Federalist Party (Italy)

Last updated

Federalist Party
Partito Federalista
Leader Gianfranco Miglio
Founded1994
Dissolved2008
Merged into Movement for Autonomy
Ideology Federalism
Political position Centre-right
National affiliation Pole for Freedoms

The Federalist Party (Italian : Partito Federalista) was a federalist and regionalist political party in Italy. It was funded by Gianfranco Miglio and Umberto Giovine on 1 June 1994 as the Federalist Union (Italian: Unione Federalista). The party was strengthened in July 1995 by eleven Lega Nord (Northern League) deputies. Vittorio Sgarbi joined the party in December 1995 and became its vice-president, while Miglio and Giovine served as president and secretary, respectively.

Contents

Close to Silvio Berlusconi's party Forza Italia, it was affiliated with his Pole for Freedoms as part of Italy's centre-right coalition, and was renamed as the Federalist Party in December 1995. After Miglio's death in 2001, the party was almost disbanded; it continued to exist and to be active as the Federalist Movement (Italian: Movimento Federalista) under the leadership of Umberto Giovine until 2008, when it was merged into the Movement for Autonomy.

History

The Federalist Union was founded on 1 June 1994 by Miglio, an influent member of Italy's Senate of the Republic and political scientist who left the Northern League in May 1994 over disagreements with Umberto Bossi, and Giovine, a former Italian Socialist Party member who was at the time member of Berlusconi's Forza Italia. [1] [2] [3] In July 1995, the group was strengthened by the joining of eleven members of Italy's Chamber of Deputies, all former members of the Northern League who had previously joined the Federalist Italian League and the Federalists and Liberal Democrats; among the major exponents of the Federalist Italian League were Enrico Hüllweck, who was elected mayor of Vicenza in 1998 for Forza Italia, and Giorgio Vido, who became a leader of the Marco Polo Front and the Liga Veneta Repubblica. This made possible the establishment of a sub-group within the Mixed Group in the Chamber of Deputies. [3]

The Federalist Party was officially founded on 17 December 1995 as an evolution of the Federalist Union. Miglio's goal was for it to be an anti-party and represents single-issue politics, to be disbanded as soon as a federal or confederal Italian Republic had been achieved. At the founding congress in Milan, Sgarbi, an art critic and maverick politician, joined the party. The program of the party included the idea of transforming Italy in a federal state modelled onto the examples of Switzerland and the United States, composed by three cantons (Padania, Etruria, and Mediterranea) and the five existing Italian autonomous regions. The central government would have been entrusted to a directorial system made up of the governors of the three cantons, by a rotating president of the five special statute regions, and by the federal president of the republic, to be elected by universal and direct suffrage every four years. In Miglio's intentions, the federal president would have been a true head of government on the American model, even if the president's will would have to be coordinated with that of the other members of the federal directorate. Thus, the federation would have been presided by a strong presidential system. [3]

For the 1996 Italian general election, Sgarbi left Miglio to form a list with Marco Pannella, the Pannella–Sgarbi List. Miglio was elected senator in his single-seat constituency in Como with the support of the Pole for Freedoms as Giovine, the party's secretary, did in Lodi. In the Chamber of Deputies, the party presented itself with its own logo in the Piedmont 1 constituency only for the proportional quota and in the single-member constituency of Vigonza; in the rest of Italy, the party's members run within Forza Italia and the centre-right coalition of the Polo for Freedoms. In addition to Miglio elected senator, Giovine, Luigi Negri, and Giuseppe Rossetto were elected deputies, with the party achieving at its peak eleven deputies in 1996. Miglio joined the Mixed Group, while Rossetto, Giovine, and Negri joined the Forza Italia group; later in 1997, they joined the Italian Republican Party group and the centre-left coalition that supported the first Prodi government. In 1997, the Federalist Party formed joint lists with the Union of the Centre at the local level and continued its approachment with Forza Italia. [4] The party was almost disbanded after the death of Miglio in 2001 but continued to exist and to be active as the Federalist Movement under the leadership of Giovine. In 2008, the party was merged into the Movement for Autonomy. [5]

Leadership

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forza Italia</span> Former Italian political party

Forza Italia was a centre-right liberal-conservative political party in Italy, with Christian-democratic, liberal, social-democratic and populist tendencies. It was founded by Silvio Berlusconi, who served as Prime Minister of Italy four times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benedetto Della Vedova</span> Italian politician

Benedetto Della Vedova is an Italian politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liga Veneta</span> Political party in Veneto

Liga Veneta, whose complete name is Liga Veneta per Salvini Premier, is a regionalist political party active in Veneto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union of the Centre (1993)</span> Italian political party

The Union of the Centre was a minor liberal political party in Italy. The party was a successor of the Italian Liberal Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pole of Freedoms</span> Political party in Italy

The Pole of Freedoms was a centre-right political and electoral alliance in Italy, launched at the 1994 general election by Silvio Berlusconi. Its counterpart in central and southern Italy was the Pole of Good Government, both forming the first incarnation of the centre-right coalition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pannella List</span> Political party in Italy

The Pannella List is a liberal and libertarian association, which was also the electoral list of the Italian Radicals between 1992 and 1999, when it was replaced by the Bonino List.

The Liberals Sgarbi, then renamed Liberals Sgarbi – The Libertarians, was a minor personalist-liberal political party in Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gianfranco Miglio</span> Italian jurist, academic, and politician (1918–2001)

Gianfranco Miglio was an Italian jurist, political scientist, and politician. He was a founder of the Federalist Party. For thirty years, he presided over the political science faculty of Milan's Università Cattolica. Later on in his life, he was elected as an independent member of the Parliament to the Italian Senate for Lega Nord. The supporters of Umberto Bossi's party called him Prufesùr, a Lombard nickname to remember his role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vittorio Sgarbi</span> Italian art critic, politician, and television personality (born 1952)

Vittorio Umberto Antonio Maria Sgarbi is an Italian art critic, art historian, writer, politician, cultural commentator, and television personality. He is president of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto. Appointed curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale, Sgarbi is also a columnist for il Giornale and works as an art critic for Panorama and IO Donna. A popular ecletic and mediatic phenomenon, Sgarbi is well known for his glib, verbal aggressiveness, and insults, which often led to libels.

Autonomists for Europe was a minor regionalist, Christian-democratic and liberal Italian political party. Founded in 2000 by splinters of Northern League as a potentially dangerous competitor, it became a rather marginal force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Padanian nationalism</span>

Padanian nationalism is an ideology and a regionalist movement demanding more autonomy, or even independence from Italy, for Padania, a region encompassing Northern and, to some extent, part of central Italy.

The Federalist Italian League was a short-lived federalist and liberal political party in Italy.

The Federalists and Liberal Democrats was a liberal and federalist political party in Italy, founded in 1994 as a parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1995 Lombard regional election</span>

The 1995 Lombard regional election took place on 23 April 1995. The 6th term of the Regional Council was chosen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pole for Freedoms</span> Political party in Italy

The Pole for Freedoms was a centre-right political and electoral alliance in Italy, which was active from 1996 to 2000. It included Forza Italia (FI), the National Alliance (AN), Union of the Centre (UdC), Christian Democratic Centre (CCD), United Christian Democrats (CDD), and Pannella–Sgarbi List.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Federalist Party</span> Federal pan-European political party

The European Federalist Party is a European political party founded on 6 November 2011 in Paris. The EFP is one of the first European-oriented political parties that openly defends European federalism and is not a coalition of pre-existing national parties.

The centre-right coalition is a political alliance of political parties in Italy active under several forms and names since 1994, when Silvio Berlusconi entered politics and formed the Forza Italia party. It has mostly competed with the centre-left coalition. It is composed of right-leaning parties in the Italian political arena, which generally advocate tax reduction and oppose immigration, and in some cases are eurosceptic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Umberto Bossi</span> Italian politician (born 1941)

Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician and former leader of Lega Nord, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy or Padania. He is married to the Sicilian Manuela Marrone, and has four sons, of whom one was from his first wife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renaissance (Italian political party)</span> Political party in Italy

Renaissance is a political party in Italy. Its leader is Vittorio Sgarbi, an Italian art critic, art historian, politician, cultural commentator and television personality. Sgarbi was formerly a member of the Italian Liberal Party, which was elected in Parliament in 1992, and after its dissolution in 1994 joined in Forza Italia, continuing to be MP until 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergio Castellaneta</span> Italian politician (1932–2018)

Sergio Castellaneta was an Italian politician.

References

  1. "Unione Federalista: parte dal Veneto la 'rivolta' di Miglio" (in Italian). Adnkronos. 30 May 1994. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  2. "Unione Federalista: parte dal Veneto la 'rivolta' di Miglio (2)" (in Italian). Adnkronos. 30 May 1994. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 Mantovan, Michela (18 December 1995). "Miglio: ecco il Partito federalista. Sgarbi: e io faro' il parlamento del Sud". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). p. 7. ISSN   2499-0485. Archived from the original on 20 February 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  4. "Manconi intervistato dal 'prof' Fontecedro". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 17 April 1997. p. 48. ISSN   2499-0485. Archived from the original on 20 February 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  5. "2° Congresso Nazionale del Movimento per l'Autonomia – Europa e Mediterraneo. Le autonomie per una nuova cittadinanza – prima giornata". Radio Radicale (in Italian). 27 February 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2024.