Abstract
Since the 1990s, the literature about social cleavages and political parties has been enriched by contributions hypothesizing the existence of new cleavages, based on materialist vs. postmaterialist sets of values and on the acceptance or rejection of globalization and Europeanization processes. In this context, scholars have highlighted that some European right-wing populist parties are increasingly using religion-related arguments in the context of a civilizational stance focused on anti-globalization and anti-EU discourses, but most of all on the idea of migrants and Muslims as threatening others. The chapter will elaborate on this hypothesis, by focusing on the Italian case and the evolution of the discourses of the Lega (Nord) party, in the context of its transformation into a right-wing populist and nationalist party, in relation to some religiously sensitive issues: immigration, LGBT+ rights, religious symbols in the public sphere, and bioethics.
An earlier version of this contribution was published in 2019 on the The Review of Faith and International Affairs, with the title “Religion, Cleavages, and Right-Wing Populist Parties: The Italian Case”.
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Notes
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La Repubblica, 4 September 2005.
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See Il Sole 24 Ore, Salvini: «No alla revisione di leggi del passato, dall’aborto alle unioni civili», 2 June 2018, https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/salvini-no-revisione-leggi-passato-dall-aborto-unioni-civili-AEYMuJzE (accessed on 16 December 2019).
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See for example Marco Politi, “Salvini invoca la Madonna e attacca il Papa. Ma il mondo cattolico non combatte abbastanza”, Il Fatto Quotidiano, 20 May 2019, https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/05/20/salvini-invoca-la-madonna-e-attacca-il-papa-ma-il-mondo-cattolico-non-combatte-abbastanza/5192762/; Libero Quotidiano, “Papa Francesco, durissimo attacco del cardinale Müller: ‘Bestiale attaccare Matteo Salvini sugli immigrati’”, 28 May 2019, https://www.liberoquotidiano.it/news/italia/13467024/papa-francesco-cardinale-gerhard-muller-papa-francesco-bestiale-condanna-matteo-salvini.html (accessed on 16 December 2019).
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Ozzano, L. (2021). Populism and Religion in the Lega’s Discourse and Policies. In: Tournier-Sol, K., Gayte, M. (eds) The Faces of Contemporary Populism in Western Europe and the US. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53889-7_6
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