Italian Liberal Right

Party logo

The Italian Liberal Right (Destra Liberale Italiana, DLI), previously known as Liberals for Italy (Liberali per l'Italia, LpI) was a tiny conservative-liberal Italian political party.

History

It was founded in 1994 as "Italian Liberal Right" (Destra Liberale Italiana, DLI) by members of the right-wing of the Italian Liberal Party. Leading members included Gabriele Pagliuzzi, Giuseppe Basini, Luciano Magnalbò and Saverio Porcari Lidestri.[1] DLI soon allied itself with the national-conservative National Alliance (AN), of which it became the liberal faction. In 1994, 1996 and 2001 some members of DLI, including Pagliuzzi, Basini and Magnalbò were elected in the Italian Parliament for AN.

In 2001 Pagliuzzi and Basini left AN, due to their exclusion from party lists for the general election, and re-established DLI, renaming it Liberal Right – Liberals for Italy (Destra Liberale – Liberali per l'Italia, DL-LpI). Basini left DL-LpI in 2004 in order to join the re-established Italian Liberal Party of Stefano De Luca, while Pagliuzzi remained in charge of party leadership. Magnalbò was Senator for AN until 2006 and then joined the new PLI in June 2007.

As of 2007 DL-LpI is little more than a tiny liberal political action committee. On 23 October, Eugenio Riccio (former member of the MSI and then of AN) joined Pagliuzzi in a convention on the future of the party. The most likely options seem either a merge with The Right[2] or with the Freedom People party.[3] At the beginning of December the party decided to rename itself as Italian Liberal Right, the original name of 1994.[4]

In 2011 Pagliuzzi led his group into The People of Freedom, the united centre-right party of Italy.[5]

Ideology

DLI was a conservative-liberal expousing a vigorous patriotism and a strong support for economic liberalism. These two elements put together can lead to classify the party's ideology as national liberalism. As heirs of the right-wing liberal tradition of Italy, DLI members were keen on supporting national identity and centralism. Thus they strongly opposed any form of federalism and proposed the abolition of the Regions, including those with special statute, and the Provinces in Italy.[3]

Leadership

References

External links