| The People of Freedom Il Popolo della Libertà |
|
|---|---|
| President | Silvio Berlusconi |
| Secretary | Angelino Alfano |
| Coordinators | Sandro Bondi, Ignazio La Russa, Denis Verdini |
| Spokesperson | Daniele Capezzone |
| Founded | 18 November 2007 (launched) 27 March 2009 (founded) |
| Merger of | Forza Italia, National Alliance, minor parties |
| Headquarters | via dell'Umiltà 36 00187 Rome |
| Membership (2011) | 1,150,000[1][2] |
| Ideology | Liberal conservatism,[3] Christian democracy,[3] Liberalism[4] |
| Political position | Centre-right |
| National affiliation | with Lega Nord |
| International affiliation | none |
| European affiliation | European People's Party |
| European Parliament Group | European People's Party |
| Chamber of Deputies[5] |
221 / 630
|
| Senate[6] |
130 / 315
|
| European Parliament |
24 / 73
|
| Website | |
| http://www.ilpopolodellaliberta.it | |
| Politics of Italy Political parties Elections |
|
The People of Freedom (Italian: Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL) is a centre-right political party in Italy. With the Democratic Party, it is one of the two major parties of the current Italian party system.
The party was launched by Silvio Berlusconi on 18 November 2007 and officially founded in a party congress on 27–29 March 2009, when Forza Italia and National Alliance were merged together. Apart from Berlusconi, the PdL is led by a secretary, Angelino Alfano, and three coordinators, Sandro Bondi, Ignazio La Russa and Denis Verdini. Its leading members include Giulio Tremonti, Roberto Formigoni, Franco Frattini, Maurizio Sacconi, Gianni Alemanno, Mariastella Gelmini and Giancarlo Galan.
In coalition with Lega Nord, the party formed Italy's government from May 2008 to November 2011.
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Following the run-up to the 2006 general election there had been talk among the component parties of the House of Freedoms regarding a possible merger into a "united party of moderates and reformers". Forza Italia (FI), National Alliance (AN) and the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) all seemed interested in the project. Soon after the election, however, UDC leader Pier Ferdinando Casini, who had already been a reluctant coalition partner, started to distance his party from its historical allies. Another party of the coalition, Lega Nord, showed no interest in the idea, because of its character of regional party.
On 2 December 2006, during a big rally of the centre-right in Rome against Romano Prodi's government, Silvio Berlusconi proposed the foundation of a "freedom party", stressing that voters of the different parties were all part of a single "people of freedom". On 21 August 2007 Michela Vittoria Brambilla, president of the Circles of Freedom (a group of Berlusconi's supporters), registered the name and symbol of the "Freedom Party" (Partito della Libertà) on Berlusconi's behalf.[7] At that time, none of Berlusconi's allies seemed keen on joining such a party, and also some leading members of Forza Italia looked disappointed.
On 18 November 2007 Silvio Berlusconi claimed that his supporters had collected over 7 million signatures on an appeal demanding the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, to call a fresh election. Shortly afterwards, from the running board of a car in a crowded Piazza San Babila in Milan,[8] he announced that Forza Italia would soon merge or transform into a new "party of the Italian people".[9][10] The new course was thus called the "running board revolution" (rivoluzione del predellino) and this expression soon became very popular both among Berlusconi's supporters and his adversaries.[11][12]
At the beginning, the fate of Forza Italia remained unclear. Later, it was explained that the new party's core would consist of Forza Italia, the Circles of Freedom and other grassroots groups, and that some minor parties of the House of Freedoms would join too. AN leader Gianfranco Fini made very critical statements in the days after Berlusconi's announcement, declaring the end of his support for Berlusconi as candidate for Prime Minister and that his party would not join the new party. UDC leader Casini too criticized the idea from the start and seemed interested in an alternative coalition with Fini.[13][14]
On 24 January 2008 the Prodi II Cabinet fell, paving the way for a new general election. On the day after Berlusconi hinted that Forza Italia would probably contest its last election, and postponed the birth of the new party until after the election. In an atmosphere of reconciliation with Fini, Berlusconi also stated that the new party could see the participation of other parties.[15] On 8 February, Berlusconi and Fini agreed to form a joint list under the banner of "The People of Freedom", in alliance with Lega Nord.[16]
Several parties and groups chose to join the PdL: Forza Italia, National Alliance, the Circles of Freedom, the Circles of Good Government, the Liberal Populars (a splinter group from the UDC), Christian Democracy for Autonomies, the Pensioners' Party, Liberal Reformers, the Italian Republican Party, the New Italian Socialist Party, the Liberal Democrats, Decide!, Italians in the World, Social Action and the Reformist Socialists.
In the general election the PdL won 37.4% of the vote, getting elected 276 deputies and 146 senators and becoming the Italian largest party. The PdL was also the first party since Christian Democracy in 1979 to get more than 35% of the popular vote.
On 27–29 March 2009, the new party held its first congress in Rome and was officially founded. Berlusconi was elected president of the party. Sandro Bondi, Ignazio La Russa and Denis Verdini were appointed national coordinators. In the 2009 European Parliament election the party won 35.2% of the national vote, returning 29 MEPs.[17]
In the big round of regional elections of 2010 the PdL retained Lombardy with Roberto Formigoni, gained Lazio with Renata Polverini, Campania with Stefano Caldoro and Calabria with Giuseppe Scopelliti, while Veneto was won by Luca Zaia of Lega Nord, which largely passed the PdL there.
Between 2009 and 2010 Gianfranco Fini, former leader of the conservative National Alliance (AN) and President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, became a vocal critic of the leadership of Berlusconi. Fini departed from party's majority line on stem cell research, end of life issues, advance health care directive and immigration,[18][19][20] but, most of all, he was a proponent of a more structured party organisation.[21][22] His criticism was aimed at the leadership style of Berlusconi, who tends to rely on his personal charisma to lead the party from the centre and supports a lighter form of party, which in his mind should be a movement-party that organises itself only at election times.[23]
Although some Finiani, such as Italo Bocchino, Carmelo Briguglio and Fabio Granata, shared Fini's views on moral issues and immigration, many others, including Andrea Ronchi and Adolfo Urso, took a very different approach on these issues. In fact most Finiani were Southern conservatives who opposed Berlusconi's leadership, his firm alliance with Lega Nord, federal reform and Giulio Tremonti's economic policy.[24][25][26] Fini was able to make inroads among the liberal and centrist ranks of the former Forza Italia,[27] but he lost the support of most leading members of the former AN, notably including Ignazio La Russa, Maurizio Gasparri and Altero Matteoli, who became close allies of Berlusconi.[28][29] Others, including Gianni Alemanno and Alfredo Mantovano, found common ground with the party's Christian democrats.[30]
On 15 April 2010 Bocchino launched an association named Generation Italy in order to better represent Fini's views within the party and push for a different party organisation.[31] Five days later 52 MPs (39 deputies and 13 senators) signed a document in support of Fini and his theses, while other 74 MPs former members of AN, including La Russa, Gasparri, Matteoli and Giorgia Meloni, plus Alemanno, Mayor of Rome, signed an alternative document in which they reasserted their loyalty to the party and Berlusconi.[32][33] On 22 April 2010 the National Committee of the PdL convened in Rome for the first time in a year. The conflict between Fini and Berlusconi was covered live by television. At the end of the day a resolution proposed by Berlusconi's loyalists was put before the assembly and approved by a landslide margin.[34]
Since then, clashes between Fini and Berlusconi became even more frequent and reached their height in late July, when Fini questioned the morality of some party bigwigs under investigation.[35] On 29 July 2010 the party executive released a document (voted by 33 members out of 37) in which Fini was described as "incompatible" with the political line of the PdL and unable to perform his job of President of the Chamber of Deputies in a neutral way. Berlusconi asked Fini to step down and the executive proposed the suspension from party membership of three Finiani (Bocchino, Briguglio and Granata) who had harshly criticized Berlusconi and accused some party members of criminal offences.[36] As response, Fini and his followers formed their own groups in both chambers under the name of Future and Freedom (FLI).[37][38][39][40]
It was soon clear that FLI would leave the PdL and become an independent party. On 7 November, during a convention in Bastia Umbra, Fini asked Berlusconi to step down from his post of Prime Minister and proposed a new government including also the Union of the Centre (UdC).[41] A few days later, the four FLI members of the government resigned.[42] On 14 December FLI voted against Berlusconi in a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies, a vote won by Berlusconi by 314 to 311.[43][44]
In May 2011 the party suffered a big blow in local elections. Particularly painful was the loss of Milan, Berlusconi's hometown and party stronghold, where the outgoing PdL mayor Letizia Moratti was defeated by Giuliano Pisapia, a leftist independent close to Nichi Vendola's Left Ecology Freedom party.[45] In response to this and to crescent fibrillation within party ranks (especially among Scajoliani and ex-AN members), Angelino Alfano, the Justice minister, was chosen as national secretary in charge of re-organising and renewing the party.[46] The appointment of 40-year old Alfano, a former Christian Democrat and later leader of Forza Italia in Sicily, was unanimously decided by the party executive. However, Economy minister Giulio Tremonti expressed his concerns as the nominee "will make us lose votes in the North". [47] On 1 July the National Council modified the party's constitution and Alfano was elected secretary almost unanimously. In his acceptance speech, Alfano proposed the introduction of primaries.[48]
Alfano led the party through a huge membership drive and, on 1 November, announced that more than one million individuals had joined the party.[49] Alfano also drove the party to a Christian-democratic direction.[50] The factions which benefited most from the effort were those of Roberto Formigoni (Network Italy), Ignazio La Russa (Protagonist Italy) and Franco Frattini (Liberamente). The Christian-democratization of the party and the perceived marginalization of liberals and social democrats led Carlo Vizzini to leave the party: "It seems to me that the PdL is set to become the Italian section of the European People's Party. I come from another tradition: I have been secretary of the PSDI and I was one of the founders of the Party of European Socialists. When I joined Forza Italia there were Liberals, Socialists, Radicals. Now everything has changed."[51]
In the midst of the European sovereign debt crisis, Vizzini was not alone in leaving the party. On 14 October, following calls by Claudio Scajola and Giuseppe Pisanu for a new government,[52][53] two deputies close to Scajola, Giustina Destro and Fabio Gava, voted against Berlusconi during a vote of confidence and left the party altogether.[54] On 2 November, Destro and Gava, along with Roberto Antonione, Giorgio Stracquadanio, Isabella Bertolini and Giancarlo Pittelli (who had left the party along with Santo Versace in September), promoted an open letter in which they asked Berlusconi to step down.[55][56] Contextually, Antonione announced that he was leaving the party.[57] In the following days three more deputies, Alessio Bonciani, Ida D'Ippolito and Gabriella Carlucci, left to join the Union of the Centre.[58][59] In three months, the PdL had lost 15 deputies and 4 senators, including 7 deputies and 3 senators who launched Force of the South/Great South under Gianfranco Micciché.[60][61]
On 7 November Lega Nord's leader Umberto Bossi proposed Angelino Alfano as Berlusconi's successor.[62] On 8 November, during a key vote on a financial statement in the Chamber, three more deputies elected with the PdL (Franco Stradella, Gennaro Malgieri and Francesco Stagno d'Alcontres of Great South) were absent or abstained from the vote. The statement was passed thanks to the abstention of opposition parties, but Berlusconi got just 308 votes, 8 short of absolute majority. Malgieri stated that he was in the restroom and that he intended to vote yes, while another centre-right deputy, Francesco Nucara of the Italian Republican Party, was at the hospital and another one, Alfonso Papa, in jail.[63][64] Subsequently, Berlusconi announced that he intended to step down after the passage of the budget bill.[65]
Days of big turmoil followed. Not only the party was highly divided, but its numerous factions and groups were divided too. As the appointment of Mario Monti, an independent economist and former European Commissioner, looked very likely, some in the party wanted to support the new possible government (and some even wanted to join it), while others were resolutely against and preferred an early election instead. Alfano, in his capacity of secretary, had to mediate.[66]
Among the party's Christian democrats, Roberto Formigoni, Maurizio Lupi and Raffaele Fitto (Network Italy), Claudio Scajola (Christopher Columbus Foundation), and Giuseppe Pisanu (hence Pisaniani) supported Monti, while Gianfranco Rotondi (Christian Democracy for Autonomies) and Carlo Giovanardi (Liberal Populars) did not. Within Liberamente and among the party's Socialists, Franco Frattini (who threatened to leave the party) and Fabrizio Cicchitto were in favour, while Mariastella Gelmini, Paolo Romani, Maurizio Sacconi, Renato Brunetta and, covertly, Giulio Tremonti were against. The vast majority of former National Alliance members (Ignazio La Russa, Maurizio Gasparri, Altero Matteoli, Giorgia Meloni, etc.) was against, while a minority (mainly Gianni Alemanno) was in favour.[67][68][69][70][71][72][73]
On 12 November Berlusconi finally tendered his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano. The executive of the PdL decided to support a government led by Monti under some conditions, the first being that it should not include politicians but just technocrats.[74][75][76] The Monti Cabinet took office on 16 November. In the subsequent votes of confidence in the two houses of Parliament, the PdL voted largely for Monti. Anyway, some party members, including Antonio Martino, Gianfranco Rotondi and Alessandra Mussolini, deserted the party.[77][78] A month later, on 16 December, 70 deputies, including Martino, Tremonti, La Russa, Mussolini and Stracquadanio, refused to vote the government's austerity measures, as the rest of the party did.[79]
Lega Nord broke its ties with the PdL and Bossi announced that Tremonti would join his party soon.[80][81] Alfano and Berlusconi, for their part, were planning to change the party's name and introduce primaries, which would almost certainly see Formigoni run against Alfano.[82] In the meantime, on 15 December, Stefania Craxi, a leading social democrat within the party and leader of the Italian Reformists, left the PdL.[83]
The PdL aims to combine together the traditions of its two main predecessors, Forza Italia (FI) and National Alliance (AN), as well as their smaller partners (Liberal Populars, Christian Democracy for Autonomies, New Italian Socialist Party, Liberal Reformers, Social Action, etc.).
Forza Italia, launched in 1994 by Silvio Berlusconi, was joined mainly by former Christian Democrats, Socialists and Liberals who had seen their parties disappear amid the Tangentopoli scandals. National Alliance, successor of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), had become a respectable conservative party under the leadership of Gianfranco Fini. FI and AN started to cooperate and were the pillars of the centre-right Pole of Good Government, Pole of Freedoms and House of Freedoms coalitions.
The "Charter of Values" of the PdL underlines the "Christian" and "liberal" character of the party, presenting it as a defender of traditional values as well as of individual responsibility and self-determination. The document stresses the adherence of the party to the values and the platform of the European People's Party (EPP), its support for European integration and the transformation of Italy into a federal state, coherently with its alliance with Lega Nord.[84]
The PdL is a classical example of catch-all party. Although the leadership of Berlusconi is largely unquestioned, the party is far from being a monolith. In line with its allies within the EPP, its main cultural strains are Christian democracy and liberal conservatism,[3] but it is not to underestimate the weight of those coming from the right-wing AN and the relevant role played by former Socialists, who were disproportionately represented in Berlusconi IV Cabinet. Four leading ministers (Giulio Tremonti, Franco Frattini, Maurizio Sacconi and Renato Brunetta) hail from the old PSI, while another Socialist, Fabrizio Cicchitto, is the party leader in the Chamber of Deputies.[85][86] This is not to say that all former Socialists are actually social-democratic now: for instance, while Tremonti is an outspoken critic of globalization[87] and is not enthusiastic about labour market flexibility,[88] Brunetta is a free-market liberal[89][90] and frequently clashes with Tremonti over economic and fiscal policy.[91][92]
Moreover, internal alliances are often not consistent with the previous affiliation of party members. On issues such as end of life, Sacconi, a former Socialist who still claims to be a social democrat, has sided with the party's Christian democrats and the social-conservative wing of the former AN, while several members hailing from the MSI found themselves in alliance with the liberal wing of the former FI. This is no surprise as the late MSI also had a strong secular tradition, now represented by Gianfranco Fini, while Forza Italia was home to both social conservatives and uncompromising social liberals. On the economy, ex-FI Giulio Tremonti has often been at odds with ex-FI liberals like Antonio Martino and Benedetto Della Vedova,[93][94] and, more recently, he was attacked by Giancarlo Galan for being a "socialist".[95]
Traditional values and the social market economy grew of importance in the rhetoric of the new party, partly replacing the small government and libertarian ideals expressed by Forza Italia since 1994. In this respect, Maurizio Sacconi summarised the economic propositions of the PdL with the slogan "less state, more society".[96] However, there is still some room for Reaganomics in the PdL, with Berlusconi often making the case for lower taxes and Tremonti for deregulation and against red tape.[97][98][99]
The party is home to a wide range of factions, groups and associate parties, whose ideology range from social democracy to national conservatism. As of November 2011, the factions, listed by political ideology, were as follows:
The People of Freedom has its strongholds in Northern Italy, and especially Lombardy and Veneto, and in some regions of the South, notably including Sicily and Apulia. Despite this, at the 2008 general election, the party was fairly stronger in the South than in the North, due to the big win of Lega Nord, which gained 27.1% in Veneto, 21.6% in Lombardy and 12.6% in Piedmont. In this respect the region where PdL scored best was Campania, with a surprising 49.1% in a traditionally centre-left region. At the 2010 regional elections Lega Nord passed the PdL in Veneto (35.2%) and in large chuncks of Lombardy, which was however the region in which the PdL scored best.
The electoral results of the PdL in the 10 most populated Regions of Italy are shown in the table below. As the party was launched in 2007, the electoral results from 1994 to 2006 refer to the combined result of the two main percursor parties, Forza Italia and National Alliance.
| 1994 general | 1995 regional | 1996 general | 1999 European | 2000 regional | 2001 general | 2004 European | 2005 regional | 2006 general | 2008 general | 2009 European | 2010 regional | |
| Piedmont | 34.8 | 37.9 | 33.8 | 36.8 | 42.7 | 41.2 | 31.0 | 31.9 | 35.8 | 34.3 | 32.4 | 25.0 |
| Lombardy | 31.8 | 39.5 | 32.6 | 36.5 | 43.6 | 40.9 | 32.9 | 34.7 | 37.3 | 33.5 | 34.4 | 31.8 |
| Veneto | 31.4 | 34.7 | 28.8 | 34.3 | 40.2 | 40.5 | 33.6 | 30.8 | 35.8 | 27.4 | 29.3 | 24.7 |
| Emilia-Romagna | 25.5 | 28.5 | 26.6 | 29.0 | 32.6 | 33.5 | 28.2 | 27.1 | 28.8 | 28.6 | 27.4 | 24.6 |
| Tuscany | 27.3 | 32.2 | 30.1 | 30.4 | 35.2 | 34.7 | 28.7 | 27.9 | 29.5 | 31.6 | 31.4 | 27.1 |
| Lazio | 45.8 | 43.5 | 45.0 | 40.9 | 44.6 | 46.8 | 35.9 | 39.3 | 40.0 | 43.5 | 42.7 | 38.2[100] |
| Campania | 40.2 | 37.2 | 42.1 | 35.9 | 32.1 | 46.9 | 32.7 | 22.5 | 39.8 | 49.1 | 43.5 | 31.7 |
| Apulia | 27.3[101] | 41.1 | 42.5 | 40.7 | 44.2 | 45.4 | 36.4 | 38.9 | 40.5 | 45.6 | 43.2 | 31.1 |
| Calabria | 36.2 | 36.0 | 41.7 | 31.6 | 28.7 | 40.9 | 28.5 | 19.9 | 31.7 | 41.2 | 34.9 | 36.3[102] |
| Sicily | 47.6 | 31.2 (1996) | 48.6 | 38.9 | 36.4 (2001) | 47.4 | 36.0 | 29.8 (2006) | 40.0 | 46.6 | 36.4 | 33.4 (2008) |
| ITALY | 34.5 | - | 35.8 | 35.5 | - | 41.1 | 32.3 | - | 36.0 | 37.4 | 35.3 | - |