Union of Christian and Centre Democrats
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| Union of Christian and Centre Democrats Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e di Centro |
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|---|---|
 Italian National Party |
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| Leader | Lorenzo Cesa |
| Founded | December 6, 2002 |
| Headquarters | Via Due Macelli, 66 00187 Rome |
| Coalition | House of Freedoms |
| Political ideology | Christian Democracy, Centrism, Conservatism, Social conservatism |
| International affiliation | Christian Democratic International |
| European affiliation | European People's Party, European Democrat Union |
| European Parliament Group | European People's Party–European Democrats |
| Membership | 170,000 (2003, [1]) |
| Official newspaper | Notiziario Centrista, on-line news |
| Website | http://www.udc-italia.it |
| See also | Politics of Italy |
The Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e di Centro, UDC) is christian-democratic political party in Italy. It is formally led by Lorenzo Cesa, although its most popular figure and practical leader is Pier Ferdinando Casini. Its headquarters are in Rome.
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[edit] History
The party was formed in 2002 by a merger of the former Christian Democratic Centre (CCD, led by Pierferdinando Casini from 1994 to 2001, then by Marco Follini), United Christian Democrats (CDU, a split of Italian People's Party, led by Rocco Buttiglione from 1995) and European Democracy (DE, founded by Sergio D'Antoni).
The new party was led by Marco Follini, secretary until October 15, 2005 and by Rocco Buttiglione, president from the foundation to nowadays. The new secretary, elected on October 27, is Lorenzo Cesa, a MEP for the party, although the true leader and head of the list for the April election is Pierferdinando Casini. The party is part of the House of Freedoms coalition.
In the 2004 European Parliamentary Elections UDC had to show its electoral weight. The results were more positive then those predictated having gained 5.9% of the vote and returned 5 MEPs, while in 2001 elections the three parties scored 5.6% (sum of 3.2%, result of CCD and CDU, and 2.4%, result of DE). UDC was then the 3rd biggest party in the House of Freedoms, surpassing the Northern League. Follini becomes Vice-President of the Council wanting to straighten up the government by dimishing the influence of the Northern League in the executive.
In the regional elections of 2005 UDC and the House of Freedoms faced a severe defeat by gaining only 2 out of 14 regions. Follini asked Silvio Berlusconi to resign and form a new executive. In the new executive Rocco Buttiglione became minister with portfolio but Follini declined the post of Vice-President of the Council, wanting to dedicate himself to the party.
The party took part in the general election of April 9 and 10, 2006 with a new logo, characterized by the inclusion of the name of Casini, by far the most prominent member of the UDC. Casini himself was the leading candidate in many of the electoral constituencies. Despite the defeat of the House of Freedoms, the UDC improved its electoral performance gaining 6.75% of the vote and electing 39 deputies.
In October 2006, Senator Marco Follini, alongside with Riccardo Conti, a deputy, finally left the party to form his own grouping, called Middle-of-the-Road Italy. This is the fourth split suffered by UDC in two years, after the much bigger scissions led by Sergio D'Antoni, who led numbers of the former European Democracy, to Democracy is Freedom – Daisy, in 2004, that of Gianfranco Rotondi and Mauro Cutrufo to form the Christian Democracy for the Autonomies in 2005, and that of Raffaele Lombardo and many Southern party members which formed the Movement for Autonomy later that year.
[edit] Ideology and political position
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Although it is the most vocal supporter of social conservatism in Italy (opposition to abortion, gay rights and euthanasia are some of its main concerns) and can be easily connected with the Christian right, UDC is usually connected with the political centre in Italy, thanks to its Christian Democratic roots, and is an independent-minded and often reluctant member of the the House of Freedoms coalition.
However The Economist describes it as a right-wing, sometimes reactionary party, which "stretches a long way from the centre". More, it says that many UDC members are "diehard corporatists who [...] get most of their votes from the south, where many households depend either on welfare or on public-sector employment"[1]. Indeed the party is stronger in the South and especially in Sicily (10.0% in the 2006 general election) and weaker in the North (5.9% in Lombardy and 6.2% in Piedmont) and in Central Italy (5.8% in Emilia-Romagna and 5.9% in Tuscany, anyway it scored well also in Veneto (7.8%) and in Marche (8.0%).
The party's leading figure, Pier Ferdinando Casini is critical of the leadership of Silvio Berlusconi over the Italian centre-right and presents himself as a moderate alternative to populism, which, in his view, denotes Forza Italia, National Alliance and Lega Nord.
The party's strategy is very similar to that of the Union for French Democracy, which holds an uneasy alliance with a much bigger partner, the Union for a Popular Movement, as UDC with Forza Italia, and believes as well in a government beyond the left-right divide. The dream of reassembling the remnants of the old Christian Democracy (DC) party in order to control Italian politics from the centre is a longstanding one and Casini's fellows are trying to form the nucleus of a third force in Italian politics, hoping to enlist in the project Democracy is Freedom – Daisy (a centre-left outfit, in which many former Christian Democrats are gathered) in the future.
It is difficult to say how much chance of success this "centrist option" has; indeed there are at least three problems with it. First, UDC is a much lesser force compared to Berlusconi's Forza Italia, which draws much support from former Christian Democratic voters. Second, Italians like confrontational politics based on two alternative coalitions and dream a two-party system, in place of the current fragmented political spectrum in which as many as twenty parties are represented in Parliament[2]. Third, it is difficult to unite progressive Democracy is Freedom with conservative UDC, and history does not always repeat itself: many political scientists think that the return of Christian Democracy is all but likely as political unity of Catholics (the idea on which DC was based) is not repeatable, because it will be anti-historical trying to unite free-market liberals and economic interventionists, social-conservatives and social-liberals in a single party.
It is true that Democracy is Freedom has many conservative Catholics in its ranks but they are mostly social-democratic about the rest of the issues. UDC is likely to attract some of them but until it can draw support from Forza Italia its chances of growth are low; and, although Casini and his fellows are keen on presenting themeselves as moderates, their staunchly social-conservative stance will harm their prospects, as Forza Italia is popular also among secularized middle-class voters and, accordingly to the most recent opinion polls (see [2]), it outnumbers UDC by 20-25%.
[edit] Factions
There are mainly three factions within the party:
- the majority faction led by Pier Ferdinando Casini, Lorenzo Cesa and Rocco Buttiglione, which proposes an autonomous and independent path for the party, the loosening (if not the end) of the alliance with Forza Italia and suspicion for the Lega Nord;
- the Southern-based faction of Salvatore Cuffaro, president of Sicily (UDC's stronghold), which sometimes criticizes the centralist-styled leadership of the party;
- the group led by Carlo Giovanardi, which wants closer ties with Forza Italia and the other parties of the House of Freedoms coalition, including the Lega Nord.
The three main schisms suffered by the party between 2004 and 2006, Middle-of-the-Road Italy, Movement for Autonomy and Christian Democracy for the Autonomies, were led by the most vocal supporters of each of the three factions mentioned above, respectively Marco Follini, Raffaele Lombardo and Gianfranco Rotondi.
Gianfranco Rotondi left UDC over disagreements on the relationship with Forza Italia, which he wanted to be closer, and founded the so-called New Christian Democracy as a small party with strong ties with Silvio Berlusconi's one[citation needed]. Raffale Lombardo, UDC Sicilian leader, thought that the party was too much Rome-centred and launched his Movement for Autonomy, which soon started to collaborate with the Lega Nord in order to form a network of autonomist parties from throughout Italy. Marco Follini, now leader of Middle-of-the-Road Italy, was secretary of UDC until 2005 and was the chief-opposer of Silvio Berlusconi's leadership within the centre-right.
[edit] Popular Support
The electoral results of Union of Christian and Centre Democrats in the 10 most populated Regions of Italy are shown in the table below. As UDC was founded in 2002, the electoral results from 1994 to 2001 refer to the combined result of the precursor parties.
CCD, founded in 1994, and CDU, founded in 1995, formed joint lists with Forza Italia respectively in 1994 (general) and 1995 (regional). The results of 1995 (regional) refer to CCD alone, those of 1996 (general) to the CCD-CDU joint-list, those of 1996 (Sicilian regional), 1999 (European) and 2000 (regional) to the combined result of CCD and CDU, those of 2001 (general) to the combined result of the CCD-CDU joint-list and of DE, which formed a separate list, that of 2001 (Sicilian regional) to the combined results of CCD, CDU and DE.
From 2004 (European), the results refer to UDC. The 2006 (Sicilian regional) refers to the combined result of UDC (13.05) and of L'Aquilone–Lista del Presidente (5.7%), personal list of UDC regional leader Salvatore Cuffaro. The elected memebers of this list were all UDC members.
| 1994 general | 1995 regional | 1996 general | 1999 European | 2000 regional | 2001 general | 2004 European | 2005 regional | 2006 general | |
| Piedmont | with FI | 3.0 | 4.4 | 3.3 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 5.0 | 4.6 | 6.2 |
| Lombardy | with FI | 2.2 | 4.6 | 3.5 | 4.1 | 3.4 | 3.6 | 3.8 | 5.9 |
| Veneto | with FI | 3.6 | 5.4 | 5.4 | 6.8 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 6.4 | 7.8 |
| Emilia-Romagna | with FI | 4.8 | 4.8 | 2.7 | 3.7 | 3.4 | 2.8 | 3.9 | 5.8 |
| Tuscany | with FI | 2.5 | 4.8 | 3.2 | 4.2 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 3.7 | 5.9 |
| Lazio | with FI | 4.2 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 6.7 | 4.8 | 7.1 | 7.8 | 6.9 |
| Campania | with FI | 9.7 | 8.0 | 6.8 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 7.0 | 6.7 | 6.8 |
| Apulia | with FI | 5.6 | 7.6 | 6.0 | 6.2 | 6.8 | 8.1 | 7.8 | 7.8 |
| Calabria | with FI | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9.4 | 13.3 | 9.5 | 9.6 | 10.4 | 7.7 |
| Sicily | with FI | 19.0 (1996) | 8.1 | 7.9 | 24.3 (2001) | 14.4 | 14.0 | 18.7 (2006) | 10.0 |
| ITALY | - | - | 5.8 | 4.8 | - | 5.6 | 5.9 | - | 6.8 |
[edit] Leadership
- Secretary: Marco Follini (2002-05), Lorenzo Cesa (2005-...)
- Deputy-Secretary: Sergio D'Antoni (2002-04), Mario Tassone (2004-...), Salvatore Cuffaro (2005-...), Erminia Mazzoni (2005-...)
- Head of Political Secretariat: Lorenzo Cesa (2002-05), Armando Dionisi (2002-...)
- President: Rocco Buttiglione (2002-...)
- Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: Luca Volontè (2001-...)
- Party Leader in the Senate: Francesco D'Onofrio (2001-...)
- Party Leader in the European Parliament: Vito Bonsignore (2004-...)
[edit] References
- ^ Prodi resurrected—for now, The Economist, March 1st, 2007.
- ^ A plague on both your houses, The Economist, December 7th, 2006.
