A two-day international conference exploring the meaning and future of Italian conservatism will be held in Rome at the end of the month, beginning Friday, September 30, five days after today’s snap general election in Italy. A third day, Sunday, October 2, will bring together representatives from the Nazione Futura movement to discuss ideas and proposals for a possible new conservative government in the country.
The international conference—the result of a collaboration between Fondazione Tatarella, a cultural foundation in Bari, Nazione Futura, a think-tank and intellectual movement based in Rome, and The European Conservative, the leading English-language quarterly on the European Right—will bring together leading thinkers, writers, intellectuals, and political leaders from Italy and across Europe. It will be held in English and Italian, with simultaneous translation.
In a program that includes keynote speeches and ten different panels exploring different challenges facing Italy and other European countries, the conference seeks to bring together Italians, who are primed and ready for a new government resulting from the snap election, with other European leaders—especially those who have already forged cultural and political center-Right alliances in their own countries.
International panel themes are intentionally broad and will include “national identity,” “freedom and sovereignty,” the “nation-state,” and “Europe.” Leading international speakers will include Jorge Buxadé Villalba, Spanish MEP for VOX; Balázs Hidveghi, Hungarian MEP for Fidesz; former Thatcher speechwriter and adviser, John O’Sullivan, now-President of the Danube Institute in Budapest; André Ventura, President of the Chega! Party of Portugal; the former leader of the Sweden Democrats, Mattias Karlsson; Lord Daniel Hannan, former Secretary-General of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (2009-2018); and famed Portuguese historian and professor, Jaime Nogueira Pinto. Italian speakers on these international panels will include Vincenzo Sofo, Italian MEP for the Fratelli d’Italia; Lorenzo Fontana, Deputy Federal Secretary of Italy’s Lega; Raffaele Fitto, Italian MEP and Co-President of the ECR Group.
The snap election in Italy, which will be held today, Sunday, September 25, was triggered when Italian President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament on July 21.
“This conference on Italian conservatism represents an important moment of confrontation between some of the leading conservative voices in Italy and Europe,” said Francesco Giubilei, President of Nazione Futura, one of the co-sponsors of the conference. “We believe that international collaboration is essential to advance shared ideas and values—such as Christian identity, the classical tradition, the defense of the family, a Europe of nations, the preservation of nature, the love of freedom, and opposition to all forms of ‘cancel culture.’ These are all issues that will be addressed at this conference that we have decided to hold a week after the general election. In doing so, we want to emphasize Italy’s centrality not just in Europe but in the West—and not only from a political point of view but also from a historical and cultural point of view, with a special focus on foreign policy and on our country’s leading role in the enlarged Mediterranean area,” he added.
“We seek to unite the Right,” said Alvino-Mario Fantini, the Editor-in-Chief of The European Conservative, “not just in Italy but across Europe. And having this event is one small step toward that goal. The ultimate goal is to encourage discussion of ideas and the implementation of concrete plans by conservative leaders around Europe. At a time when the technocratic elites in Brussels are flexing their muscles and calling governments formed after free and fair elections ‘hybrid regimes of electoral autocracy,’ European leaders on the Right must urgently find solutions to resist them.”
“The Tatarella Foundation continues its path of growth at the European and international level,” added Foundation Vice-President, Fabrizio Tatarella. “After the numerous certificates and awards granted by the government at the regional and national levels for its library and archival heritage—a unique achievement in the history of the Italian right—we seek to be the foundation of reference for European conservatism. We are thus proud to promote this important event, in partnership with Nazione Futura and The European Conservative, a week after the possible victory of the Italian center-right—which could see a conservative government in Italy.”
The Italian-language panels will focus on economics, foreign affairs, and other contemporary challenges facing Italy. Speakers and panelists will include journalist Daniele Capezzone, AIAD president Guido Crosetto, Rai News 24 director Paolo Petrecca, all in a panel on economics; Tg2 director Gennaro Sangiuliano, philosopher Marcello Veneziani, and AN Foundation scientific committee chairman Giampaolo Rossi, in a panel on culture; journalist Mario Giordano, along with Adnkronos editor Gian Marco Chiocci and the deputy editor of Il Giornale, Francesco Maria Del Vigo, on a panel on truth and lies; and journalist Maria Giovanna Maglie, deputy editor of La Verità, Francesco Borgonovo, Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo, former NATO civilian High Representative in Afghanistan, and former Foreign Minister, Ambassador Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata, on a panel on foreign affairs. Closing the conference on Saturday will be renowned art critic Vittorio Sgarbi.
The conference takes place at the Hotel Quirinale, located on Via Nazionale 7 in Rome. It begins at 14:30 on Friday, September 30, and ends at 13:30 on Sunday, October 2.
