He initially worked as a journalist and propagandist for the Fascist regime. During Mussolini’s Repubblica Sociale Italiana (Republic of Salò), Almirante served as chief of staff in the Ministry of Popular Culture, where he oversaw propaganda and censorship. After the war, despite being briefly charged with collaborationism, he avoided major punishment and became instrumental in reorganising the remnants of Italian Fascism into a legal political force.
In 1946, he co-founded the MSI, which sought to defend the legacy of Fascism within the framework of parliamentary democracy. As its secretary for several decades (with interruptions), Almirante positioned the party as the institutional voice of the radical right, combining nationalist, traditionalist, and authoritarian themes with a strong anti-communist stance. His rhetoric maintained an ideological continuity with Mussolini’s regime, framing Fascism as a patriotic defence of order and identity against both liberalism and Marxism.
Under Almirante’s leadership, the MSI acted as a refuge for former Fascists and right-wing militants, including figures linked to Ordine Nuovo and other extremist networks later implicated in Italy’s “strategy of tension.”
