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Right-wing extremism and lone-actor violence in Italy: the case of the 2018 Macerata shooting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2022

Francesco Marone Open the ORCID record for Francesco Marone [Opens in a new window]
Francesco Marone*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Teramo, Italy
*
Email: fmarone@unite.it
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Abstract

On 3 February 2018, in the town of Macerata, an Italian citizen with far-right sympathies deliberately fired several shots from his car at nine African immigrants, injuring six. The article argues that this shooting can be considered an act of lone-actor terrorism, an anomaly in the Italian context. Based on the social science literature on this subject, the paper analyses the profile of the shooter and the dynamics of the attack. Moreover, adopting a relational perspective to radicalisation, it examines the attacker's interactions: on the one hand, he was in contact with different political organisations that could represent ‘echo chambers’ for the tacit validation or even the justification and amplification of radical beliefs, including on the relation between immigration and security; on the other hand, he was not subject to their discipline and social control. This peripheral social position helps explain this case of lone-actor terrorism, in a national context where far-right mobilisation and violence have historically assumed collective forms.

Il 3 febbraio 2018, a Macerata, un cittadino italiano con simpatie di estrema destra sparò deliberatamente diversi colpi d'arma da fuoco dalla sua automobile contro nove immigrati di origine africana, ferendone sei. Questo articolo argomenta che la sparatoria di Macerata può essere considerata un atto di terrorismo ‘solitario’ (lone-actor) e costituisce un'anomalia nel contesto italiano. Sulla base della letteratura disponibile nel campo delle scienze sociali su questo tema, l'articolo analizza il profilo dell'attentatore e le dinamiche dell'attacco. Inoltre, adottando una prospettiva relazionale allo studio della radicalizzazione, esamina le interazioni sociali dell'autore della violenza: da una parte, l'uomo era in contatto con diverse organizzazioni politiche che potevano rappresentare una sorta di ‘cassa di risonanza’ per la validazione tacita o addirittura per la giustificazione e l'amplificazione di credenze radicali, anche sulla relazione tra immigrazione e sicurezza; dall'altra parte, egli non era soggetto alla disciplina e al controllo sociale di tali organizzazioni. Questa posizione sociale periferica dell'attentatore contribuisce a spiegare le cause di questo caso di terrorismo ‘solitario’, in un contesto nazionale in cui la mobilitazione e la violenza di estrema destra hanno storicamente assunto forme collettive.

Keywords

2018 Macerata shootinglone-actor terrorismpolitical violenceradicalisationItalian far right
Type
Research Articles
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , February 2023 , pp. 18 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy

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