I Democratici

I Democratici per l'Ulivo (The Democrats for the Olive Tree) or I Democratici (The Democrats) were an Italian political party that existed from February 1999 to March 2002. It was founded by Romano Prodi with the aim of bringing together the groups and parties of the center and left center. The party chose the donkey as a symbol, adopted by the Democratic Party of the USA. Their orientation was partly social-liberal, partly Christian-social and decidedly pro-European. She belonged to the European Liberal, Democratic and Reform Party (ELDR).

history

Party founder Romano Prodi

I Democratici were a merger of several small parties: the social-liberal Unione Democratica , the anti-mafia party La Rete from Leoluca Orlando , which had green and Christian-social elements, and the populist anti-corruption party Italia dei Valori of the prosecutor Antonio Di. Pietro . The Movimento per l'Ulivo , consisting of committees of non-party Prodi supporters (Comitati Prodi) , and the Centocittà network of mayors of the center-left camp, e.g. B. added the mayors of Rome and Venice, Francesco Rutelli and Massimo Cacciari . All of these parties and groups supported the then incumbent center-left government of the L'Ulivo alliance under Massimo D'Alema .

The founding chairman was Romano Prodi, but after his election as EU Commission President he handed over the chairmanship to Arturo Parisi . In the European elections in June 1999 , I Democratici received 7.7% of the vote, which corresponds to 6 of the 87 Italian seats in the European Parliament. Your MEPs joined the liberal ELDR group . At the beginning of 2000, Parisi proposed to the Democratici di Sinistra ("Left Democrats") a merger to form a large center-left party, which, however, met with rejection. The idea was only put into practice seven years later in the form of the Partito Democratico . Antonio Di Pietro and his Italia dei Valori party left I Democratici (and the center-left as a whole) in a dispute in June 2000.

For the 2001 parliamentary elections , I Democratici formed a joint list with the Christian Democratic Partito Popolare Italiano (PPI), the liberal reform party Rinnovamento Italiano (RI) of the financial expert and former transitional premier Lamberto Dini and the Christian Democratic splinter party UDEUR under the name La Margherita ("The Marguerite") ). Their top candidate was Francesco Rutelli, who was also the prime minister of the broad center-left alliance L'Ulivo. La Margherita received 14.5% of the vote, overall the center-left lost the election and went into opposition to the second government of Silvio Berlusconi .

I Democratici, PPI and RI merged in March 2002 to form the Democrazia è Libertà - La Margherita party led by Rutelli. This in turn went up in 2007 with the left-wing Democrats in the center-left rallying party Partito Democratico.

Web links

Commons : I Democratici - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Michele Simone: Il Primo Congresso dei Democratici di Sinistra. In: La Civiltà cattolica , issue 3591, February 5, 2000, pp. 280–289, at pp. 285, 287.
^ Stefan Köppl: The political system of Italy. An introduction. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007, p. 83.
^ ^A ^b Reimut Zohlnhöfer The party system in Italy. In: Oskar Niedermayer u. a .: The party systems of Western Europe. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, pp. 275-298, on p. 288.

[1] Michele Simone: Il Primo Congresso dei Democratici di Sinistra. In: La Civiltà cattolica , issue 3591, February 5, 2000, pp. 280–289, at pp. 285, 287.

[2] Stefan Köppl: The political system of Italy. An introduction. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007, p. 83.

[Zohlnhöfer06_288-3] A ^b Reimut Zohlnhöfer The party system in Italy. In: Oskar Niedermayer u. a .: The party systems of Western Europe. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, pp. 275-298, on p. 288.