, and multi-religious social formations. These new social formations are divided by increasing diversity, and yet also more independent, and thus at least tendentially united in their destiny".
Especially since the early 1990s, these numerous and fast growing transformations described by Melotti have caught many citizens unprepared and have caused many of them to be concerned about the future of both their jobs and identities. Many northern Italians, especially workers and less educated, are preoccupied about the impact of globalisation on their economic well-being. In a survey conducted by Ludovico Gardani, over 58 per cent of respondents said that external political developments affected their regions and almost 70 per cent believed that global economic developments in Europe and the world directly affected their region. In Lombardy, the percentage was extremely high; nearly 80 per cent of those interviewed claimed that the region was influenced by world dynamics. Gardani analysed his survey and concluded that "globalisation creates a sense of uncertainty and anxiety, pushing individuals, particularly those who do not have any first hand experience with global dynamics, toward territorial identification and support for enhanced local power".
The recent elections in the country, in which the conservative PDL Party and its new right Northern League ally won the elections with a strong majority of votes, is one of the most evident symptoms of the fears and uncertainties that hang over the population. In fact, the recent Italian elections held on the 13th and 14th of April this year produced unexpected results, giving a significant majority to Silvio Berlusconi's 'People of Freedoms' (PDL) coalition, composed of the PDL Party itself, which was recently created by the merging of Berlusconi's Forza Italia Party and Gianfranco Fini's conservative National Alliance Party, and the anti-globalisation and antiimmigration Northern League Party. In the Senate, Berlusconi's centre-right coalition obtained 46.5 per cent of votes against the 37.54 per cent received by Walter Veltroni's centre left coalition (PD- Democratic Party).70 In the Chamber of Deputies, the centre right coalition claimed 45 per cent of votes whereas the PD received only 48.1 per cent of total votes. The most surprising aspect of this stunning victory however is that the Northern League Party strongly enhanced its usual performance, more than doubling its previous record, by claiming alone almost 9 per cent of the votes in the Senate and 6 per cent in the Chamber of Deputies. This allowed Umberto Bossi's new right party to obtain 60 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 25 seats in the Senate.
The extraordinary results of Bossi's Northern League Party are the most important political response of the