AN: The Flame Outside the Ghetto

The situation described in the previous chapter took a dramatic turn over the following two years. A significant decline in popularity affected all the ruling parties (DC, PSI, PSDI, PRI, PLI) due to the Mani Pulite (‘Clean Hands’) anti-corruption investigations. This decline made the MSI’s detachment from the political establishment an attractive quality, allowing it to profit from the evolving bipolar political context that emerged following changes to the electoral law (which the MSI itself had opposed). These shifts in the political landscape created an opportunity for the MSI to become a prominent player in the system, as it began to attract the support of a broad right-wing or national right constituency, which had been somewhat undefined in previous decades.