The United Christian Democrats (, CDU) was a minor

Christian democratic Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

political party in Italy. The CDU was a member of the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian democracy, Christian democratic, liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative, and conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other p ...

from 1995 until 2002.

History

The party was started in 1995 by splinters of the Italian People's Party (PPI) who wanted to join forces with

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...

's Forza Italia (FI). The split was led by Rocco Buttiglione (outgoing secretary of the PPI), Roberto Formigoni and Gianfranco Rotondi. The CDU's symbol used the crusader shield (''scudo crociato'') of

Christian Democracy Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

. In the 1995 regional elections the CDU formed joint lists with FI and Roberto Formigoni was elected President of Lombardy, while in 1996 it formed an alliance with the Christian Democratic Centre (CCD) for the 1996 general election, in which the CCD-CDU list scored 5.6%. In June 1998 Buttiglione led the party into the Democratic Union for the Republic (UDR), a new Christian-democratic outfit launched by Francesco Cossiga and Clemente Mastella, who had left CCD to form the Christian Democrats for the Republic (CDR). In October, when Buttiglione briefly decided to support the

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

government of

Massimo D'Alema Massimo D'Alema (; born 20 April 1949) is an Italian politician and journalist who was the 53rd prime minister of Italy from 1998 to 2000. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008. D'Alema ...

, along with the UDR, Roberto Formigoni,

Raffaele Fitto Raffaele Fitto (; born 28 August 1969) is an Italian politician who has served as Vice-President of the European Commission, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Cohesion and Refo ...

Maurizio Lupi Maurizio Enzo Lupi (born 3 October 1959) is an Italian politician. He served as minister of infrastructure and transport between 28 April 2013 and 20 March 2015. Early life and education Lupi was born in Milan, Italy, on 3 October 1959. He has ...

and several regional councillors in

Veneto Veneto, officially the Region of Veneto, is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northeast Italy, north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of 4,851,851 as of 2025. Venice is t ...

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

and

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

left the party to form the Christian Democrats for Freedom, which was later merged into Forza Italia. In February 1999 the UDR split between supporters of Cossiga, who formed the Union for the Republic (UpR), and the supporters of Mastella, who formed the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEur). In the event, Buttiglione re-established the CDU as an independent party and started a rapprochement with Berlusconi. In the

1999 European Parliament election The 1999 European Parliament election was a European election for all 626 members of the European Parliament held across the 15 European Union member states on 10, 11 and 13 June 1999. The voter turn-out was generally low, except in Belgium and ...

the CDU obtained 2.2% and two MEPs, Buttiglione and Vitaliano Gemelli. In the 2001 general election it formed an electoral alliance with CCD, known as the White Flower, gaining 3.2% of the vote. Following the election, Buttiglione was appointed Minister of European Affairs in Berlusconi II Cabinet. In December 2002 the CDU, the CCD and European Democracy (2.3% in 2001) were merged into the

Union of Christian and Centre Democrats The Union of the Centre (, 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. Lorenzo Cesa is the part ...

(UDC), of which Buttiglione was elected president, an office he would hold for twelve years.

Electoral results

Italian Parliament

European Parliament

Leadership

*Secretary: Rocco Buttiglione (1995–2002) *President: Roberto Formigoni (1995–1998), Mario Tassone (1998–2002)

References

{{Authority control Political parties established in 1995 Political parties disestablished in 2002 Christian democratic parties in Italy Centrist parties in Italy Defunct Christian political parties Catholic political parties Defunct political parties in Italy 1995 establishments in Italy 2002 disestablishments in Italy