Despite the populist radical right’s (PRR) popularity among political scientists, little scholarship has focused on its influence on foreign policy. This lack of study is due, in part, to a general lack of attention to the role of political parties in foreign policy, both in comparative politics and international relations (IR). This is unfortunate because, due to Europeanization and globalization, the domain of foreign policy has expanded, making foreign policy increasingly a domestic concern and, most importantly, touching on major themes of PRR parties. Combining insights from comparative politics and IR, we theorize the mechanisms, which may facilitate the impact of such parties on foreign policy. Subsequently, we examine whether the Italian Northern League (LN), as a prime example of a PRR party participating in a coalition government, has had an impact on Italy’s foreign policy and, if so, what accounts for this (lack of) influence. This paper concludes that, unlike common understanding, the PRR is not persistently anti-internationalist/anti-EU; rather, its position depends on the extent to which international politics helps or hinders the promotion of ‘the people’. Second, despite the LN’s strong coalition position, it pursued an effective foreign policy mainly regarding immigration policy. Third, IR theories of junior coalition partners and foreign policy should address the nature of the party system and how inter-party electoral competition affects the strength of a junior coalition partner. Fourth, these theories need to acknowledge that party preferences are sometimes trumped by national concerns, as suggested by more systemic IR theories.

This essay examines the presence of Garibaldi in the politics of contemporary Italy by focusing in particular on the publications released on or around the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the hero in the milieux that oppose the Italian state and contest the idea of an Italian nation. After a brief review of previous political appropriations (and rejections) of Garibaldi in the course of modern Italian history, the essay examines the ideological ingredients and rhetorical strategies of the representations of Garibaldi produced by Northern League and neo-Bourbon ideologues, which also surface in extreme neo-fascist and ultra-Catholic groups. It shows that while some ‘anti-myth’ ingredients are shared across this politically diverse constellation, others are more specific to their individual components. In particular Northern League ideologues use some of the clichés of the discourse of Italian character (in the negative) to claim their own difference (in the positive). The essay also points out that the visibility enjoyed by these versions of Italian history is greatly enhanced by the availability of new media technologies such as the internet (with the related effect of ‘group polarisation’), as well as by the presence of the Northern League in the ruling right-wing coalition led by media mogul Berlusconi, who has an inordinate degree of control over the national media.