The Federalists and Liberal Democrats ( it, Federalisti e Liberaldemocratici, FLD) was a liberal and

federalist The term ''federalist'' describes several political beliefs around the world. It may also refer to the concept of parties, whose members or supporters called themselves ''Federalists''. History Europe federation In Europe, proponents of de ...

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 ideological or p ...

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 ...

, founded in 1994 as a

parliamentary group A parliamentary group, parliamentary party, or parliamentary caucus is a group consisting of some members of the same political party or electoral fusion of parties in a legislative assembly such as a parliament or a city council. Parliame ...

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 Res ...

. The bulk of FLD was renamed Liberal Federalists (''Federalisti Liberali'', FL) in 1996.

History

Foundation

The FLD was founded on 19 December 1994 as a parliamentary group within the Chamber of Deputies by twelve dissident members from the

Northern League Northern League may refer to: Sport Baseball * Northern League (baseball, 1902–71), a name used by several minor leagues that operated in the upper midwestern U.S. and Manitoba from 1902 to 1971 * Northern League (baseball, 1993–2010), an indep ...

(LN), four members of

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), two members of the Liberal Democratic Foundation (

Alberto Michelini Alberto Michelini (born 25 July 1941) is an Italian journalist and politician, former Deputy and Member of the European Parliament. Biography Michelini began his journalistic career in the late 1970s as a host and special correspondent for the ...

and Giuseppe Siciliani),

Raffaele Costa Raffaele Costa (born 8 September 1936 in Mondovì) is an Italian politician. He was the President of the Province of Cuneo, from June 2004 to June 2009. He was previously a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies representing the Italian Libe ...

(leader of the Union of the Centre and

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental health. Coun ...

) and

Pietro Cerullo Pietro is an Italian masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: People * Pietro I Candiano (c. 842–887), briefly the 16th Doge of Venice * Pietro Tribuno (died 912), 17th Doge of Venice, from 887 to his death * Pietro II Ca ...

(a member of the Southern Action League). The group was launched in order to continue to support

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 f ...

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

, which was would be brought down by Northern League leader

Umberto Bossi Umberto Bossi (born 19 September 1941) is an Italian politician and former leader of Lega Nord (Northern League), a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy or Padania. He is married to the Sicilian Manuela Marrone, and has f ...

three days after. A group of LN dissidents wanted to continue the alliance with FI. They included

Franco Rocchetta Franco Rocchetta (born Venice, 12 April 1947) is an Italian politician, entrepreneur, philologist and history populariser, who is usually described as the "father" of present-day Venetian nationalism and independentism. Early life and politic ...

(founder and long-standing leader of the Venetian League, LV),

Marilena Marin Marilena Marin (born 24 July 1947) is an Italian Venetist politician. A native of Conegliano, she was a founding member of Liga Veneta in 1978–1980 and, after a party purge in 1984, she was elected national secretary of the party replacing Ach ...

(secretary of the LV from 1984 to 1994),

Lucio Malan Lucio Malan (born 30 July 1960) is an Italian politician. Malan was born in Luserna San Giovanni, Turin. In 1983 he graduated in Literature at the University of Turin. Lucio Malan is member of the People of Freedom Party. From 1994 to 1996 he ...

Furio Gubetti Furio may refer to: * Furio (given name), including a list of people with the name * Furio (surname), including a list of people with the name * Falcomposite Furio, a kit-plane See also * Furios (disambiguation) * Furiosa (disambiguation) * ...

and

Gualberto Niccolini Gualberto is a given name and surname of Italian origin. Notable people with this name include: Surname * Flávio Gualberto (born 1993), Brazilian volleyball player * João Bosco Gualberto de Freitas, also known Biro-Biro (footballer, born 1974) ...

(president of the Northern League Tuscany from 1988). In February 1995 Michelini left FLD and lead his party, the "Liberal Catholics", into FI.

Further organisation

On 31 May 1995 FLD's assembly approved a "programatic political manifesto" through which the group structured itself. FLD, whose main ideologies were

federalism Federalism is a combined or compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) with regional governments ( provincial, state, cantonal, territorial, or other sub-unit governments) in a single ...

and

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostilit ...

, aimed at transforming Italy into a federal presidential republic and the adoption of an electoral system based on

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast the ...

. Gubetti handed to Costa the role of party leader in the Chamber and took the formal leadership of the party. In the same year FLD participated in some

local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct v ...

together with the Federalist Italian League (formed by LN dissidents led by

Sergio Cappelli Sergio may refer to: * Sergio (given name), for people with the given name Sergio * Sergio (carbonado), the largest rough diamond ever found * ''Sergio'' (album), a 1994 album by Sergio Blass * ''Sergio'' (2009 film), a documentary film * ''Se ...

) and the

Federalist Union The Federalist Party (''Partito Federalista'') was a federalist Italian political party. It was founded as Federalist Union (''Unione Federalista'') on 1 June 1994 by Gianfranco Miglio, an influent Senator and political scientist who left the ...

(launched by

Gianfranco Miglio Gianfranco Miglio (11 January 1918 – 10 August 2001) was an Italian jurist, political scientist, and politician, founder of the Federalist Party. For thirty years, he presided over the political science faculty of Milan's Università Cattoli ...

, formerly LN "ideologue") under the "Federalists" banner, in coalition with the

Pole for Freedoms The Pole for Freedoms ( it, Polo per le Libertà) was a centre-right political and electoral alliance in Italy, which was active from 1996 to 2000. It included Forza Italia (FI), the National Alliance (AN), Union of the Centre (UdC), Christian De ...

. In July 1995 Gubetti left FLD to join FI, citing disagreements over FLD's slight distancing from the Pole.

Liberal Federalists

At the end of 1995 it was announced that the FLD would be transformed into a full-fledged political party, the Union for the New Republic (UNR); finally, in February 1996, the FLD leading members established the Liberal Federalists (FL). The new party, allied with the FI-led Pole, had the elephant as a symbol, referring to the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa * Republican Party (Liberia) *Republican Party ...

. Costa, Cerullo and Luigi Negri were respectively appointed secretary, president and coordinator of the new party. In the

1996 Italian general election The 1996 Italian general election was held on 21 April 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. Romano Prodi, leader of the centre-left The Olive Tree, won the election, narrowly defeating Silvio Berl ...

(Chamber of Deputies) the FL obtained 6,475 votes (0.02%) among party lists (having fielded a list only in the Sicily 1 constituency) and 11,563 votes (0.03%) for first-past-the-post candidates (having fielded only three candidates in three constituencies of Sicily 1). However, some outgoing members were re-elected in first-past-the-post constituencies for the Pole and joined FI parliamentary groups: Costa, Negri, Malan, Gubbetti, Niccolini, Umberto Giovine, Paolo Mammola, Mario Masiero and Giuseppe Rossetto. During the 1995–2000 legislature of the Regional Council of

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

the FL had two members, who were also affiliated to National Alliance (AN).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Federalists And Liberal Democrats 1994 establishments in Italy 1996 disestablishments in Italy Defunct political parties in Italy Federalist parties in Italy Liberal parties in Italy Political parties disestablished in 1996 Political parties established in 1994 Regionalist parties in Italy