by Daniele Scalea

Exactly five years ago, on February 8, 2017, the adventure of the Centro Studi Machiavelli was inaugurated. It happened with a conference with the programmatic title: Globalism and Sovereignty. Political Options for the coming Italy. The intention was to re-propose in Italy the sovereignist instances that the previous year had triumphed in the USA and Great Britain. The guests were deliberately representative of three souls: the nationalist right (Marcello Veneziani), the conservative Catholicism (Ettore Gotti Tedeschi), the (former) left that found refuge on the right to continue to be on the side of the popular classes (Alberto Bagnai). There was no shortage of prominent politicians in the audience, including Matteo Salvini and Giancarlo Giorgetti.

Five years later many things have changed, but the Machiavelli is still here and remains true to itself. We still believe in a conservative, sovereignist and populist Right - in the most positive sense of the three terms.
We believe it is necessary to preserve our traditions, historical memory, and social foundations (such as the family) from the threat of cancellation to which they are subject.
We believe full sovereignty of the people in the Republic and maximum national sovereignty for the state must be restored.
We believe that we must first of all defend the middle and lower classes from the excessive power of a transnational and cosmopolitan élite that certainly doesn't serve their interests.
These ideas are less in vogue today than they were five years ago, but we don't follow trends. We confront, as is right and proper, the current reality and adapt our strategy and awareness to it. For example, it was the new pandemic reality that made us embrace the cause of individual freedoms zeroed out by a bureaucratic state with no more brakes. But we will not cease to support ideas and guidelines, still valid for responding to the problems of this era, just because gazettes and influencers have deliberated that they are out of fashion.

That's as far as ideas go. But what have we concretely done in five years to support them?

  • we have explored the great problems of our time and informed the political class, through 51 conferences held in person, most often at institutional sites to involve parliamentarians. (In weighing up the figure, consider that in the last two years holding conferences in person has been very difficult, when not expressly prohibited by law).
  • we influenced policy makers, through 40 books and reports, set up as policy papers (i.e. designed for those who must formulate public policy) and distributed to parliamentarians in our political area. In at least one case we managed to directly influence a governmental decision, convincing them to abandon their intention to adhere to the Global Compact on Migration (as has been recognized by our opponents in Manifesto and HuffPost, or by less hostile sources such as Formiche and Primato Nazionale).
  • we have produced quality and alternative information to the mainstream, thanks to over 800 articles published in our blog, signed - among others - by writers such as Eugenio Capozzi, Ginevra Cerrina Feroni, Nicola De Felice, Gianandrea Gaiani, Marco Gervasoni, Stefano Graziosi, Maria Giovanna Maglie, Corrado Ocone, Paolo Becchi.
  • we have launched several live video series, for a total of 75 episodes so far: videoconferences, insights, Ritratto delle cose del mondo (geopolitical observatory) Istorie toscane (regional news) and Machiavelli talks (in English).
  • we have created an international network, with collaborations with conservative institutes and personalities in countries such as USA, Hungary, Poland, Austria and Israel. Moreover, in order to make the Italian Right known abroad, we have launched the English version of our website, where everything new we publish is fully translated.

Very few of these things would have been possible without the support you have given us. Very few will be possible in the future without the support you'll give us. Therefore, I ask you to consider to make now a donation in favour of the Machiavelli. Which is much more than a Study Center. It is a movement (non-partisan, but of opinion, values and action) for a conservative, sovereignist and popular Right.

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Founder and President of Centro Studi Machiavelli. Graduated in Historical Sciences (University of Milan) and PhD in Political Studies (Sapienza University), he is professor of "History and doctrine of jihadism" and "Geopolitics of the Middle East" at Cusano University. From 2018 to 2019 he was Special Advisor on Immigration and Terrorism to the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Guglielmo Picchi. His latest book (as editor) is Topicality of sovereignism. Between pandemic and war.