Trends of Radicalisation in Italy

This report presents and analyses four hotspots of radicalisation in Italy in order to shed light on the micro, meso and macro factors that enable radicalisation and extreme violence to take place, and to examine the motivations of individual perpetrators. To ensure a comprehensive overview on the Italian case, we have chosen to focus on a set of hotspots that exemplify radicalisation into the four main radical milieus in Italy (right-wing; left-wing; Islamist and ethno-nationalist/separatist). The four hotspots cover a broad period of time, with the historical case study of the 1961 Feuernacht/Notte dei fuochi (Night of Fire) in South Tyrol (ethno-separatist hotspot); the 2002 assassination of government consultant Professor Marco Biagi (left-wing hotspot); the 2011 xenophobic rampage by Gianluca Casseri (right-wing hotspot) and the so-called ‘Inzago cluster’, a network of radicalisation surrounding Maria Giulia Sergio uncovered in 2014 (Islamist hotspot). They also capture the diverging contexts and motivations of individuals who may engage in different types of violence.