| South Tyrolean People's Party Südtiroler Volkspartei |
|
|---|---|
| Leader | Luis Durnwalder |
| President | Richard Theiner |
| Secretary | Philipp Achammer |
| Founded | 8 May 1945 |
| Headquarters | via Brennero 7/A 39100 Bolzano |
| Newspaper | ZIS |
| Youth wing | Young Generation |
| Membership (2003) | 68,000[1] |
| Ideology | Regionalism, Christian democracy,[2] Social democracy (minority) |
| International affiliation | none |
| European affiliation | European People's Party (observer) |
| European Parliament Group | European People's Party |
| Chamber of Deputies |
2 / 630
|
| Senate |
3 / 315
|
| European Parliament |
1 / 73
|
| Provincial Council |
18 / 35
|
| Website | |
| http://www.svpartei.org | |
| Politics of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Political parties Elections |
|
The South Tyrolean People's Party (German: Südtiroler Volkspartei, SVP; Italian: Partito Popolare Sudtirolese) is a regionalist catch-all[3] political party in South Tyrol, northern Italy. The party's main ideology is Christian democracy.[2]
Founded in 1945, the SVP represents the German-speaking population of the province, as well as Ladin speakers. Since the first election of the Provincial Council in 1948, the party has gained the absolute or relative majority in every election. Its best result ever was 67.8% in 1948, its worst 48.1% in the 2008 provincial election.
The party had been in alliance with Christian Democracy (and the Italian Socialist Party) until 1994 and later with some of its successor parties, including the Italian People's Party and the Democratic Union of Alto Adige. In 1998, the SVP enlarged the provincial government to the social-democratic Democrats of the Left. Currently, the SVP governs with the support of the centre-left Democratic Party, while loosening its ties with it and becoming friendlier to the centre-right The People of Freedom–Lega Nord coalition at the national level.[4][5][6]
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In the 2003 provincial election the SVP won 55.6% of the vote and 21 provincial deputies out of 35 and Luis Durnwalder was returned for the fourth time President of the Province (he has been in office since 1989), at the head of a coalition composed by the Democrats of the Left and a local alliance between Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy and the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats.
In the 2004 European Parliament election the SVP formed an electoral alliance with The Olive Tree. The party's share of votes fell for the first time down 50%, stopping at 46.7% (–9.3% from 1999, mainly because of the big win of the Greens (13.2%, +6.5%). However Michl Ebner was elected MEP with more than 90,000 preferences and a Green, Sepp Kusstatscher (a former member of the internal left of the SVP), was elected too.
In the 2006 general election the party was part of the winning coalition The Union and garnered three senators and four deputies, which included one for its sister-party in Trentino, the Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party.
In the 2008 general election the party had its worst result ever in a general election, falling down to 44.3% (–9.1% from 2006 and –16.2% from 2001 and returning only two deputies, Siegfried Brugger and Karl Zeller. In the Senate election, thanks to the plurality voting system, the SVP re-elected its three senators, Helga Thaler Ausserhofer, Oskar Peterlini and Manfred Pinzger. This result was due both because of the strong showing of The Libertarians (9.4%) on the right and the decision not to enter in alliance for the Chamber of Deputies either with the centre-left led by the Democratic Party (18.0%) or the centre-right led by The People of Freedom (16.0%).
Soon after the election, the SVP renewed its alliance with Roberto Nicco, the deputy from Aosta Valley, in the Chamber of Deputies, while forming a group in the Senate with the three senators of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, Antonio Fosson of the Valdotanian Union, Mirella Giai of the Associative Movement Italians Abroad and three senators for life (Giulio Andreotti, Francesco Cossiga and Emilio Colombo).
In the 2008 provincial election the SVP managed to win the 48.1% of the vote in the Province (–7.5%), while its right-wing rivals (The Libertarians, South Tyrolean Freedom and Union for South Tyrol) gained a combined 21.5% of the vote. During the electoral campaign the party did not support as usual its counterparts in Trentino, the Union for Trentino (successor of the Daisy Civic List) and the Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party, in order not to hurt the relations with Lega Nord, whose Trentino section, Lega Nord Trentino, provided the opposition candidate, Sergio Divina. Despite rumors on an alliance with Lega Nord Südtirol,[7][8][9] after the election the SVP continued its alliance with the Democratic Party.
In April 2009 Richard Theiner was elected new party president, after an agreement between the major factions of the party.[10] Since then was assisted by two deputies, Thomas Widmann representing the party's right wing and Martha Stocker on behalf of Luis Durnwalder.[11] In the 2009 European Parliament election, due to the absence of its rival parties on the right from the ballot because of the new electoral law, the SVP won 52.1% of the vote, electing Herbert Dorfmann.
The ideology of the SVP, which is a typical example of catch-all party, ranges from Christian democracy, due to the deep Catholic tradition of the province, to elements of social democracy, due to the virtual asbence of a true social-democratic rival party. However, between 1946 and 1994, the SVP entered in alliance only with the Christian Democracy and its smaller allies. In German-speaking valleys the SVP has almost no opposition, apart from the The Libertarians, South Tyrolean Freedom and Union for South Tyrol on the right and the Greens on the left.
In the years the SVP suffered many splits reflecting the diverse composition of the party (Tyrolean Homeland Party, Social Progressive Party of South Tyrol and Social Democratic Party of South Tyrol) and many SVP leading members left the party in order to join other parties, notably including Alfons Benedikter, a right-winger who launched Union for South Tyrol in 1989, Christian Waldner, a conservative liberal who launched The Libertarians in 1992, Sepp Kusstatscher, a leftist who joined the Greens in 1999, and finally Roland Atz, a centrist who switched to Lega Nord Südtirol in 2008.[4][12] The Party of Independents/Freedom Party of South Tyrol, the South Tyrolean Homeland Federation, the Union for South Tyrol and The Libertarians can thus be all considered splits of the SVP.
Within the party it is possible to identify several internal factions. The most important ones are the "Economy" (Wirtschaft) faction, which represents small business,[13][14] and the "Labour" (Arbeitnehmer) faction, which reprents workers and is the political arm of the Union of South Tyrolean Independent Trade Unions (ASGB).[15] The Wirtschaft faction, which is the party's largest, includes also the "Agriculture" (Landwirtschaft) faction, which represents the interests of farmers and which has in Luis Durnwalder its leading representative.[16]
The Wirtschaft faction, whose leader is Gerhard Brandstätter,[17] includes Helga Thaler Ausserhofer, a conservative,[18] Manfred Pinzger and Karl Zeller,[19] while the Arbeitnehmer, led by Reinhold Perkmann[20] and, since 2009, by Rosmarie Pamer[21] include Oskar Peterlini, the most lef-wing member SVP member in the Italian Parliament,[22] Hans Georg Widmann and Sabine Kasslatter.[23][24] Also the leader of ASGB, Georg Pardeller, is a provincial deputy.[25] Siegfried Brugger and Elmar Pichler Rolle, who led the party in recent years, are mostly centrist figures who work for preserving party unity.
The factional divisions between party members were reflected also on the vote of confidence on Berlusconi IV Cabinet: Pinzger and Thaler Ausserhofer abstained, while Brugger, Zeller and Peterlini voted against.[26][27] This kind of divisions continued during the legislature, with senators, excluding Peterlini, supporting some of the government's policies and deputies often opposing the same measures.
In order to prevent the break-up of the party along right-left lines, Perkmann, leader of the Arbeitnhemer, proposed a "federal reform" of the party in order to preserve its catch-all nature and simultaneously give more autonomy to its internal factions, which have now an official status in party organization.[20] The result was a mild reform of the party and the election to the party leadership of a ticket composed by a member of the Arbeitnehmer, Richard Theiner, and a leading member of the Wirtschaft faction, Thomas Widmann, plus Martha Stocker, representing Durnwalder.
The Junge Generation (Young Generation, JG) is the youth movement of the party, including all members at the age of 14 to 30.
The electoral results of the SVP in South Tyrol since 1992 are shown in the table below.
| 1992 general | 1993 provinc. | 1994 general | 1994 European | 1996 general | 1998 provinc. | 1999 European | 2001 general | 2003 provinc. | 2004 European | 2006 general | 2008 general | 2008 provinc. | 2009 European |
| 57.3 | 52.0 | 60.1 | 56.9 | 52.7[28] | 56.6 | 56.0 | 60.5 | 55.6 | 46.7 | 53.4 | 44.3 | 48.1 | 52.1 |