Italian Unionist Movement

The Italian Unionist Movement (Movimento Unionista Italiano) was an Italian political party briefly in action just after the end of World War II. The goal of the party was the annexation of Italy to the United States.[1]

On 12 October 1944, former fascist sociologist Corrado Gini, Calabrian activist Santi Paladino, and ISTAT researcher Ugo Damiani founded the party, for which the emblem was the Stars and Stripes, the Italian flag and a world map. According to the three men, the Government of the United States should annex all free and democratic nations worldwide, thereby transforming itself into a world government, and allowing Washington, D.C. to maintain Earth in a perpetual condition of peace. Paladino stated, "With a federation of the United States, Italy and some other nations, and a lot of atomic bombs, there would be no wars. This would solve all of Italy's problems."[2] Paladino argued that closer union with America was necessary to counter the advance of Communism under Soviet Russian leadership.[2]

The party had a little success in local elections in Southern Italy in 1946, so they decided to run in the General election of the same year. However, the results were very poor: the party received only 0.3% of votes, and only Ugo Damiani was elected in the Constituent Assembly. As MP, Damiani supported federalistic ideas, but the goal of the party was evidently impossible to reach. Neither did the American government support the party, not being interested in its project, and the Movement was finally disbanded in 1948.