Middle Italy (''Italia di mezzo'', IdM) was a

centrist Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the l ...

Italian political grouping founded in 2006 by Marco Follini, Senate member and former leader of the

Union of Christian and Centre Democrats The Union of the Centre ( it, Unione di Centro, UdC), whose complete name is "Union of Christian and Centre Democrats" (''Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e Democratici di Centro'', UDC), is a Christian-democratic political party in Italy. Lore ...

(UDC, 2002–05), and

Riccardo Conti Riccardo is a male given name, Italian version of Ricardo or Richard. It also may be a surname. It means "Powerful Leader". It may refer to: People A–L *Riccardo Antoniazzi (1853–1912), Italian violin maker *Riccardo Bacchelli (1891–1985) ...

, member of the Chamber of Deputies. Initially founded as a free political association in support of the "no" vote for the 2006 constitutional referendum, it became a party on 21 October 2006, after Follini announced his resignations from the UDC caucus. The primary goal of this political movement was to attract all those voters who were unsatisfied by the Italian political system, based on the often harsh contraposition between the centre-left

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

and the centre-right

House of Freedoms The House of Freedoms ( it, Casa delle Libertà, CdL) was a major centre-right political and electoral alliance in Italy, led by Silvio Berlusconi. History The CdL was the successor of the Pole of Freedoms/Pole of Good Government and the Pole fo ...

, and to change, or, better, to produce the end of bi-polarism. However, IdM supported then-Prime Minister

Romano Prodi Romano Antonio Prodi (; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician, economist, academic, senior civil servant, and business executive who served as the tenth president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He served twice as Prim ...

in a confidence vote and then entered The Union. Never having contested an election on its own, the party merged into the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

(PD) at its founding on 14 October 2007. Most of its members did not follow Follini in that decision and switched to the

Third Pole The Third Pole, also known as the Hindu Kush-Karakoram- Himalayan system (HKKH), is a mountainous region west and south of the Tibetan Plateau. Part of High-Mountain Asia, it spreads over an area of more than across nine countries, i.e. Afghanist ...

, led by former

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

Vincenzo Scotti Vincenzo Scotti (born 16 September 1933) is an Italian politician and member of Christian Democracy (Italy), Christian Democracy (DC). He was Italian Minister of the Interior, Minister of the Interior and Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mini ...

References

External links

Official website
{{Democratic Party factions Centrist parties in Italy Defunct political parties in Italy Political parties established in 2006 Political parties disestablished in 2007 Christian democratic parties in Italy Catholic political parties 2006 establishments in Italy 2007 disestablishments in Italy