Christian Democratic Centre

Christian Democratic Centre
Centro Cristiano Democratico
Leader Pier Ferdinando Casini
Founded 18 January 1994
Dissolved 6 December 2002
Split from Christian Democracy[1]
Merged into Union of Christian and Centre Democrats
Headquarters Rome, Italy
Ideology Christian democracy
Political position Centre-right[2]
National affiliation Pole of Freedoms/Pole of Good Government (1994), Pole for Freedoms (1996-2001), House of Freedoms (2001-02)
International affiliation Christian Democrat International
European affiliation European People's Party
European Parliament group European People's Party
Politics of Italy
Political parties
Elections

The Christian Democratic Centre (Italian: Centro Cristiano Democratico, CCD) was a Christian democratic[3] political party in Italy.

The CCD was a member of the European People's Party (EPP) from 1994 until 2002.[4]

History

The party emerged from a split from Italian People's Party (PPI), the direct heir of the Christian Democracy (DC), in 1994.[5] Its leaders were Pier Ferdinando Casini and Clemente Mastella who advocated an alliance with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI), while the PPI advocated a centrist alliance with the Segni Pact called Pact for Italy. The CCD represented the right wing of the old DC,[6] while the PPI was largely the heir of the party's left wing, especially after the split of the United Christian Democrats (CDU) in 1995.

In the 1994 general election the CCD joined FI into the Pole of Freedoms in Northern Italy and the Pole of Good Government in Southern Italy,[7] forming a joint list with FI for the proportional system and gaining 27 deputies and 12 senators. After the election the CCD joined the Berlusconi I Cabinet, with Clemente Mastella becoming Minister of Labour and Francesco D'Onofrio Minister of Education.

After the sudden fall of Berlusconi's first government on 2 December 1994, when Lega Nord left the government majority, a new general election took place in 1996. The CCD formed a joint list with the CDU. The alliance proved successful, gaining 5.8% of the vote, 30 deputies and 15 senators, however, as the centre-right lost the election to The Olive Tree centre-left coalition, the party remained into opposition.

In 1998 Clemente Mastella and several other MPs left the party to form, along with the CDU, the Democratic Union for the Republic (UDR), that came into support to the centre-left government. In 1999 the UDR was transformed into the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR) and the CDU re-organized themselves as a party, returning to the alliance with the CCD.

Once again CCD and CDU formed an alliance for the 2001 general election, this time gaining only 3.2% of the vote, as part of the winning House of Freedoms coalition composed mainly of Forza Italia, the National Alliance and Lega Nord. In 2002 the CCD, the CDU and European Democracy (DE) formally merged into one party, the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC).

Leadership

References

  1. ↑ Piero Ignazi; Colette Ysmal (1 January 1998). The Organization of Political Parties in Southern Europe. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-275-95612-7.
  2. ↑ Luciano Chelos (ed); Lucio. Sponza (ed) (2001). The Art of Persuasion: Political Communication in Italy from 1945 to the 1990s. Manchester University Press. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-7190-4170-9.
  3. ↑ Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko; Matti Mälkiä (2007). Encyclopedia of Digital Government. Idea Group Inc (IGI). p. 396. ISBN 978-1-59140-790-4.
  4. ↑ Thomas Jansen; Steven Van Hecke (28 June 2011). At Europe's Service: The Origins and Evolution of the European People's Party. Springer. p. 51. ISBN 978-3-642-19413-9. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
  5. ↑ Daniela Giannetti; Bernard Grofman (1 February 2011). A Natural Experiment on Electoral Law Reform: Evaluating the Long Run Consequences of 1990s Electoral Reform in Italy and Japan. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-4419-7228-6.
  6. ↑ Ram Mudambi; Pietro Navarra; Giuseppe Sobbrio (1 January 2001). Rules, Choice and Strategy: The Political Economy of Italian Electoral Reform. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-78195-082-1.
  7. ↑ La Civiltà cattolica. La Civiltà Cattolica. 1994. p. 179. UOM:39015085064908.