Future and Freedom (Italian: Futuro e Libertà), whose full name was Future and Freedom for Italy (Futuro e Libertà per l'Italia, abbreviated to FLI), was a political party in Italy, comprising both liberal and national conservative elements.
The core of FLI was constituted by Generation Italy (GI), led by Italo Bocchino, who was also appointed vice president of the party by Fini. FLI members were mostly former MSI/AN stalwarts, with some notable exceptions.
In the meantime, a group of Fini loyalists, known as Finiani, started to join forces in support of their leader. In April 2010 Italo Bocchino launched an association within the PdL named Generation Italy in order to better represent Fini's views within the party and push for a different party organisation.[15] Fini posed a sort of ultimatum to Berlusconi and hinted the formation of separate groups from the PdL in Parliament.[16] At one point some Finiani even proposed the formation of a new party outside the PdL.[17] After some tense days emerged as a possibility that Fini and his group would have remained in the party as a minority faction.[18] On 22 April 2010 the National Committee of the PdL convened in Rome for the first time in a year. The conflict between Fini and Berlusconi was covered live by television. A resolution which denounced Fini's conduct and reaffirmed the party's political line was approved by a landslide margin by the assembly.[19]
Clashes between Fini and Berlusconi became even more frequent and reached their heights in late July 2010, when Fini questioned the morality of some PdL party bigwigs under investigation.[20] On 29 July 2010 the executive of the PdL released a document (voted by 33 members out of 37) in which Fini was described as "incompatible" with the political line of the PdL and unable to perform his job of President of the Chamber of Deputies in a neutral way. Berlusconi asked Fini to step down from his post and the executive proposed the suspension from party membership of three Finiani hard-liners (Italo Bocchino, Fabio Granata and Carmelo Briguglio) who had harshly criticised Berlusconi and accused some party members of criminal offences.[21]
On 30 July, Fini held a press conference during which he announced the formation of separate groups from the PdL both in the Chamber and the Senate under the name Future and Freedom for Italy (FLI). He also confirmed the support of his group, which counted a handful of cabinet members, to Berlusconi's government.[22] 33 deputies and 10 senators joined the new parliamentary groups from the beginning. Only a minority of the PdL MPs originating from National Alliance followed their former leader Fini into the new party, but enough to hold the balance in the Chamber of Deputies Moreover, some members of the former Forza Italia, Berlusconi's party before its merger into the PdL, joined too (Benedetto Della Vedova and Barbara Contini).[23][24]
On 5 July, the Chamber voted on the suspension of Giacomo Caliendo, a PdL senator under investigation, from his post of Undersecretary of Justice. The FLI group chose to abstain from the vote along with the Union of the Centre, Alliance for Italy and the Movement for the Autonomies, forming the so-called "area of responsibility". The motion was voted down, but it was a blow for the Berlusconi IV Cabinet, which retained its majority only through FLI's support.[25][26]
During the vote on Caliendo, Chiara Moroni, a social democrat formerly of the New Italian Socialist Party and Forza Italia, announced that she was leaving the PdL group in order to join Fini's outfit. In a touching speech dedicated to her father Sergio Moroni, a Socialist who committed suicide during Tangentopoli, she explained that she was leaving the PdL in the name of garantismo (an Italian word for "protection of civil liberties" used in relation to the right to a fair trial).[27] For this she was vehemently criticised by senior former Socialists in the PdL such as Fabrizio Cicchitto and Margherita Boniver.[28]
On 5 September, after a month of silence, Fini gave a speech to his supporters during the Festa Tricolore in Mirabello, a traditional rally of the old MSI and, later, of the AN. During that speech Fini declared that the PdL was dead and that his group would not have returned into the PdL's fold, but he did not speak about the transformation of FLI into an official party. Moreover, despite being very critical of Berlusconi, he offered a "legislative pact" in order for the government to continue until 2013.[29] As a response, Berlusconi and his junior partner in government Umberto Bossi reiterated their call to Fini to resign from his post of President of the Chamber.[30] Subsequently, on 8 September, Fini left the PdL group in the Chamber and joined to all intents and purposes FLI, becoming its 36th member.[31]
Road to the new party
On 22 September FLI abstained during a secret confidence vote on Nicola Cosentino, an Undersecretary of Economy under investigation for camorra-related crimes. The motion was rejected by a larger majority than expected, meaning than some Finiani and possibly some deputies from the opposition.[32][33]
On 29 September FLI voted yes in a vote of confidence to the government in the Chamber of Deputies, but two FLI deputies (Mirko Tremaglia and Fabio Granata) voted against.[35] On the same day Fini announced the imminent birth of a new party.[36]
On 2 November the party logo was presented during a press conference.[37] The day after two more deputies joined the party: Roberto Rosso, a former Christian Democrat who had been leader of Forza Italia in Piedmont, and Daniele Toto.[38] In Sicily the party joined forces with the remnants of the PdL–Sicily and formed an eight-strong group in the Regional Assembly in support of President Raffaele Lombardo.[39][40]
On 7 November, during a crowded convention in Bastia Umbra, Fini asked Berlusconi to step down from his post of Prime Minister and proposed a new government including the Union of the Centre (UdC). Fini declared also that if Berlusconi were not to step down, FLI ministers and under-secretaries would leave the executive.[41] As Berlusconi refused to do so, the four FLI members of the government resigned on 15 November.[42]
On 14 December FLI voted against the government in a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies, a vote won by Berlusconi by 314 to 311. Three FLI deputies (Giampiero Catone, Catia Polidori and Maria Grazia Siliquini) voted in favour (along with Giuseppe Angeli, who had left FLI and returned to the PdL in November[43]), while another, Silvano Moffa, abstained from the vote and chose to leave the party.[44] Subsequently, also Catone, Polidori and Siliquini left FLI.[45]
On 15 December 2010 FLI was a founding member of the New Pole for Italy (NPI), along with the UdC and some minor parties.[46][47]
On 11–13 February 2011 FLI was officially established as a party during a congress in Milan and Gianfranco Fini was elected president of it.
During the congress, no-one questioned the leadership of Fini, but the party was divided between "radicals" (Italo Bocchino, Benedetto Della Vedova, Fabio Granata, Carmelo Briguglio, Flavia Perina, etc.) and "moderates" (Adolfo Urso, Andrea Ronchi, Pasquale Viespoli, Mario Baldassarri and most senators), who strongly opposed the rise of Bocchino to party leadership. Fini finally appointed Bocchino vice president, downgraded Urso to spokesperson, appointed another "radical", Della Vedova, at the head of the party in the Chamber of Deputies, while Viespoli, a "moderate", was confirmed as leader in the Senate.[48][49] This caused outrage among the "moderates", and Urso and Viespoli were especially critical of Fini's choices.[50][51]
On 15 February Viespoli resigned from the position of Senate floor leader, but was immediately re-elected by the 10 FLI senators with a new mandate: ensuring the centre-right credentials of the group.[52] On 16 February senator Giuseppe Menardi quit the party.[53] On 17 February he was followed by senator Francesco Pontone and deputy Roberto Rosso, who both returned to the PdL.[54] On 19 February also deputy Luca Bellotti left to re-join the PdL.[55] On 20 February it was the turn of deputy Luca Barbareschi, formerly a "radical".[56] On 22 February Pasquale Viespoli and Maurizio Saia, both senators, left the party too and the senatorial group was dissolved.[57] Viespoli, Menardi and Saia, along with other like-minded senators like Adriana Poli Bortone (I the South), formed a new centre-right group called National Cohesion and returned into the fold of the majority.[58][59] On 16 February one more deputy, Giulia Cosenza, walked out and returned to the PdL.[60]
The party experienced more internal troubles in April 2011, in the run-up to local elections. Some leading members of the party disagreed with some candidatures decided by the party's national leadership, notably in Latina and Naples. This finally led MEP Enzo Rivellini to step down from the regional leadership in Campania and leave the party. Another MEP, Potito Salatto, and one senator, Candido De Angelis, left their leadership posts too.[61][62] In the meantime the party's "moderates", led Urso and Ronchi, launched their own faction, FareItalia, open to members of all the centre-right parties, from the PdL to UDC.[63] In May Ronchi resigned from president of the party's national assembly.[64] In June Ronchi, along with Urso and Giuseppe Scalia (Sicilian leader of FLI), left the party.[65]
In the 2013 general election, held in February 2013, the party ran as part of the With Monti for Italy alliance with the UdC and Civic Choice and obtained a mere 0.4% of the vote, returning no seats in the Chamber and one in the Senate, plus two elects by Italians abroad.[67] Subsequently, Fini resigned from party president.[68] It was also decided that, under the leadership of Roberto Menia, FLI would reconnect with the other wings of the former AN in order to recompose the Italian right.[69] As a result, the party decided to support Gianni Alemanno, a former AN bigwig, as mayor in the run-off of Rome municipal election.[70]
FLI was officially disbanded sometime between 2013 and 2014. Fini, who was not a member of the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in thirty years and was one of the few incumbent Presidents not to be returned to Parliament, continued his political activity through an association named FreeRight.
The core of FLI was constituted by Generation Italy (GI), to which a majority of FLI deputies and senators are affiliated, but also the other two factions of the arcipelago finiano (National Area and Open Space) are represented. On the cultural side, the FareFuturo foundation and Secolo d'Italia newspaper are very influential.
First, on the relations with the PdL, at the beginning there was a clear divide between a "radical" wing (Italo Bocchino, Fabio Granata, Carmelo Briguglio, Flavia Perina, Luca Barbareschi and most deputies) and a "moderate" one (Andrea Ronchi, Pasquale Viespoli, Roberto Menia and most senators).[79][80][81] Some (the "moderates" and Adolfo Urso) long continued to consider themselves as part of the PdL, while others (the "radicals" and Menia) wanted FLI to be autonomous from the PdL.[82][83][84] Shortly before launching the new party, Fini sided with the "radicals" and criticized the "moderates".[85] Many "moderates", most of the former Christian Democrats and even "radical" Barbareschi left the party along the way.[45][58] Some "moderates" led by Urso and Ronchi launched FareItalia, others directly re-joined the PdL.
Second, while some Finiani (Bocchino, Granata, etc.) see FLI as the embryo of a modern and innovative right-wing, others (Menia, Urso, etc.) have joined FLI in order to re-create the political community of the late MSI. In this sense the word "future" in the party's name was a reference to futurism, which was a cultural inspiration for Italian Fascism.[86][87][88] Both progressive and reactionary forces thus hail from FLI, but almost none identifies with the political centre.[81]
Third, on the economy, the predominant strain in FLI was highly influenced by dirigisme, statism, corporatism and centralism (all well represented in the ideology of the former MSI).[24] Salvatore Merlo writes that "though Fini would never admit it ... many of the positions adopted by him today derive from a certain thread in fascist culture" and The Economist remarks that "many of Mr Fini's fellow-rebels originated in the social wing of neo-fascism, whose anti-capitalist adherents embraced such ideas as feminism and environmentalism as long ago as the 1970s", that was why FLI "has perhaps the oddest pedigree of any progressive group on the European right".[89] However, FLI included also some uncompromising economic liberals such as Benedetto Della Vedova, his fellow former Radicals and the Libertiamo faction and foundation.[90] Moreover, some Finiani, notably including Mario Baldassarri, propose to lower taxes and to slow down the introduction of fiscal federalism instead.[91]
Fourth, on ethical issues, which caused some of the main strifes between Fini and the majority of the PdL and of the former AN, some FLI members such as Della Vedova were pushing for a progressive commitment aimed at the introduction of civil unions and the liberalisation of artificial insemination, while others did not consider those issues a priority or oppose any departure from the traditional social conservatism of MSI/AN.[83][92]
National Alliance was a national conservative political party in Italy. It was the successor of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a neo-fascist party founded in 1946 by former followers of Benito Mussolini that had moderated its policies over its last decades and finally distanced itself from its former ideology, a move known as post-fascismo, during a convention in Fiuggi by dissolving into the new party in 1995.
Silvio Berlusconi was an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 2013; a member of the Senate of the Republic from 2022 until his death in 2023, and previously from March to November 2013; and a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2022, and previously from 1999 to 2001. With a net worth of US$6.8 billion as of June 2023, Berlusconi was the third-wealthiest person in Italy at the time of his death.
Pier Ferdinando Casini is an Italian politician. He served as President of the Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2006.
Social Action, previously known as Freedom of Action, was a national-conservative political party in Italy, founded and led by politician Alessandra Mussolini, who is the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini. The party became a faction within Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party.
The Movement for Autonomy is a regionalist and Christian-democratic political party in Italy, based in Sicily. The MpA, whose founder and leader is Raffaele Lombardo, advocates for greater economic development, autonomy and legislative powers for Sicily and the other regions of southern Italy.
Maurizio Gasparri is an Italian politician.
The People of Freedom was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL launched by Silvio Berlusconi as an electoral list, including Forza Italia and National Alliance, on 27 February for the 2008 Italian general election. The list was later transformed into a party during a party congress on 27–29 March 2009. The party's leading members included Angelino Alfano, Renato Schifani, Renato Brunetta, Roberto Formigoni, Maurizio Sacconi, Maurizio Gasparri, Mariastella Gelmini, Antonio Martino, Giancarlo Galan, Maurizio Lupi, Gaetano Quagliariello, Daniela Santanchè, Sandro Bondi, and Raffaele Fitto.
Libertiamo is a libertarian association chaired by Benedetto Della Vedova.
FareFuturo is a right-wing think tank, which intend develop a new liberal conservative and secular-minded right, on the model of Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP, David Cameron's Conservatives and José María Aznar's PP, who also participated in the foundation.
The political career of Silvio Berlusconi (1994–2011) began in 1994, when Berlusconi entered politics for the first time serving intermittent terms as Prime Minister of Italy from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011, his career was racked with controversies and trials; amongst these was his failure to honour his promise to sell his personal assets in Mediaset, the largest television broadcaster network in Italy, in order to dispel any perceived conflicts of interest.
Generation Italy or Finiani was an association connected to Future and Freedom (FLI), a political party in Italy, and earlier to The People of Freedom (PdL).
Open Space was an association connected to The People of Freedom (PdL), a political party in Italy.
National Area was an association connected to Future and Freedom (FLI), a political party in Italy, and earlier to The People of Freedom.
New Italy Foundation is a national and socially-conservative think tank in Italy.
The New Pole for Italy, better known as the Third Pole and less frequently as Pole of the Nation, was a centrist coalition of parties in Italy active from late 2010 to sometime in 2012. By January 2013, after Mario Monti had announced his intention to step in into politics, Future Italy and other groups formed Civic Choice with direct support from Monti. Subsequently, Civic Choice, UdC, and FLI joined forces in the With Monti for Italy coalition. The NPI was founded on 15 December 2010 both as an alternative to the centre-right coalition between The People of Freedom and Lega Nord led by Silvio Berlusconi, and to the centre-left coalition between the Democratic Party and Italy of Values led by Pier Luigi Bersani.
FareItalia was an Italian conservative political association.
Civic Choice was a centrist and liberal political party in Italy founded by Mario Monti. The party was formed in the run-up of the 2013 general election to support the outgoing Prime Minister Monti and continue his political agenda. In the election SC was part of a centrist coalition named With Monti for Italy, along with Union of the Centre of Pier Ferdinando Casini and Future and Freedom of Gianfranco Fini.
National Action was a conservative political party in Italy.
Roberto Menia is an Italian politician.
Adolfo Urso is an Italian politician and journalist.
↑ Britannica Educational Publishing (1 June 2013). Italy. Britannica Educational Publishing. pp.57–. ISBN978-1-61530-989-4. Archived from the original on 28 April 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
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