Union of the Centre

Union of the Centre
Leader	Pier Ferdinando Casini
Coordinator	Savino Pezzotta
Founded	28 February 2008
Headquarters	via Due Macelli, 66 00187 Rome
Newspaper	none
Ideology	Christian democracy, Social conservatism
International affiliation	Centrist Democrat International
European affiliation	European People's Party
European Parliament Group	European People's Party
Coalition	none
Website
http://www.udc-italia.it/
Politics of Italy Political parties Elections

The Union of the Centre (Unione di Centro, UdC) is a mainly christian-democratic coalition of parties in Italy. Its leaders are Pier Ferdinando Casini, Lorenzo Cesa and Savino Pezzotta.

Its main component is the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC), but several minor and regional parties are affiliated: the Populars – Daisy, South, the White Rose, the Liberal Clubs, Protagonists for Christian Europe, the Party of Christian Democracy (PdDC), Christian Democratic Party (PDC), Veneto for the European People's Party (VPPE), the Democratic Populars (PD) and the Autonomist Democrats (AD)

History

UdC was formed for the 2008 general election by an initiative of Pier Ferdinando Casini, leader of UDC. In the run-up of the election Ciriaco De Mita, former leader of Christian Democracy and later member of the Democratic Party (PD) joined UdC and was a candidate for the Senate.^[1]

In the election UdC won 5.6% of the vote, 36 deputies (all but four members of UDC) and 3 senators. Soon after the election Mario Baccini, one of the leaders of the White Rose, surprisingly joined The People of Freedom (PdL)^[2], making the future of the alliance uncertain.

However, soon after the election, Casini re-launched his plan for a new "centrist" party, alternative both to the PdL and the PD. This is what he calls the "party of the nation", open to all the "centrists", the "Christian democrats", the "liberals" and the "reformers", even if he presents it as a party based on Christian values, as opposed both to the PD and the PdL, that, despite being a centre-right party too, includes also socially-liberal factions and people.^[3][4][5]

The new party, which will be the transformation of UdC into a party, will emerge by 2010. Casini has long criticized the PdL for not being "Catholic" enough, particularly criticizing Silvio Berlusconi, who once spoke of "anarchy of values" in describing the catch-all nature of the PdL^[6], and Gianfranco Fini, who is known for his socially liberal stance on stem-cell research, abortion and right-to-die issues^[7], and explicitly wooed the "Christian democrats of the PD" to join him.^[8] For now only Pierluigi Mantini^[9][10] and Lorenzo Ria, two centrist Democrats formerly close to Francesco Rutelli, had joined UdC.

Two UdC conventions, in April and September 2009, registered the participation of Domenico Fisichella ("inventor" of National Alliance), Adriana Poli Bortone (leader of South), Magdi Allam (leader of Protagonists for Christian Europe), Andrea Riccardi (founder of the Community of Sant'Egidio), representatives of minor parties such as the Italian Democratic Socialist Party and the Italian Liberal Party, and of the parties that have already joined UdC, as well as Gianfranco Fini and Francesco Rutelli.^{[11][12][13][14]}

In the 2009 European Parliament election UdC won 6.5% of the vote and five of its candidates were elected to the European Parliament, including Magdi Allam and Ciriaco De Mita. In the forthcoming regional elections of March 2010 UdC, while not joining any of the two major coalitions at the national level, will make alliances either with the centre-right or the centre-left (or stand alone) in the different regions, depending on local conditions.^[15]

Popular support

The electoral results of the Union of the Centre, previously known as Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, in the 10 most populated Regions of Italy are shown in the table below. As UDC was founded in 2002, the electoral results from 1994 to 2001 refer to the combined result of the precursor parties.

The Christian Democratic Centre (CCD) and the United Christian Democrats (CDU) formed joint-lists with Forza Italia respectively in 1994 (general) and 1995 (regional). The results of 1995 (regional) refer to CCD alone, those of 1996 (general) to the CCD-CDU joint-list, those of 1996 (Sicilian regional), 1999 (European) and 2000 (regional) to the combined result of CCD and CDU, those of 2001 (general) to the combined result of the CCD-CDU joint-list and of European Democracy (DE), which formed a separate list, that of 2001 (Sicilian regional) to the combined results of CCD, CDU and DE.

Since 2004 (European) the results refer to UDC. The 2006 (Sicilian regional) refers to the combined result of UDC (13.0) and of L'Aquilone–Lista del Presidente (5.7%), personal list of UDC regional leader Salvatore Cuffaro. The elected members of this list were all UDC members.

Leadership

• Coordinator: Savino Pezzotta (2008–...)

References

v • d • e Political parties in Italy (in 2007, historical parties) Major The People of Freedom – Democratic Party Medium Lega Nord – Italy of Values – Union of Christian and Centre Democrats/Union of the Centre Minor Alliance for Italy – Movement for Autonomies – Italian Radicals – Communist Refoundation Party – Party of Italian Communists – Left and Freedom (Movement for the Left – Democratic Left) – Federation of the Greens – Italian Socialist Party – Italian Republican Party – European Republicans Movement – Liberal Democrats – Alliance of the Centre – Italian Liberal Party – UDEUR Populars – The Right – Tricolour Flame – Workers' Communist Party – Associative Movement Italians Abroad Regional Valdotanian Union – Edelweiss Aosta Valley – Autonomist Federation – Valdotanian Renewal – Lively Aosta Valley – Moderates for Piedmont – South Tyrolean People's Party – The Libertarians – South Tyrolean Freedom – Union for Trentino – Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party – North-East Project – South – Sardinian Reformers – Sardinian Action Party – Sardinian Democratic Union List of political parties in Italy - Politics of Italy