Our own people first in a europe of peoples: The international policy of the vlaams blok

The foreign policy agendas of the two Italian parties usually included in the category of ‘right-wing populism’, as the present overview shows, are clearly divergent and contribute to putting into doubt the soundness of such a classification. The Lega Nord and the Alleanza Nazionale, because of tactical and strategic reasons also linked to their different ideologies. The sociological and political literature which has been looking at the growth of ‘radical-right’ neo-populism in Western Europe in the last two decades frequently includes in this area two Italian political actors: the Lega Nord and the Alleanza Nazionale. European integration was no longer considered as the historical opportunity that the former minister Maroni had stressed in his speech at Lega congress, sketching the possible future scenario of federal executive presided by a premier directly elected by European citizens for a maximum of four years, depending on the confidence of the European Parliament and responsible for monetary policy, strategic foreign policy and defence policy.