Conclusion

Abstract

Abstract The conclusion summarizes the perspectives gained and restates the conceptual position developed throughout the book. The conclusion also ends by indicating the broader relevance of the Italian case for global currents and tendencies. In particular, the chapter returns to the challenge of “populist” politics. Seen in a global perspective, Christian Democracy has become much less influential and much less coherent in the last decades. At the same time, more and more movements and political parties in all of Europe and beyond—typically right-wing or far-right parties—explicitly refer to Christianity and to the defense of Christian Europe to articulate their political platforms, often in an anti-liberal key. The mainstream literature on populism interprets the use of religion in a purely instrumentalist key. It is argued that such an instrumentalist stance does not really suffice to grasp the resilience of religion in politics and why religious narratives and symbolisms resonate through multiple constituencies in Italy’s (and Europe’s) social fabric, fostering the appeal and success of the League and other right-wing movements and party politics.