Democracy is Freedom – Daisy
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| Democracy is Freedom – Daisy Democrazia è Libertà – La Margherita |
|
|---|---|
 Italian National Party |
|
| Leader | Francesco Rutelli |
| Founded | March 24, 2002 |
| Headquarters | Via Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, 16 00187 Rome |
| Coalition | The Union |
| Political ideology | Centrism, Christian democracy, Social liberalism, Social democracy |
| International affiliation | Alliance of American and European Democrats |
| European affiliation | European Democratic Party |
| European Parliament Group | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe |
| Membership | 260,000 (2003, [1]) |
| Official newspaper | Europa |
| Website | http://www.margheritaonline.it |
| See also | Politics of Italy |
Democracy is Freedom – Daisy (Democrazia è Libertà – La Margherita, DL) is a centrist political party in Italy.
The party president and leader is Francesco Rutelli, former Mayor of Rome and former centre-left candidate for Prime Minister at the 2001 General Elections.
DL is formed by former leftist Christian Democrats, centrists (former Liberals and former Republicans), as well as more leftist politicians, especially former Socialists and Greens.
Contents |
[edit] History
In October 2000, the Italian People's Party, The Democrats, the Union of Democrats for Europe and Italian Renewal decided to form a single list called "Daisy" for the 2001 general election. The list, led by Francesco Rutelli (who was also candidate for Prime Minister for the whole centre-left), scored 14.5%, only two points less than the Democrats of the Left.
Democracy is Freedom - Daisy was established as a single party during the founding congress of Parma in February 2002. In that occasion the Italian People's Party , The Democrats and Italian Renewal merged in the new party while the Union of Democrats for Europe decided to step aside it.
In June 2005 DL decided by majority they will no longer join the Olive Tree coalition at the next General Election, to be held in 2006, but they would form a separate list, as in 2006.
The party's decision triggered major controversy, with rumours of divisions inside the party itself, also worsened by Rutelli's indication of "no-vote" at the referenda on artificial insemination held on 12-13 June. In Italy, for the result of a referendum to be legally binding, a 50% turnout is strictly necessary. As such, Rutelli's decision was considered instrumental for the referenda to collapse. The vote was seen by some as a test over the kind of political weight carried by the Vatican in the Italian political life.
However in October 2005, after the spectacular success of Romano Prodi at the coalition primaries for candidate prime-minister, DL decided to come back into the Olive Tree list.
In the 9-10 April 2006 general elections, the party was member of the winning The Union (L'Unione) and won 39 out of 315 senators. The Olive Tree list won 220 out of 630 deputies.
[edit] Ideology
Democracy is Freedom is a pro-European centrist-liberal party, with a strong support among Catholics, especially progressive ones. The party combines social-conservatives with social-liberals, economic liberals and social-democrats. Many members of the former Italian People's Party, from whom some of the Democracy is Freedom Party derive, were members or close supporters of the Italian Confederation of Workers' Trade Unions, the Catholic trade union.
Although part of the Olive Tree, which is usually associated with the centre-left, The Democrats were a member of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party, while the Italian People's Party was a member of the European People's Party.
After the 2004 European elections the new party decided not to become a member of either the ELDR or the EPP, but formed together with the French UDF the European Democratic Party. In the European Parliament DL joined the group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
[edit] Membership
Among the leading members of the party, we can find:
- Former Christian Democrats: Gerardo Bianco, Rosy Bindi, Enzo Carra, Pierluigi Castagnetti, Luigi Cocilovo, Sergio D'Antoni, Ciriaco De Mita, Giuseppe Fioroni, Dario Franceschini, Enrico Letta, Renzo Lusetti, Nicola Mancino, Franco Marini, Sergio Mattarella, Lapo Pistelli, Vittorio Prodi, Rosa Russo Jervolino, Patrizia Toia
- Former Socialists: Laura Fincato, Giuseppe La Ganga, Linda Lanzillotta, Enrico Manca, Pierluigi Mantini, Tiziano Treu
- Former Social Democrats: Franco Bruno, Sandro Gozi, Andrea Papini, Italo Tanoni
- Former Liberals: Cinzia Dato, Natale D'Amico, Lamberto Dini, Valerio Zanone
- Former Republicans: Enzo Bianco, Antonio Maccanico, Roberto Manzione
- Former Radicals: Francesco Rutelli (then switched to the Greens), Roberto Giachetti
- Former Greens: Paolo Gentiloni, Ermete Realacci, Francesco Rutelli, Gianni Vernetti
- Former Communists: Willer Bordon, Massimo Cacciari, Maurizio Fistarol, Antonio Polito
[edit] Factions
DL is mainly composed by four factions, the first three of them supporting Francesco Rutelli's leadership:
- Rutelli's followers (Rutelliani): the Rutelli's own group, is composed of Paolo Gentiloni, Roberto Giacchetti, Renzo Lusetti, Ermete Realacci, Gianni Vernetti, Luigi Lusi, Rino Piscitello, Maurizio Fistarol and Riccardo Villari. This group is supportive of the idea of forming a Democratic Party with DS, but they want to model it similarly to the United States Democratic Party and for this reason they have supported the foundation of the European Democratic Party.
- Teo-dem: this is a group of conservative christian-democrats, formed by Paola Binetti, Luigi Bobba, Enzo Carra, Patrizia Toia, Emanuela Baio Dossi and Marco Calgaro. These support Rutelli as leader of the party.
- Popolari: the core of the former Italian People's Party (a leftish christian-democratic party), as Franco Marini, Ciriaco De Mita, Pierluigi Castagnetti, Gerardo Bianco, Nicola Mancino, Enrico Letta, Dario Franceschini, Giuseppe Fioroni, Rosy Bindi, Lapo Pistelli and Sergio D'Antoni. This group supports Rutelli as leader of the party, although there are some differences about the future Democratic Party with DS, as Popolari are proud of their chistian-democratic identity and some of them would prefer to re-join the European People's Party, while rejecting the idea of joining the Party of European Socialists.
- Prodi's followers (Prodiani): the core of the former Democrats, as Arturo Parisi, Enzo Bianco, Willer Bordon, Antonio Maccanico, Franco Monaco, Pierluigi Mantini, Marina Magistrelli, Roberto Manzione, Cinzia Dato and Giovanni Procacci. This group is the most supportive of Democratic Party's project and tend to be more secular, although most of them have Catholic connections.
[edit] Popular support
The electoral results of Democracy is Freedom – Daisy in the 10 most populated Regions of Italy are shown in the table below. As DL was founded in 2002, the electoral results from 1994 to 2001 refer to the combined result of the precursor parties.
The results of 1994 (general) refer to the combined result of PPI, Patto Segni and AD, those of 1994 to the combined result of PPI and Pact of Democrats (joint-list of Patto Segni and AD, including also SI), those of 1996 (general and Sicilian regional) to the combined result of the joint-list of PPI and UD and RI (whose list comprised Patto Segni and SI), those of 1999 (European) and 2000 (regional) to the combined result of PPI, Dem and RI, those of 2001 (general and Sicilian regional) the DL federation (comprising at the time PPI, Dem, UDEUR and RI).
From 2004 (European) the results refer to DL, formed by PPI, Dem and RI, after the defection of UDEUR. The result for the 2006 general election refers to the election for the Senate, indeed DS contested the election for the Chamber of Deputies in a joint-list with DS.
| 1994 general | 1995 regional | 1996 general | 1999 European | 2000 regional | 2001 general | 2004 European | 2005 regional | 2006 general | |
| Piedmont | 13.1 | 9.7 | 9.7 | 11.3 | 7.9 | 15.1 | with Ulivo | 10.4 | 11.7 |
| Lombardy | 15.0 | 9.4 | 10.4 | 10.1 | with Ulivo | 15.1 | with Ulivo | with Ulivo | 10.0 |
| Veneto | 21.1 | 15.0 | 13.3 | 12.7 | 13.7 | 14.9 | with Ulivo | with Ulivo | 11.9 |
| Emilia-Romagna | 14.8 | 9.3 | 11.8 | 10.9 | 7.7 | 15.5 | with Ulivo | with Ulivo | 9.4 |
| Tuscany | 15.7 | 6.4 | 10.0 | 9.1 | 6.9 | 13.4 | with Ulivo | with Ulivo | 9.0 |
| Lazio | 14.4 | 6.0 | 10.0 | 11.9 | 9.6 | 16.1 | with Ulivo | with Ulivo | 9.1 |
| Campania | 16.8 | 13.8 | 12.2 | 17.9 | 18.7 | 12.1 | with Ulivo | 16.0 | 12.8 |
| Apulia | 22.2[1] | 13.6 | 8.9 | 16.7 | 13.7 | 16.1 | with Ulivo | 9.7 | 11.1 |
| Calabria | 19.8 | 15.1 | 11.0 | 18.0 | 13.4 | 10.7 | with Ulivo | 14.5 | 10.3 |
| Sicily | 14.2 | 12.3 (1996) | 10.1 | 19.6 | 12.3 (2001) | 13.9 | with Ulivo | 12.0 (2006) | 11.8 |
| ITALY | 18.9 | - | 11.1 | 14.6 | - | 14.5 | - | - | 10.5 |
[edit] Leadership
- President: Francesco Rutelli (2001–present)
- President of the Federal Assembly: Arturo Parisi (2001-06), Willer Bordon (2006–present)
- Executive Coordinator: Dario Franceschini (2001–06, Antonello Soro (2006–present)
- Organizational Secretary: Franco Marini (2001–06), Nicodemo Nazzareno Oliviero (2006–present)
- Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: Pierluigi Castagnetti (2001–2006), Dario Franceschini (leader of the Olive Tree's group, 2006–present)
- Party Leader in the Senate: Willer Bordon (2001–2006), Luigi Zanda (deputy-leader of the Olive Tree's group, 2006–present)
- Party Leader in the European Parliament: Lapo Pistelli (2004–present)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Forza Italia failed to present a list and thus some centre-right voters voted for PPI and Patto Segni.
