Union of Christian and Centre Democrats

The Unione dei Cristiani e di Centro Democratici ( Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, UDC ) is a Christian democratic party of the center in Italy.

Formation

The UDC was created in 2002 from the merger of the company founded in 1994 Centro Cristiano Democratico (CCD) by Pier Ferdinando Casini and its 1995 brief break Cristiani Democratici Uniti (CDU ) by Rocco Buttiglione. Also the smaller Democrazia Europea be involved in the merger. All three were born from the Christian Democrats, which by the end of the war until its collapse after the Enlightenment extensive corruption involvement ( " Mani pulite " ) in the early 1990s, Italy was the strongest party.

Marco Follini the CCD was National Secretary, Buttiglione of the CDU party president. The UDC immediately joined in the Berlusconi government, which had already listened to their predecessor parties. Buttiglione and Carlo Giovanardi (CCD) were ministers. However, the actual leaders and candidate of the party ( " Leader" ) since its inception Pier Ferdinando Casini, who held the office of President of the Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2006.

The coat of arms of the party is the red cross on a white background - the same symbol of the Christian Democrats, which expresses the closeness to the Catholic Church, their newspaper is Noi Press. The UDC is a member of the European People's Party and the Christian Democratic International.

Spin-offs

The UDC is often affected by these spin-offs, which is not uncommon in Italy. Thus, the Christian Democrats emerged among former members of substantial participation in 2005 by le autonomy and the Movimento per l' Autonomia, which are still remained in the center-right coalition.

Marco Follini, who was already in 2005 due to the government policy resigned as National Secretary and replaced by Lorenzo Cesa, the party left after the parliamentary elections in order - along with two other deputies - to start the new party Italia di Mezzo, which is at the center left- leaning alliance and is eventually absorbed into the Partito Democratico.

Carlo Giovanardi and other party members also left the UDC, to join the new center-right party Popolo della Libertà.

Election results

CCD and CDU were begun in 2001 as a joint list Bianco Fiore within Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition Casa delle Libertà and had won 3.2% of the vote and 40 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 29 in the Senate.

In the European elections of 2004, the Union reached 5.9 % and was able to send five delegates to the Group of the European People's Party. Despite the defeat of the center-right coalition in the parliamentary elections of 2006, the UDC was set to 6.8 %. However, due to the new electoral law, they had only 39 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 20 in the Senate.

In the parliamentary elections on 13 and 14 April 2008, the UDC acted as Unione di Centro along with the Pink per l' Italia, reaching a vote share of 5.6 percent, making it the largest non-affiliated party in a coalition and fourth largest parliamentary faction is.

At regional and local elections, they compete in different alliances. While with the Northern League and PDL ruled together in Friuli- Venezia Giulia, it is not taken up in the state elections in Trentino to support the autonomist center-left candidate Lorenzo Dellai. In Abruzzo the UDC, however, is taken up in a non-aligned list of UDEUR.