Pisaniani referred to the faction around

Giuseppe Pisanu Giuseppe "Beppe" Pisanu (born 2 January 1937 in Ittiri, province of Sassari) is an Italian politician, longtime member of the Chamber of Deputies for the Christian Democracy (1972–1992) and then for Forza Italia (1994–2006). Biography Pis ...

, a leading member of

The People of Freedom The People of Freedom ( it, Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL, launched by Silvio Berlusconi on 18 November 2007, was initially a federation of political parties, notably including Forza Italia a ...

(PdL), a

political party in Italy This article contains a list of political parties in Italy since Italian unification in 1861. Throughout history, numerous political parties have been operating in Italy, and since World War II no party has ever gained enough support to govern ...

. Formerly a left-wing

Christian Democrat 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 ...

, Pisanu has been a member of

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as 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 ...

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 ...

(FI) since 1994 and, later, of the PdL. He was leader of FI in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

from 1996 to 2001, and minister of the Interior in Berlusconi's cabinets from 2002 to 2006. In 2006 he was elected to the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and, since then, he has become a critical figure within the party. Moreover, he was often seen as being interested in building a new

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 ...

. In early 2011 a group of senators started to coalesce around Pisanu. They were not a formal faction and were called ''Pisaniani''. They included: some party heavyweights no longer under spotlight, such as

Marcello Pera Marcello Pera (; born 28 January 1943
.) is an Italian

and

Lamberto Dini Lamberto Dini CGMG (born 1 March 1931) is an Italian politician and economist. He was the Director General of Bank of Italy from 1979 to 1994, Minister of Treasury from 1994 to 1996, the 51st Prime Minister of Italy from 1995 to 1996, and Forei ...

; some fellow

Sardinians The Sardinians, or Sards ( sc, Sardos or ; Italian and Sassarese: ''Sardi''; Gallurese: ''Saldi''), are a Romance language-speaking ethnic group native to Sardinia, from which the western Mediterranean island and autonomous region of Italy deri ...

, such as Mariano Delogu,

Fedele Sanciu Fedele is both an Italian surname and a masculine Italian given name. Notable people with the name include: People with the surname *Adriano Fedele (born 1947), Italian footballer and manager *Cassandra Fedele (died 1558), Italian scholar *Joe Fede ...

, Piergiorgio Massidda; some Christian democrats, such as Franco Orsi,

Raffaele Lauro Raffaele Lauro (born 10 February 1944, in Sorrento) is an Italian politician, member of the Senate of the Republic (Italy), Senate of Italy, prefect and a private adviser for institutional relations and communication. Early life and education Ra ...

, Gabriele Boscetto, Vincenzo Oliva and, again, Sanciu; a large group of liberals, such as Paolo Amato (ex- PRI), Valter Zanetta (ex- PLI), Paolo Scarpa Bonazza Buora (ex-PLI) and the already mentioned Massidda (ex-PRI), Pera (ex- PR) and Dini, and social democrats, such as Ferruccio Saro (ex-

PSI Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviatio ...

Massimo Baldini Massimo, also Massimino, and Massimine () is a masculine Italian given name. Notable people with the name include: Given name: * Massimo Agostinelli (Max Agos) (born 1987), Swiss based Italian American artist, entrepreneur and activist * Massimo A ...

(ex-PSI and ex- PSDI) and Carlo Vizzini (ex-PSDI, who left in early November 2011). Soon after Berlusconi decided to resign from Prime Minister in November 2011, many ''Pisaniani'', along with ''

Scajoliani Scajoliani refers to the faction around Claudio Scajola, a leading member of The People of Freedom (PdL), a political party in Italy. The group wielded particular influence within Forza Italia (FI), the main precursor of PdL. Scajola and his allies ...

'', opposed an early election and threatened to form a new party. In April 2012 Pisanu and Dini prepared a manifesto in which they said that they wanted to go "beyond the PdL" and form a larger centre-right political party. The document was signed by 29 MPs, notably including Paolo Amato, Gabriele Boscetto,

Ombretta Colli Ombretta Colli (born Ombretta Comelli on 21 September 1943) is an Italian singer, actress and politician. She was president of the Province of Milan from June 1999 to June 2004.Giuseppe Menardi, Andrea Pastore,

Gilberto Pichetto Fratin Gilberto Pichetto Fratin (born 4 January 1954) is an Italian politician who is the Minister of the Environment (Italy), Minister of the Environment and Energy Security of the Meloni Cabinet, Meloni government since 22 October 2022. He is the Cha ...

, Maurizio Saia, Ferruccio Saro, Guido Viceconte and Valter Zanetta. In January 2013 Pisanu left the PdL in order to support

Mario Monti Mario Monti, (born 19 March 1943) is an Italian economist and academic who served as the Prime Minister of Italy from 2011 to 2013, leading a technocratic government in the wake of the Italian debt crisis. Monti served as a European Commiss ...

Civic Choice Civic Choice ( it, Scelta Civica; SC) 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 polit ...

. Most of his followers remained in the PdL.

References

{{clear The People of Freedom factions Forza Italia factions