The National Front (Fronte Nazionale, FN) is an Italian far-right political party. The FN had its roots in the Tricolour Flame when two leading radicals, Tomaso Staiti di Cuddia and Adriano Tilgher, were expelled from the party in 1997. As a response Tilgher formed his own group in September of that year, calling it National Front (a name already used twice before on the Italian far right) and basing it on the French National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen. The party, which initially confined its operations largely to Rome, gained 18,000 votes in that city in the local elections of 1998.