after the fall of fascism and following the birth of the republic, the interest in italian nationalism by scholars, politicians and the masses was relatively low, mainly because of its close relation with fascism and consequently with bad memories of world war ii. the only notable and active political party who clearly declared italian nationalism as its main ideology was the neo-fascist italian social movement ("msi"), which became the fourth largest party in italy by the early 1960s. in these years, italian nationalism was considered an ideology linked to right-wing political parties and organisations. nevertheless, two significant events seemed to revitalise italian nationalism among italians, the first one in 1953 with the question of trieste when the claim of italy on the full control of the city of trieste was largely endorsed by most of the italian society with patriotic demonstrations, and the second one in 1985 during the sigonella crisis between italy and the united states.