Rebirth of Christian Democracy (''Rinascita della Democrazia Cristiana'', RDC) was a small

Christian-democratic Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

History

On 6 December 1997 a new Christian Democracy was founded by

Flaminio Piccoli Flaminio Piccoli (Kirchbichl, 28 December 1915 – Rome, 11 April 2000) was an Italian politician. He was a member of Christian Democracy until its dissolution in 1994, then a member of the United Christian Democrats and finally of the Rebir ...

, a former heavyweight of the defunct DC. In 2000, on the occasion of the regional elections, the Christian Democracy presented itself under the name of the

Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

, to circumvent the ban on presenting itself with the historical name of the DC. With the death of the founder Piccoli in April 2000, the party split into two parts. On one side, Carlo Senaldi took over the leadership of ''Rebirth of Christian Democracy'', that on the occasion of the 2001 general elections sided with

Sergio D'Antoni Sergio Antonio D'Antoni (born 10 December 1946 in Caltanissetta) is an Italian politician, syndicalist and sports manager, current President of CONI Sicilia. Biography Graduated in law, D'Antoni became a researcher at the University of Pale ...

and his party

European Democracy European Democracy ( it, Democrazia Europea, DE) was a minor Christian-democratic, centrist political party in Italy. History European Democracy was founded in 2001 by Sergio D'Antoni (former leader of the Italian Confederation of Workers' Trad ...

. The national (organizational) secretary Angelo Sandri was a candidate in a constituency of the Chamber in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, where the movement was also presented in the provincial elections of that same year. On other side,

Alfredo Vito Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxon name Alfred and a common Italian, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name. People with the given name include: *Alfredo (born 1946), Brazilian footballer born as Alfredo Mostarda Fi ...

, continued to use the name and symbol of the ''Christian Democratic Party'' and chose a close collaboration with the center-right coalition (with which it is allied to the 2001 general elections) until it merged with

Forza Italia Forza ItaliaThe name is not usually translated into English: ''forza'' is the second-person singular imperative of ''forzare'', in this case translating to "to compel" or "to press", and so means something like "Forward, Italy", "Come on, Ital ...

. In 2002 the party, then led by secretary

Angelo Sandri Angelo is an Italian masculine given name and surname meaning "angel", or "messenger". People People with the given name *Angelo Accattino (born 1966), Italian prelate of the Catholic Church *Angelo Acciaioli (bishop) (1298–1357), Italian Ro ...

and president Senaldi, joined the reconstituted

Christian Democracy Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

, but sometime later it regained its autonomy, under the leadership of Senaldi. In 2005 RDC joined the

Christian Democracy for the Autonomies Christian Democracy for the Autonomies ( it, Democrazia Cristiana per le Autonomie, DCA) was a minor Christian-democratic political party in Italy. History DCA was founded on 25 October 2004 by a split from the Union of Christian and Centre Dem ...

. In 2012 the party joined the

led by Angelo Sandri, and Senaldi was appointed president of the party.

References

{{Historical Italian political parties 1997 establishments in Italy Defunct Christian political parties Defunct political parties in Italy Christian democratic parties in Italy Catholic political parties