Popular Unity (, UP) was a short-lived

social-democratic Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, socia ...

and

social-liberal Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited ...

and

political party in Italy This is a list of political parties in Italy since Italian unification in 1861. Throughout history, numerous political parties have been operating in Italy. Since World War II no party has ever gained enough support to govern alone; thus, partie ...

. Its leaders were Piero Calamandrei, a Democratic Socialist, and

Ferruccio Parri Ferruccio Parri (; 19 January 1890 – 8 December 1981) was an Italian partisan and anti-fascist politician who served as the 29th Prime Minister of Italy, and the first to be appointed after the end of World War II. During the war, he was also ...

, a Republican and former

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

History

Popular Unity was formed in April 1953 by disgruntled members of the

Italian Democratic Socialist Party The Italian Democratic Socialist Party (, PSDI), also known as Italian Social Democratic Party, was a social-democratic political party in Italy. The longest serving partner in government for Christian Democracy, the PSDI was an important for ...

(PSDI) and the

Italian Republican Party The Italian Republican Party (, PRI) is a political party in Italy established in 1895, which makes it the oldest political party still active in the country. The PRI identifies with 19th-century classical radicalism, as well as Mazzinianism, a ...

(PRI), who again did not agree with the new electoral law. Three different parties came together in Popular Unity: *Socialist Autonomy Movement (''Movimento di Autonomia Socialista''), officially established on 1 February 1953 in

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

, on the initiative of the ex-social democrats Piero Calamandrei, Tristano Codignola and Antonio Greppi; *Union of Republican Rebirth (''Unione di Rinascita Repubblicana''), established on 8 December 1952 by a group of left-wing dissidents of the Italian Republican Party, led by Oliviero Zuccarini and Marcello Morante and to which, subsequently,

had joined; *Justice and Freedom (''Giustizia e Libertà''), a political organization established on 18 January 1953 by the writer Carlo Cassola, taking up the name of the homonymous anti-fascist movement of

Carlo Rosselli Carlo Alberto Rosselli (16 November 18999 June 1937) was an Italian political leader, journalist, historian, philosopher and anti-fascist activist, first in Italy and then abroad. He developed a theory of reformist, non-Marxist socialism inspir ...

. The party won 0.6% of the vote in the 1953 general election and, along with the like-minded

National Democratic Alliance The National Democratic Alliance (NDA; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrīya Lokatāntrik Gaṭhabandhan'') is an Indian big tent Political group, multi-party political alliance, led by the country's biggest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...

, prevented the governing coalition from passing the 50% and getting the majority bonus (two thirds of the seats 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 Bourb ...

). The party was active until 1957. After that, some of its members joined the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Social democracy, social democratic and Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parti ...

, but most of them returned to their former parties.

References

{{Historical Italian political parties 1953 establishments in Italy Political parties established in 1953 Political parties disestablished in 1957 Defunct political parties in Italy Defunct social democratic parties in Italy 1957 disestablishments in Italy Liberal parties in Italy