Deia Lorelle S.

Uba HUMSS 12 D

EUROPEAN POLITICAL PARTIES

1. Democratic Party

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

The Democratic Party  is a social-democratic political party in Italy. The Democratic

Party (PD) is relatively young, founded in late 2007 as a merger of various centre-left parties,
including former Communists and former Christian Democrats. Chief among them were the
Democrats of the Left and the Democracy is Freedom - The Daisy. 

Like Italy's other major parties, the reason the PD was only formed quite recently is due to a
massive corruption trial known as Mani Pulite (Clean Hands), which rocked Italian politics in the
early 1990s by uncovering bribes and graft.

By the time it had run its course, 3,000 people had been arrested and half of the country's
lawmakers had been indicted, bringing an end to Italy's First Republic, which had seen a series of
centrist and centre-left coalitions, and paving the way for the creation of new parties.

Since 2013, Italy has been led by a PD government - and the party runs the majority of the
country's regional councils too.

IDEOLOGY

The ideology of the Democratic Party can be hard to pin down due to the party's broad
nature, but is inspired by social democracy. As the name suggests, it draws inspiration from the
American Democratic Party: ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was one of Barack Obama's
closest international allies, and the party's first ever leader, Walter Veltroni, has been described
as 'Italy's Obama'.

The PD is pro-Europe and has traditionally had a liberal attitude towards migration, though as
Italy has come under increasing pressure from the ongoing wave of migration to Europe, its
leaders have promoted stricter immigration policies.
 2. Forza Italia

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

Forza Italia translated to "Forward Italy" or "Let's Go Italy", known also by its

acronym FI is a centre-right political party in Italy whose ideology includes elements of liberal
conservatism, Christian democracy, and liberalism. Its leader is Silvio Berlusconi, former Prime
Minister of Italy (1994–1995, 2001–2006, 2008–2011).

The first thing to know about FI is that it was launched in its current form in late 2013, but first
existed between 1994-2009. There are some key differences between the two incarnations of the
party, most notably that the current FI is much smaller, due to several splits and break-away
movements.

The original Forza Italia was a centre-right party founded by Silvio Berlusconi in 1993. It burst
onto the political scene as a fresh new voice, taking advantage of a moment of crisis following
the Mani Pulite investigation which had uncovered corruption in most of Italy’s main parties at
the time.

Berlusconi launched a centre-right alliance in 2007, the People of Freedom (PdL), which became
a full political party two years later and governed in coalition with the Northern League. But in
2013, that party was dissolved following a vote, and the new Forza Italia was born. 

IDEOLOGY

FI is centre-right and the party today is more liberal than the earlier Forza Italia, as some
of the more rightwing and conservative factions formed separate parties. But FI is still very
diverse, encompassing multiple factions. The party's own constitution says it is based on "the
ideals of liberal democratic, liberal Catholic, secular and reformist European traditions".

The party is much more pro-EU than its coalition allies in the 2018 election, and belongs to the
European People's Party. It also supports close relations with both Russia – Berlusconi and
Russian President Vladimir Putin are old friends – and the United States.

It's pro-business, which is no surprise given Berlusconi's background as a media magnate, and is
supportive of low tax rates for business-owners and the wealthy. And it's recently taken a swing
to the right on migration, with the party leader pledging to deport 600,000 illegal immigrants
from the country if successful in the election, and to block new arrivals.