Democracy is Freedom - Daisy
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| Democracy is Freedom - Daisy Democrazia è libertà - La Margherita | |
|---|---|
 Italian National Party | |
| Leader | Francesco Rutelli |
| Founded | March 24, 2002 |
| Headquarters | Via Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, 16 00187 Rome |
| Coalition | The Union |
| Political ideology | Centrism, Christian democracy, Social liberalism, Social democracy |
| European affiliation | European Democratic Party |
| International affiliation | none |
| Official newspaper | Europa |
| Website | http://www.margheritaonline.it |
| See also | Politics of Italy |
Democracy is Freedom - Daisy (full name in Italian: Democrazia è Libertà - La Margherita, DL) is a centrist political Party in Italy.
Contents |
[edit] Origin and Members
Originally a coalition of three parties, Italian People's Party led by Pierluigi Castagnetti), The Democrats (led by Arturo Parisi) and Italian Renewal (led by Lamberto Dini), it ran for its first time in 2001 as an alliance and part of the Olive Tree Coalition. Soon after the General Elections, the constituting parties merged into one.
DL is formed by former Christian Democrats and centrists, mainly from the old Italian People's Party (but also including Liberals and Republicans), as well as more leftist politicians, especially former Socialists and Greens.
[edit] Factions
The Daisy is mainly composed by four factions, the first three of them supporting Francesco Rutelli's leadership:
- Rutelli's followers (Rutelliani): the Rutelli's own group, is composed of Paolo Gentiloni, Roberto Giacchetti, Ermete Realacci, Gianni Vernetti and Renzo Lusetti.
- Teo-dem: this is a group of conservative christian-democrats, formed by Enzo Carra, Paola Binetti and Luigi Bobba. These support Rutelli as leader of the party.
- Popolari: the core of the former Italian People's Party (a leftish christian-democratic party), as Franco Marini, Ciriaco De Mita, Pierluigi Castagnetti, Gerardo Bianco, Nicola Mancino, Enrico Letta, Dario Franceschini, Giuseppe Fioroni and Rosy Bindi. This group supports Rutelli as leader of the party, although there are some differences about the future Democratic Party with DS.
- Prodi's followers (Prodiani): the core of the former Democrats, as Arturo Parisi, Marina Magistrelli, Enzo Bianco, Willer Bordon and Antonio Maccanico. This group is the most supportive of Democratic Party's project and tend to be more secular.
[edit] Relevant members by former political adherence
Former Christian Democrats: Gerardo Bianco, Rosy Bindi, Enzo Carra, Pierluigi Castagnetti, Luigi Cocilovo, Sergio D'Antoni, Ciriaco De Mita, Giuseppe Fioroni, Dario Franceschini, Enrico Letta, Renzo Lusetti, Nicola Mancino, Franco Marini, Sergio Mattarella, Lapo Pistelli, Vittorio Prodi, Rosa Russo Jervolino, Patrizia Toia
Former Socialists: Laura Fincato, Giuseppe La Ganga, Linda Lanzillotta, Enrico Manca, Pierluigi Mantini, Tiziano Treu
Former Social-Democrats: Franco Bruno, Sandro Gozi, Santino Adamo Loddo, Andrea Papini, Graziano Pini, Italo Tanoni, Stefano Zara
Former Liberals: Cinzia Dato, Natale D'Amico, Lamberto Dini, Andrea Marcucci, Valerio Zanone
Former Republicans: Enzo Bianco, Ettore Liguori,Antonio Maccanico, Roberto Manzione, Elio Rostagno
Former Radicals: Francesco Rutelli (then switched to the Greens), Roberto Giachetti
Former Greens: Khaled Fouad Allam, Paolo Gentiloni, Francesco Ferrante, Franco Piro, Ermete Realacci, Francesco Rutelli, Gianni Vernetti
Former Communists: Willer Bordon, Massimo Cacciari, Maurizio Fistarol, Antonio La Forgia, Antonio Polito
[edit] Party and ideology
The party president and leader is Francesco Rutelli, former Mayor of Rome and former centre-left candidate for Prime Minister at the 2001 General Elections.
They are a pro-European centrist-liberal party. Although part of the Olive Tree, which is usually associated with the centre-left, the Democrats were a member of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party, while the Italian People's Party was a member of the European People's Party. After the 2004 European elections the merged party decided not to become a member of either the ELDR or the EPP, but formed together with the French UDF the European Democratic Party. In the European Parliament the Margherita joined the group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
[edit] Last developments
In June 2005 DL decided by majority they will no longer join the Olive Tree coalition at the next General Election, to be held in 2006, but they would form a separate list, as in 2006.
The party's decision triggered major controversy, with rumours of divisions inside the party itself, also worsened by Rutelli's indication of "no-vote" at the referenda on artificial insemination held on 12-13 June. In Italy, for the result of a referendum to be legally binding, a 50% turnout is strictly necessary. As such, Rutelli's decision was considered instrumental for the referenda to collapse. The vote was seen by some as a test over the kind of political weight carried by the Vatican in the Italian political life.
However in October 2005, after the spectacular success of Romano Prodi at the coalition primaries for candidate prime-minister, DL decided to come back into the Olive Tree list.
[edit] 2006 elections
In the 9-10 April 2006 general elections, the party was member of the winning The Union (L'Unione) and won 39 out of 315 senators. The Olive Tree list won 220 out of 630 deputies.
[edit] Leadership
- President: Francesco Rutelli (2001-...)
- President of the Federal Assembly: Arturo Parisi (2001-06), Willer Bordon (2006-...)
- Executive Coordinator: Dario Franceschini (2001-006, Antonello Soro (2006-...)
- Organizational Secretary: Franco Marini (2001-06), Nicodemo Nazzareno Oliviero (2006-...)
- Party Leader at the Italian Chamber of Deputies: Pierluigi Castagnetti (2002-2006), Dario Franceschini (leader of the Olive Tree's group, 2006-...)
- Party Leader at the Italian Senate: Willer Bordon (2002-2006), Luigi Zanda (deputy-leader of the Olive Tree's group, 2006-...)
- Party Leader at the European Parliament: Lapo Pistelli (2004-...)
[edit] See also
- Christian democracy
- Liberalism
- Social Democracy
- Contributions to liberal theory
- Liberalism worldwide
- List of liberal parties
- Liberal democracy
- Liberalism and radicalism in Italy
- Centrism
es:La Margarita fr:La Margherita gl:A Margarida it:Democrazia è Libertà - La Margherita nl:La Margherita ja:マルゲリータ (政党) sv:La Margherita
