Italian People's Party (1994)

The Italian People's Party (Italian: Partito Popolare Italiano, PPI) was a Christian-democratic,[4][5] centrist,[6] Christian-leftist[7] political party in Italy. The party was a member of the European People's Party (EPP).[8]

For the party with the same name which was active from 1919 to 1926, see Italian People's Party (1919).

Italian People's Party Partito Popolare Italiano
Abbreviation	PPI
Leaders	Mino Martinazzoli Rocco Buttiglione Gerardo Bianco Franco Marini Pierluigi Castagnetti
Founded	18 January 1994
Dissolved	6 December 2002
Preceded by	Christian Democracy
Merged into	The Daisy
Newspaper	Il Popolo
Ideology	Christian democracy Christian left
Political position	Centre to centre-left[1][2][3]
National affiliation	Pact for Italy (1994) The Olive Tree (1995–2002)
European affiliation	European People's Party
International affiliation	Christian Democrat International
European Parliament group	European People's Party
Colors	White
Politics of Italy Political parties Elections

The PPI was the formal successor of the Christian Democracy (DC),[9] but was soon deprived of its conservative elements, which successively formed the Christian Democratic Centre (CCD) in 1994 and the United Christian Democrats (CDU) in 1995. The PPI was finally merged into Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL) in 2002, and DL was later merged with the Democrats of the Left (DS) and minor centre-left parties into Democratic Party (PD) in 2007.

History

The party emerged in January 1994 as the successor to the Christian Democracy (DC), Italy's dominant party since World War II, following the final national council of the DC and the split of a right-wing faction led by Pier Ferdinando Casini, which had formed the Christian Democratic Centre (CCD).[10][11] The first secretary of the PPI was Mino Martinazzoli, which led the party to a big defeat (11.1% of the vote) in the 1994 general election, fought in coalition with the Segni Pact, under the Pact for Italy banner. After the election, Martinazzoli was replaced as secretary by conservative philosopher Rocco Buttiglione.

In 1995, when his proposal to join the centre-right Pole of Freedoms coalition (composed of Forza Italia, National Alliance and the CCD) was rejected by the party's national council, Buttiglione, along with Roberto Formigoni, Gianfranco Rotondi and other bigwigs, formed the United Christian Democrats (CDU), leaving the PPI in the hands of the late DC's leftist factions.[7][12]

For the 1996 general election the PPI formed the Populars for Prodi list with the Democratic Union (UD), the Italian Republican Party (PRI) and the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP). The list was part of The Olive Tree, a broad centre-left coalition, and won 6.8% of the vote. The PPI was represented in Romano Prodi's first government by three ministers: Beniamino Andreatta at Defence, Rosy Bindi at Health and Michele Pinto at Agriculture. Additionally, Nicola Mancino was President of the Senate.

In the 1999 European Parliament election the PPI was damaged by the competition from The Democrats (Dem), a centrist and social-liberal party launched by Prodi: the PPI won only 4.3% of the vote, while The Democrats took 7.7%.

For the 2001 general election the PPI formed a joint list with Dem, the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR) and Italian Renewal (RI). The list, named Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL), won 14.5% of vote. In 2002 DL was transformed into a full-fledged party, the PPI was merged into it and a cultural association named The Populars was formed. DL would later be merged, along with the Democrats of the Left (DS) and minor centre-left parties, into the Democratic Party (PD), of which The Populars became a faction. Two members of the PPI and DL, Enrico Letta and Matteo Renzi, would successively serve as Prime Ministers in 2013–2016.

Electoral results

Italian Parliament

Chamber of Deputies
Election year	Votes	%	Seats	+/−	Leader
1994	4,287,172 (4th)	11.1	33 / 630	–	Mino Martinazzoli
1996	2,554,072 (6th)	6.8	67 / 630	34	Franco Marini

Senate of the Republic
Election year	Votes	%	Seats	+/−	Leader
1994	5,526,090 (4th)	16.7	27 / 315	–	Mino Martinazzoli
1996	into Ulivo	–	31 / 315	4	Franco Marini

European Parliament

European Parliament
Election year	Votes	%	Seats	+/−	Leader
1994	3,295,337 (4th)	10.0	8 / 87	–	Mino Martinazzoli
1999	1,316,830 (8th)	4.2	4 / 87	4	Ciriaco De Mita

Leadership

• Secretary: Mino Martinazzoli (1994), Rocco Buttiglione (1994–1995), Gerardo Bianco (1995–1997), Franco Marini (1997–1999), Pierluigi Castagnetti (1999–2002)
  • Deputy Secretary: Enrico Letta (1997–1998), Dario Franceschini (1997–1999)[13]
  • Coordinator: Dario Franceschini (1997–1999), Lapo Pistelli (1999–2002)
• President: Rosa Russo Jervolino (1994), Giovanni Bianchi (1994–1997), Gerardo Bianco (1997–1999)
• Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: Beniamino Andreatta (1994–1996), Antonello Soro (1996–2001)
• Party Leader in the Senate: Nicola Mancino (1994–1996), Leopoldo Elia (1996–2001)
• Party Leader in the European Parliament: Pierluigi Castagnetti (1994–1999), Guido Bodrato (1999–2004)

Symbols

Before the secession of the CDU, the PPI’s logo was adaptation of the old DC’s logo.

• 
  First logo (1994–1995)
• 
  Alternative logo

References

1. Fabio Padovano; Roberto Ricciuti, eds. (2007). "Appendix 2". Italian Institutional Reforms: A Public Choice Perspective. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-387-72141-5.
2. John Kenneth White; Philip Davies (1998). Political Parties and the Collapse of the Old Orders. SUNY Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-7914-4067-4.
3. Federiga Bindi (2011). Italy and the European Union. Brookings Institution Press. pp. 243–244. ISBN 0-8157-0509-3.
4. Gary Marks; Carole Wilson (1999). "National Parties and the Contestation of Europe". In T. Banchoff; Mitchell P. Smith (eds.). Legitimacy and the European Union. Taylor & Francis. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-415-18188-4. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
5. http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_140581_en.pdf
6. Christina Holtz-Bacha; Gianpietro Mazzoleni (2004). The Politics of Representation: Election Campaigning and Proportional Representation. Peter Lang. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-8204-6148-9.
7. Bernard A. Cook, ed. (2001). Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 670. ISBN 978-0-8153-4057-7.
8. Thomas Jansen; Steven Van Hecke (2011). At Europe's Service: The Origins and Evolution of the European People's Party. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 63. ISBN 978-3-642-19414-6.
9. Luciano Bardi; Piero Ignazi (1998). "The Italian Party System: The Effective Magnitude of an Earthquake". In Piero Ignazi; Colette Ysmal (eds.). The Organization of Political Parties in Southern Europe. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-275-95612-7.
10. Giuseppe Vottari (2004). Storia d'Italia (1861-2001). Alpha Test. pp. 177–178. ISBN 978-88-483-0562-4.
11. Daniela Giannetti; Michael F. Thies (2011). "Electoral Reform and ractional Politics in Italy and Japan". In Daniela Giannetti; Bernard Grofman (eds.). 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. 79. ISBN 978-1-4419-7228-6.
12. Martin J. Bull; James Newell (2005). Italian Politics: Adjustment Under Duress. Polity. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-7456-1298-0.
13. http://www.partitodemocratico.it/gw/producer/producer.aspx?t=/documenti/author.htm&auth=33 Archived January 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine