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 to Centre-right[2]
National affiliation Pole of Freedoms/Pole of Good Government (1994), Pole for Freedoms (1996-2001), House of Freedoms (2001-02)
European affiliation European People's Party
International affiliation Christian Democrat International
European Parliament group European People's Party

The Christian Democratic Centre (Italian: Centro Cristiano Democratico, CCD) was a Christian democratic[3] political party in Italy from 1994 to 2002. The CCD was a member of the European People's Party (EPP).[4]

History

The CCD was founded in January 1994 by members of Christian Democracy (DC) who opposed the party's transformation into the Italian People's Party (PPI),[5] and advocated an alliance with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI), which was launched on the same day, while the PPI advocated a centrist alliance with the Segni Pact called Pact for Italy. Its leaders were Pier Ferdinando Casini and Clemente Mastella. The CCD represented the right-wing of the defunct 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) from the PPI in 1995.

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

After the sudden fall of the government in December 1994, caused by Lega Nord's exit, 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 was in opposition.

In 1998 Mastella and several MPs left the party to form, along with the CDU, the Christian Democrats for the Republic (CDR), which was later folded into the Democratic Union for the Republic (UDR) and supported the centre-left government led by Massimo D'Alema. In 1999 the UDR was transformed into the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR), while the CDU was re-organised as an independent party and returned to the alliance with the CCD.

Once again, the CCD and the CDU formed a joint list (the so-called White Flower) 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 FI, National Alliance and Lega Nord. Casini was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies, while Carlo Giovanardi was appointed minister of Relations with Parliament in Berlusconi II Cabinet. In 2002 the CCD, the CDU and European Democracy (DE), which had won 2.3% in 2001, gave birth to the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC).

Electoral results

Italian Parliament

Chamber of Deputies
Election year # of
overall votes		 % of
overall vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/– Leader
1994 into Forza Italia
27 / 630
–
 Pier Ferdinando Casini
1996 2,189,563 (#7) 5.8 (with CDU)
19 / 630
 Decrease 8 Pier Ferdinando Casini
2001 1,194,040 (#8) 3.2 (with CDU)
24 / 630
 Increase 5 Pier Ferdinando Casini
Senate of the Republic
Election year # of
overall votes		 % of
overall vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/– Leader
1994 into PdL–PBG
12 / 315
–
 Pier Ferdinando Casini
1996 into the Pole for Freedoms
15 / 315
 Increase 3 Pier Ferdinando Casini
2001 into the House of Freedoms
21 / 315
 Increase 6 Pier Ferdinando Casini

European Parliament

Election year # of
overall votes		 % of
overall vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/– Leader
1994 into Forza Italia
3 / 87
–
 Pier Ferdinando Casini
1999 805,320 (#9) 2.6
2 / 72
Decrease 1
 Pier Ferdinando Casini

Leadership

References

  1. ↑ Luciano Bardi; Piero Ignazi (1998). "The Italian Party System: The Effective Magnitude of an Earthquake". In Piero Ignazi; Colette Ysmal. The Organization of Political Parties in Southern Europe. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-275-95612-7.
  2. ↑ Isabella Pezzini (2001). "Advertising politics on television: the party election broadcast". In Luciano Chelos; Lucio Sponza. The Art of Persuasion: Political Communication in Italy from 1945 to the 1990s. Manchester University Press. pp. 187–188. ISBN 978-0-7190-4170-9.
  3. ↑ Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko; Matti Mälkiä, eds. (2007). Encyclopedia of Digital Government. Idea Group Inc (IGI). p. 396. ISBN 978-1-59140-790-4.
  4. ↑ Thomas Jansen; Steven Van Hecke (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 (2011). "Appendix D". 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, eds. (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.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.