THE SOCIO-POLITICAL AGENDA OF THE ITALIAN RIGHT-WINGERS - "BROTHERS OF ITALY": BETWEEN CONSERVATISM AND POPULISM
The article analyzes the political agenda of one of the fast growing political parties in Italy - «Fratelli d'Italia». The migration crisis in Europe in 2015-2016, climate change, the so-called Arab Spring and regime change in Libya have sharply raised the issue of regulating migration flows to Europe, actualized the issue of finding consensus among the countries of the European Union on the issue of accepting refugees. The main consequence is changes in the political field and the increasing influence of right-wingers and conservative political forces and movements. Anti-immigration rhetoric is used both by right wing parties and movements, and is partially intercepted by the ruling parties, as it was in Germany, Austria, France, and to the full extent in Italy. Italy has the most difficult situation with migration and reception of refugees. In the 2018 elections, the largest result was obtained by a coalition of center-right parties, including the «League» (formerly - «League of the North»), «Forward, Italy!» by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the ultra-right party «Brothers of Italy», which received a rather modest result of 4-5% of the vote. The coalition owes much of its electoral result to the «League» with its flamboyant anti-migrant and Eurosceptic rhetoric. In 2019-2020, the rhetoric of the «League» began to seem more moderate, and after the reformation of the Italian government, the «Brothers of Italy» did not join the new coalition, remaining in opposition, continuing its policy, including sharp anti-immigration. Currently, according to opinion polls, the rating of «Brothers of Italy» has begun to grow significantly, showing results of 18%-20%, which makes it an object of research for scientists interested in political movements, parties and political science in general.