Union of the Centre (2008)

The Unione di Centro ( UDC; German: Union of center) is an Italian Coalition Party, which was first formed in advance of the parliamentary elections in 2008 as a joint election list of Christian Democratic and centrist groupings. In it, the following shall seek after the elections, a final union as a party official and authoritative political center to:

• The Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e di Centro Democratici (UDC ) by Pier Ferdinando Casini,
• The split-off of the UDC per l' Italia Pink led by Savino Pezzotta, Bruno Tabacci and Mario Baccini,
• The Coordinamento popolari - Margherita di Centro per la Costituente led by Ciriaco De Mita,
• The Partito Socialista Democratico Italiano ( PSDI ) by Mimmo Magistro,
• The Partito Democratico Cristiano (PDC ) by Gianni Prandini,
• Various other small parties and political groupings.

History

The essential core of the formation is the reunion of UDC and Rosa Bianca had on 28 February 2008, after the latter just 20 days earlier separated from the former in protest against Casini's rapprochement with Silvio Berlusconi's center-right alliance CdL and announced an independent course the middle. When it two weeks later, however, came to a recent break between Casini and Berlusconi, especially the optional provisions laid a rapid re- combination, the fractious party wing near: Overcoming the blocking clauses (4% for election to the Chamber of Deputies and 8% to the Senate ) is valid for both forces secured only with a unified office as quarto polo ( " fourth pole " in addition to PdL, PD and Sinistra Arcobaleno - ) as. Common top candidate is Casini, while Savino Pezzotta to be elected at the party's official founding chairman ( segretario ). Immediately after the negotiated compromise, further groupings and personalities joined the list, including former Italian Prime Minister Ciriaco De Mita.

On 14 April 2008 the UDC received in elections to the Chamber of Deputies 5.6 % of the votes and thus created the collection with 36 deputies, while her collection with the three senators succeeded in the Senate elections with 5.7% only in the region Sicily - there they received 8.7 % of votes. In the formation of a government by Berlusconi's new right alliance, however, the new formation does not play a decisive role, as the PdL has with its partners ( Lega Nord and Movimento per l' Autonomia ) has a sufficient own majority.

On 3 / 4 April 2009 a joint congress of the member parties decided to establish a common party. For this purpose, first a coordinating body to Costituente di Centro was founded, the common positions to draft. For the European elections in Italy in 2009, the UDC took up with a joint election list, reaching five mandates. Over the next few years also several prominent politicians of PdL and PD announced their conversion to the UDC. In addition, various small parties and political groups declared their participation in the Constituente. In mid-2010, however, there were also internal conflicts, as a group of members of the UDC leadership accused to put in opposition to Berlusconi too far to the left. Therefore, in September 2010 it came to the elimination of the group I and Popular Italia di Domani.

From the end of 2010, the cooperation between the UDC and other centrist parties intensified, especially the National Alliance per l' Italia (the removal of the PD), the Futuro e Libertà per l' Italia (the elimination of the PdL ) and the Movimento per l' Autonomia. Together with other small parties they founded in January 2011, the Nuovo Polo per l' Italia (initially as Polo della Nazione referred to colloquially often called Terzo Polo), an informal body to coordinate the voting behavior of the fractions in the Italian Parliament.