24 Facts About Pino Rauti

Giuseppe Umberto "Pino" Rauti was an Italian neo-fascist politician who was a leading figure of the Italian far-right for many years.

Pino Rauti was the main representative of the MSI's radical faction until the party dissolution in 1995.

Pino Rauti returned to Italy in 1946 and joined the Italian Social Movement two years later.

Pino Rauti became a leading member of the party and joined the New European Order initiative.

Pino Rauti became associated with Julius Evola and, along with Enzo Erra, served as editor of his journal Imperium.

However Pino Rauti became disillusioned with the MSI, particularly after the party supported the presidency bid of Giovanni Gronchi and the premiership of Giuseppe Pella, and so his group split off at the 1956 party conference, with Pino Rauti launching a tirade of abuse at the MSI leadership as he left.

Alongside his political career Pino Rauti was the subject of a series of allegations linking him to the terror campaigns associated with the strategy of tension.

Pino Rauti supported the old tactic of direct street fights with far left militia groups but endorsed a process of infiltrating these groups and thus provoking them to more action and more direct confrontation with law enforcement.

Pino Rauti hoped that his policy would create an atmosphere of civil unrest that he hoped would be more conducive to a neo-fascist takeover.

Pino Rauti's name cropped up in the inquiry into the Piazza Fontana bombing whilst he had been named as having attended high-level terrorism planning meetings in Padua in 1969.

Pino Rauti was aided in this by being able to provide an alibi for the Padua meeting.

Pino Rauti was known to be close to Mario Merlino and by extension was linked to Merlino's close comrade Stefano Delle Chiaie.

Pino Rauti collaborated with former Ordine Nuovo member Franco Freda, producing a series of pamphlets with him in the 1960s.

Some documents have claimed that Pino Rauti was either a 'contact' or a paid informer for the head of the Servizio Informazioni Difesa, which was itself linked to the strategy of tension.

Pino Rauti returned to the MSI in 1969 and was given a seat on the Central Committee by Giorgio Almirante.

Pino Rauti's move was condemned by Clemente Graziani, who continued to lead a rump Ordine Nuovo outside the MSI although the two men actually remained close associates.

Meanwhile, Pino Rauti was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1972.

Pino Rauti underlined his opposition to the United States and Western values as well as his support for ethnopluralism.

Pino Rauti remained a hard-line critic of Fini's leadership until 1995 when Fini declared the dissolution of the MSI and the foundation, in its place, of the Alleanza Nazionale.

Pino Rauti stood down as leader in 2002 in favour of Luca Romagnoli, who immediately adopted a policy of seeking to work with Silvio Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition.

Pino Rauti became a strong critic of the direction taken by Romagnoli leading to him being expelled from the party he had founded in early 2004.

Pino Rauti then established his own party, the Social Idea Movement.

Besides his career in politics Pino Rauti was a noted journalist, joining the staff of the Rome-based daily Il Tempo in 1953.

Pino Rauti would act as one of the Italian correspondents for the Aginter Press.