Giorgio Almirante

Leader of Italy's neo-Fascist Party, born near Parma, N Italy. He helped to found the neo-Fascist movement after the war, becoming national secretary of the Party in 1969. He retired in 1987 because of ill health.

Giorgio Almirante (June 27, 1914 - May 22, 1988) was an Italian politician, the founder and leader of the Italian Social Movement until his retirement in 1987.

Almirante was born at Salsomaggiore Terme, in Emilia Romagna. A minor figure in the Fascist Party, Almirante helped to organise the Italian Social Republic, being appointed Chief of Cabinet of the Minister of Culture in 1944.

Almirante fell out of the leadership for a long period between 1954 and 1969, when Arturo Michelini took charge and began to move the party more towards the Monarchists and Christian Democrats. By this time Almirante had largely broken with the spiritual dimensions of Julius Evola, a man of whom he had previously been a staunch follower (leadership of the Evola wing fell to Pino Rauti).

After Michelini's death in 1969, Almirante returned to the leadership and demonstrated a new moderation in leadership, removing Fascist symbols in 1970, declaring an acceptance of the democratic system in Italy and overseeing a merger with some monarchist groups in 1973. For Almirante, who had been blamed on having links to coup attempts in the 1960s and had been investigated for possible connections to Ordine Nuovo, these were important steps in both personal and party rehabilitation.

Feeling that the party was being run as Almirante's private property, Rauti challenged the veteran leader in 1987, but was defeated at the party's annual conference.