Forza Italia

The party was founded in December 1993 and won its first election soon afterwards in March 1994. It is currently the main member of the House of Freedoms coalition, and is considered (by both itself and outsiders) to be very different from other Italian political parties.

Occasionally, Forza Italia has surpassed 30% of votes (as in the 1994 European Parliament election), but presently its base of support consists of about one-quarter of the electorate.

History

Foundation (1993–1994)

Italy was shaken by a series of corruption scandals known as Tangentopoli and the subsequent police investigation, called Mani pulite.

This led to the disappearance of the five parties which governed Italy from 1947: DC, PSI, PSDI, PLI and PRI (they formed a successful five-party coalition called Pentapartito from 1983 to 1991, and then governed without PRI from 1991 to 1994) and to the end of the so-called First Republic.

Forza Italia's aim was to attract moderate voters who were "disoriented, politically orphans and which risked to be unrepresented" (as Berlusconi described them), especially if the ex-Communist Democratic Party of the Left was to win the next election and enter in government for the first time since 1947.

A short stint in power (1994–1995)

Silvio Berlusconi was sworn in in May 1994 as prime minister of Italy in a government in which the most important cabinet posts were held by fellow FI's members: Antonio Martino was foreign minister, Cesare Previti defence minister, Alfredo Biondi justice minister and Giulio Tremonti (at the time an independent member of Parliament) finance minister.

The government had a short life and fell in December, when the Lega Nord left the coalition, after disagreements over pension reform and the first avviso di garanzia for Berlusconi, passed by Milan prosecutors. Forza Italia's leader was replaced as prime minister by Lamberto Dini, an independent politician who had been his tresury minister. No members of Forza Italia joined the new government and the party led was relegated to opposition.

Five years of opposition (1996–2001)

In 1996 the Pole of Freedoms finally lost the elections and began what Berlusconi called "the crossing of desert", something that could have been proven fatal for a young and unstructured party such as Forza Italia. Between 1996 and 1998, the party started to strengthen its organization, under Claudio Scajola, a former Christian Democrat who was national coordinator of the party from 1996 to 2001.

Five years in government (2001–2006)

In June 2001, after the huge success in May elections, Sivio Berlusconi was returned head of the Italian government, the longest-serving cabinet in Italian Republican history. Again all ministerial key-posts were given to Forza Italia members: interior (Claudio Scajola 2001-02, Giuseppe Pisanu 2002-06), defence (Antonio Martino 2001-06), finance (Giulio Tremonti, 2001-04 and 2005-06), industry (Antonio Marzano 2001-05, Claudio Scajola 2005-06) and foreign affairs (Franco Frattini, 2002-04). Anyway Gianfranco Fini, National Alliance's leader, was appointed vice-president of the government and foreign minister from 2004 to 2006, while Roberto Castelli, senior figure of Lega Nord was justice minister from 2001 to 2006.

Regional elections in April 2005 were a serious blow for the party, which however remained strong in the northern regions, such as Lombardy and Veneto, and somewhere in the South, where Sicily is a stronghold. After this disappointing electoral performance the cabinet was reshuffled, due to the insistence of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats's leaders, and Berlusconi formed his III cabinet (May 2005 - May 2006).

During his five years in office, Berlusconi passed through Parliament passed a pension system reform, a labour-market reform, a judiciary reform and a constitutional reform, then rejected by a referendum in June 2006. In foreign policy he shifted the country's position to more closeness to the United States, while in economic policy he was not able to deliver all the tax-cuts he had openely promised throughout all 2001 electoral campaign.

Road to a new party (2006–present)

In the April 2006 general election, the party was present with a slightly different logo, with the words "Berlusconi President" (Berlusconi Presidente). It was the only party to use the word "President" in its logo. In the election for the Chamber of Deputies, FI scored 23.7% and 137 seats, in those for the Senate 24.0%, without counting Trentino-Alto Adige, whose seats were contested on first-past-the-post basis and which is a left-wing stronghold, due to its alliance with the autonomist South Tyrolean People's Party).

On 31 July 2007 Berlusconi's protegee and possible successor Michela Vittoria Brambilla registered the name and the logo of the Freedom Party apparently with Berlusconi's backing and the goal of merging various centre-right allies of Berlusconi's into one big party.

After the sudden fall of Prodi II Cabinet on 24 January, the break up of The Union coalition and the subsequent political crisis which lead to a fresh general election, Berlusconi hinted on 25 January that Forza Italia would have probably contested its last election and the new party will be officially founded only after that election. In an atmosphere of reconciliation with Gianfranco Fini, Berlusconi also stated that the new party could see the participation of other parties.¹¹ Finally, on 8 February, Berlusconi and Fini agreed to form a joint list under the banner of the "Freedom People", allied with Lega Nord.¹²

Ideology

Forza Italia is a centre-right party, formed mainly by ex-Christian Democrats, ex-Liberals and ex-Socialists. The ideology of the party ranges from Libertarianism to Social democracy (the so-called "liberal socialism"), including elements of the Catholic social teaching and of social market economy¹³; the party presents itself as the party of renewal and modernization. It is a member of the European People's Party (EPP). The core values of the party are "freedom" and the "centrality of the individual".⁴ From a comparative perspective the ideology of Forza Italia has been characterized as both "liberal conservative"²³¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸, "national conservative"¹⁹ and "liberal".⁵

Alessandro Campi has recently written that "the political culture of Forza Italia – a curious and, on many respects, untold mixture of "liberalism" and "democratic populism" – deserves to be described as an "anti-ideologic ideology", [...] as a sinthesis or fusion of very diverse political families and traditions (from liberal Catholicism to social conservatism, from reformist socialism to economic liberalism), kept together by the mobilizing appeal to "freedom"".⁴ Chiara Moroni, who explains Forza Italia's ideology as a mixture of liberal, christian-democratic and social-democratic values (united in the concept of "popular liberalism" in party documents), writes that "Berlusconi has offered to voters liberal values through a populist style" and that in this way "Forza Italia has made the liberal political ideal popular" among voters, so that "it was spread and shared by broad and heterogenous sectors of the Italian population".⁴

In fact the electoral base of Forza Italia is higly heterogeneous and the ideological differences among its voters are explained also by its different regional constituencies: while voters from the North tend to support the original liberatarian line of the party, voters from the South tend to be more statist.²⁰ Both its Northern strongholds (Lombardy, Veneto) and its Southern strongholds (Sicily, Apulia) were once dominated by the Christian Democracy party, but, while in the South most leading members of Forza Italia are former Christian Democrats, the party was highly influenced also by liberals in the North.²¹

The "Secular Creed", which is also the preable to the party's constitution, describes the party in this way:

Forza Italia thus presents itself as the bridge between Catholics and non-Catholics, who have been previously divided in the political system of the so-called First Republic, and "the union of three political-cultural areas: that of liberal and popular Catholicism, that of secular, liberal and republican humanism and that of liberal socialism".¹³ In a speech during a congress of the party in 1998, Berlusconi himself proclaimed: "our liberal vision of the State is perfectly in agreement with the Catholic social teaching".²⁴

The "Secular Creed" of the party explains that FI is a party which primarily underlines freedom and the centrality of the individual, which are basic principles of both liberalism²⁵ and the Catholic social teaching²⁶, often connected in party official documents:

The party has also non-Catholic members, but they are a minority, and it is less secular in its policies than German Christian Democratic Union²⁹ (in which there are also prominent Jews³⁰). The party usually gives to its members freedom of conscience on moral issues (and hence a free vote), as in the case of the referendum on stem-cell research³¹, but leading members of the party, including Silvio Berlusconi³² and Marcello Pera³³ (who is himself non-Catholic, although friend of Pope Benedict XVI), spoke in favour of "abstention"(as asked by the Catholic Church³⁴, in order to not surpass the 50% of turnout needed for making the referendum legally binding). While Pera campaigned hard for the success of the boycott alongside with most FI members, both Berlusconi explicitly said that "abstention" was their personal opinion, not the official one of the party.

Members

Even some former Communists are leading members of the party, such as national party coordinator Sandro Bondi.

Factions

Members of Forza Italia are divided in factions, which are sometimes mutable and formed over the most important political issues, despite previous party allegiances. However it is possible to distinguish some patterns. The party is divided basically over ethical (between social-conservatives and progressives), economic (between social-democrats and some Christian-democrats on one side and liberals on the other one) and institutional issues.

Regarding the latter issue, generally speaking, northern party members are staunch proposers of political, fiscal federalism and autonomy for the Regions (in some parts of Veneto and Lombardy, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish a member of FI from a leghista), while those coming from the South are more cold on the issue. Also some former Liberals, due to their role of unifiers of Italy in the XIX Century, are more centralist.

Christian-democrats and liberal-centrists are undoubtedly the strongest factions within the party, but all four are main-stream for a special issue: for example liberals and liberal-centrists are highly influential over economic policy, Christian-democrats lead the party over ethical issues (although there is a substantial minority promoting a more progressive outlook), while social-democrats have their say in defining the party's policy over labour market reform and, moreover, it is thanks to this group (and to those around Tremonti, he himself a former Socialist) that constitutional reform is at the top of Forza Italia's political agenda. It is difficult to say to what faction Berlusconi is closer, what is sure is that his political record is a synthesis of all the political tendencies within the party.

Internal structure

As the President is the leader of the party, a national coordinator (currently Sandro Bondi) is in charge of internal organization and day-to-day political activity, similarly to the secretary general in many European parties. Moreover the party has thematic departments and regional, provincial or metropolitan coordination boards plus a lot of affiliate clubs (Club Azzurro) all over Italy.

It is claimed that Forza Italia has no internal democracy, because it is thought that there is no way of changing the leader of the party from below (although the party's constitution makes it possible). Key posts in the party structure are appointed by Berlusconi or by his delegates. Forza Italia's organization is based on the idea of a "party of the elected people", giving more imortance to the whole electorate than to party's members.

Party national-level conventions normally do not have elections to choose the party leadership (although the National Congress elects some members of the National Council), and they seem to be more like events arranged for propaganda purposes. However, Berlusconi is highly popular among his party fellows, and it is unlikely he could be overthrown if such an election were to occur.

Some changes to party's structure will be decided soon, as many in FI think (from Senators Paolo Guzzanti and Marcello Dell'Utri, who was previously ostile to changes, which, in his mind, would have dramatically subverted FI's original soul as a fresh-new party ³⁵, Claudio Scajola and most former Christian Democrats to Sandro Bondi himself) that it needs a more capillarly-based organization, in order to make partecipate as much people as possible, and a more collegial, partecipative and democratic decision-making.

Distinctive traits

Since birth, Forza Italia has been using means unconventional for European politics (indeed, they resemble the American model more), such as stickering, sms messaging and mass mailing of propaganda material, including the biography of its leader Berlusconi, "An Italian story" (Una storia italiana).

It is heavily dependent on Berlusconi's image, the party's anthem is sung in karaoke fashion at American-style conventions, there is nominally no internal opposition (althrough some critical voices are raising up, as those of Senators Paolo Guzzanti and Raffaele Iannuzzi), and it used TV advertising extensively, although this has been slightly restricted since 2000 by a law passed by the then centre-left majority.

Popular support

Leadership

External links

References

^ http://www.forzaitalia.it/notizie/arc_11544.htm
^ ^a ^b partis politiques italiens
^ ^a ^b Intute: Social Sciences - Full record details for Forza Italia
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Chiara Moroni, Da Forza Italia al Popolo della Libertà, Carocci, Rome 2008
^ ^a ^b Oreste Massari, I partiti politici nelle democrazie contempoiranee, Laterza, Rome-Bari 2004
^ The name is not usually translated into English: forza means "force" or "strength", while Italia is Italy. The party's name seems originates from a common expression used by sports fans during sports events such as the Olympic Games, and especially by supporters of the Italian national football team, meaning "Forward(s) Italy!", but it is not to forget that this was also the slogan of Christian Democracy in 1987 general election (see Giovanni Baccarin, Che fine ha fatto la DC?, Gregoriana, Padova 2000). See article body for details.
^ http://www.ansa.it/opencms/export/site/notizie/rubriche/daassociare/visualizza_new.html_65041167.html
^ Sky tg24 - Tutte le notizie in formato video
^ «Oggi nasce il partito del popolo italiano». Corriere della Sera
^ http://www.ansa.it/opencms/export/site/visualizza_fdg.html_65043240.html
^ «Via l'Ici e stretta sulle intercettazioni» Corriere della Sera
^ Svolta di Berlusconi, arriva il Pdl: "Forza Italia-An sotto stesso simbolo" - LASTAMPA.it
^ ^a ^b ^c copertina860x280.qxd
^ http://books.google.it/books?id=dJujgAT1s8AC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=forza+italia+conservative-liberal&source=web&ots=NdSjgaPpzt&sig=tkO3KIEIdjqQFPQXtb41x_C6JxA&hl=it
^ European politics
^ http://www.parties-and-elections.de/italy.html Retrieved on 2-5-2008
^ http://books.google.it/books?id=e3J9Wjrh1KAC&pg=PA260&lpg=PA260&dq=Forza+Italia+liberal-conservative&source=web&ots=MicFSEMIuR&sig=kZK_66EBuFqAnKp0-mu6AdqP_tM&hl=it
^ What is Italy's National Alliance?
^ Mair, Peter; Laver, Michael; Gallagher, Michael (2001), Representative Government in Modern Europe, Bosten: McGraw Hill, ISBN 0-07-118095-8
^ Donatella Campus, L'anti-politica al governo. De Gaulle, Reagan, Berlusconi, Il Mulino, Bologna 2007
^ Ilvo Diamanti, Bianco, rosso, verde... e azzurro. Mappe e colori dell'Italia politica, Il Mulino, Bologna 2003
^ credo
^ http://www.forzaitalia.it/speciali/statutoforzaitalia04.pdf
^ Berlusconi, Silvio, L'Italia che ho in mente, Mondadori, Milan 2000, pp. 122-123
^ liberalism. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-2008
^ Compendio della Dottrina Sociale della Chiesa
^ credo
^ Berlusconi, via alle tre riforme «Facciamo una politica di sinistra» - Corriere della Sera
^ Eunomia » Merkel’s CDU Fared Worse Than Expected
^ Michael Friedman
^ Fecondazione, divisi i vertici di Forza Italia
^ Berlusconi: la Margherita venga con noi moderati
^ Pera e la difesa dell' astensione, scontro tra i poli
^ Fecondazione, Ruini chiama all' astensione
^ The central idea was the so-called "light party" (partito leggero), intended to be different from Italian traditional, bureaucratic and self-referential, party machines.
^ Forza Italia failed to present a list.
^ Combined result of Forza Italia (17.8%) and La Puglia prima di tutto (9.0%), personal list of FI regional leader Raffaele Fitto.

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