Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic political party in Italy. The DC was founded on 15 December 1943 in the Italian Social Republic as the nominal successor of the Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crusader shield. As a Catholic-inspired, centrist, catch-all party comprising both centre-right and centre-left political factions, the DC played a dominant role in the politics of Italy for fifty years, and had been part of the government from soon after its inception until its final demise on 16 January 1994 amid the Tangentopoli scandals. Christian Democrats led the Italian government continuously from 1946 until 1981. The party was nicknamed the "White Whale" due to its huge organisation and official colour. During its time in government, the Italian Communist Party was the largest opposition party.
Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi was an Italian politician, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1976 to 1993, and the 45th prime minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. He was the first PSI member to become prime minister and the second from a socialist party to hold the office. He led the third-longest government in the Italian Republic and he is considered one of the most powerful and prominent politicians of the First Italian Republic.
Arnaldo Forlani was an Italian politician who served as the prime minister of Italy from 1980 to 1981. He also held the office of deputy prime minister, minister of foreign affairs, and minister of defence.
Amintore Fanfani was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as 32nd prime minister of Italy for five separate terms. He was one of the best-known Italian politicians after the Second World War and a historical figure of the left-wing faction of Christian Democracy. He is also considered one of the founders of the modern Italian centre-left.
Giovanni Spadolini was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as the 44th prime minister of Italy. He had been a leading figure in the Republican Party and the first head of a government to not be a member of Christian Democrats since 1945. He was also a newspaper editor, journalist and historian. He is considered a highly respected intellectual for his literary works and his cultural dimension.
The Historic Compromise, also known as the Third Phase or the Democratic Alternative, was a historical political accommodation between Christian Democracy (DC) and the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in the 1970s.
The Italian Socialist Party was a social-democratic and democratic-socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 1892, the PSI was from the beginning a big tent of Italy's political left and socialism, ranging from the revolutionary socialism of Andrea Costa to the Marxist-inspired reformist socialism of Filippo Turati and the anarchism of Anna Kuliscioff. Under Turati's leadership, the party was a frequent ally of the Italian Republican Party and the Italian Radical Party at the parliamentary level, while lately entering in dialogue with the remnants of the Historical Left and the Liberal Union during Giovanni Giolitti's governments to ensure representation for the labour movement and the working class. In the 1900s and 1910s, the PSI achieved significant electoral success, becoming Italy's first party in 1919 and during the country's Biennio Rosso in 1921, when it was victim of violent paramilitary activities from the far right, and was not able to move the country in the revolutionary direction it wanted.
Alessandro Natta was an Italian politician and secretary of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) from 1984 to 1988. An illuminist, Jacobin, and communist, as he used to describe himself, Natta represented the political and cultural prototype of a PCI militant and party member for over fifty years of the Italian democratic-republican history. After joining the PCI in 1945, he was deputy from 1948 to 1992, a member of the PCI's central committee starting in 1956, was part of the direction from 1963 and of the secretariat, first from 1962 to 1970 and then from 1979 to 1983, and leader of the PCI parliamentary group from 1972 to 1979; he was also the director of Rinascita from 1970 to 1972. After 1991, he did not join the PCI's successor parties.
Beniamino "Nino" Andreatta was an Italian economist and politician. He was a member of Christian Democracy, and one of the founders of the Italian People's Party in 1994 and of the Olive Tree centre-left coalition in 1996.
The 1972 Italian general election was held in Italy on 7 May 1972. The Christian Democracy (DC) remained stable with around 38% of the votes, as did the Communist Party (PCI) which obtained the same 27% it had in 1968. The Socialist Party (PSI) continued in its decline, reducing to less than 10%. The largest increase in vote share was that of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement, which nearly doubled its votes from 4.5% to about 9%, after its leader Giorgio Almirante launched the formula of the National Right, proposing his party as the sole group of the Italian right wing. After a disappointing result of less than 2%, against the 4.5% of 1968, the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity was disbanded; a majority of its members joined the PCI.
The 1983 Italian general election was held in Italy on 26 June 1983. The Pentapartito formula, the governative alliance between five centrist parties, caused unexpected problems to Christian Democracy. The alliance was fixed and universal, extended both to the national government and to the local administrations. Considering that the election result did no longer depend on the strength of the DC, but the strength of the entire Pentapartito, centrist electors began to look at the Christian Democratic vote as not necessary to prevent a Communist success. Moreover, voting for one of the four minor parties of the alliance was seen as a form of moderate protest against the government without giving advantages to the PCI. Other minor effects of this election were a reduction of the referendarian Radical Party and the appearance of some regional forces.
The 1987 Italian general election was held in Italy on 14–15 June 1987. This election was the first Italian election in which the distance between the Christian Democrats and the Communists grew significantly instead of decreasing. Two parties that had not previously been in parliament won representation: the Greens with thirteen seats, and the Northern League with two.
The 1992 Italian general election was held on 5 and 6 April 1992. They were the first without the traditionally second most important political force in Italian politics, the Italian Communist Party (PCI), which had been disbanded in 1991. Most of its members split between the more democratic socialist-oriented Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), while a minority who did not want to renounce the communist tradition became the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC); between them, they gained around 4% less than what the already declining PCI had obtained in the 1987 Italian general election, despite PRC absorbing the disbanded Proletarian Democracy (DP).
The Legislature VIII of Italy was the 8th legislature of the Italian Republic, and lasted from 20 June 1979 until 11 July 1983. Its composition was the one resulting from the general election of 3 June 1979.
The Legislature IX of Italy was the 9th legislature of the Italian Republic, and lasted from 12 July 1983 until 1 July 1987. Its composition was the one resulting from the general election of 26 and 27 June 1983. The election was called by President Sandro Pertini one year before the previous legislature's natural end on 5 May 1983, after a crisis in the incumbent government majority (Pentapartito).
The Legislature X of Italy was the 10th legislature of the Italian Republic, and lasted from 2 July 1987 until 22 April 1992. Its composition was the one resulting from the general election of 14 and 15 June 1987. The election was called by President Cossiga on 28 April 1987, when he dissolved the Houses of Parliament.
The kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, also referred to in Italy as the Moro case, was a seminal event in Italian political history. On the morning of 16 March 1978, the day on which a new cabinet led by Giulio Andreotti was to have undergone a confidence vote in the Italian Parliament, the car of Aldo Moro, former prime minister and then president of the Christian Democracy party, was assaulted by a group of far-left terrorists known as the Red Brigades in via Fani in Rome. Firing automatic weapons, the terrorists killed Moro's bodyguards — two Carabinieri in Moro's car and three policemen in the following car — and kidnapped him. The events remain a national trauma. Ezio Mauro of La Repubblica described the events as Italy's 9/11. While Italy was not the sole European country to experience extremist terrorism, which also occurred in France, Germany, Ireland, and Spain, the murder of Moro was the apogee of Italy's Years of Lead.
The 1992 Italian presidential election was held in Italy on 13–25 May 1992, following the resignation of President Francesco Cossiga on 28 April 1992.
The 1985 Italian presidential election was held on 24 June 1985.
The Pentapartito, commonly shortened to CAF, refers to the coalition government of five Italian political parties that formed between June 1981 and April 1991. The pro-European and Atlanticist coalition comprised the Christian Democracy (DC), the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI), Italian Liberal Party (PLI), and Italian Republican Party (PRI).
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