Liberi e Uguali

Liberi e Uguali
Party leader	Pietro Grasso
founding	October 14, 2017 (emerged from: Articolo 1 - Movimento Democratico e Progressista , Sinistra Italiana and Possibile )
ideology	Social Democracy Democratic Socialism Ecology
MPs	14/630
Senators	4/320
MEPs	0/73
Website	www.liberieuguali.it

Liberi e Uguali (German "the free and equal", LeU ) was a left-wing party alliance in Italy . It was founded on December 3, 2017 by the parties Articolo 1 - Movimento Democratico e Progressista , Sinistra Italiana and Possibile . The coalition's lead candidate for the parliamentary elections in March 2018 was Pietro Grasso , former President of the Senate and former anti-Mafia investigator.

The three founding parties have since left the alliance, so that it has been de facto dissolved since April 2019. However, there is still a parliamentary group of Liberi e Uguali in the House of Representatives and a corresponding subgroup of the mixed parliamentary group in the Senate.

history

Emergence

Since Matteo Renzi was elected chairman of the Partito Democratico as representative of the center-leaning wing, the party has been plagued by internal disputes between the vast majority of the Renziani and the party's left wing. They criticized Renzi's leadership style, the economic and social policy of his government (2014-2016) and his proposed constitutional reform, which was ultimately rejected in a constitutional referendum in December 2016.

After the split from Possibile and Futuro a Sinistra , Enrico Rossi , chairman of the Socialisti Democratici movement and president of the Tuscany region , and Roberto Speranza , chairman of the Area Reformista movement and former chairman of the PD group in the House of Representatives, became the spokesmen of the PD internal left . They were supported by former prime minister Massimo D'Alema , former party leader and top candidate for the 2013 parliamentary election, Pier Luigi Bersani and former party leader and union official Guglielmo Epifani . Rossi and Speranza's criticism of Renzi's numerous reform projects was initially also supported by Michele Emiliano , the then regional president of Apulia .

In February 2017 the dissidents - with the exception of Emilianos, who stayed in the PD and challenged Renzi in vain in the election of the party leader in February 2017 - resigned and founded Articolo 1 - Movimento Democratico e Progressista . Some members of the new Sinistra Italiana party, which had emerged only a month earlier from Sinistra Ecologia Libertà , Futuro a Sinistra and smaller left groups, also joined under the leadership of Arturo Scotto .

Electoral participation

In the parliamentary elections in March 2018, the Liberi e Uguali won 3.4% (House of Representatives) and 3.3% (Senate) of the vote. This gave them 14 of the 630 seats in the lower house and 4 of 315 in the upper house of parliament. In the Camera dei deputati, the LeU could thus form its own parliamentary group, chaired by Federico Fornaro , in the Senato only a sub-group of the “mixed parliamentary group” with Loredana De Petris as chairman. In the regional elections in March and April 2018 in Friuli-Venezia Giulia , Lazio , Lombardy and Molise , LeU received between 2 and 3.5%, which was achieved in one seat each in the regional parliaments of Lazio and Friuli (none in the other two regions) resulted.

Pietro Grasso's plan to transform the party alliance into a unified party after the elections met with opposition. The Possibile party already left the project in May 2018. In autumn 2018, Sinistra Italiana and Articolo 1 and the project also slowed down. Grasso declared that he would nevertheless proceed with founding the party. In the regional elections in February 2019, the Liberi e Uguali joined together again: in Abruzzo they were unsuccessful with 2.8%, in Sardinia they got two seats on the regional council with 3.9%.

resolution

In the run-up to the European elections in May 2019 , the parties involved then took different paths: The Sinistra Italiana formed the La Sinistra list with the left wing parties PRC and L'Altra Europa ; Possibile and South Tyrolean Greens joined the Europa Verde alliance ; Articolo 1 made an arrangement with its "mother party" Partito Democratico. The electoral alliance is thus dissolved. None of the groups made it into the European Parliament. The faction or group of Liberi e Uguali in the Italian Parliament still exists.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ La contro-assemblea di Emiliano, Rossi e Speranza: "Insieme sabato a Roma". La minoranza andrà da Renzi domenica . 15th February 2017.
2. ^ Pd, la minoranza sfida Renzi. Guerini ribatte: "Ultimatum non ricevibili" . 18th February 2017.
3. ↑ "Sinistra Italiana nasce scissa, Fratoianni verso l'incoronazione as leader:" Con Renzi porte chiuse " .
4. ^ "Sinistra Italiana, a Rimini il battesimo del nuovo partito" .
5. ^ "La sinistra dalla questione morale a quella nominale" .
6. ↑ Maurizio Ribechini: Liberi e uguali, la base va avanti nonostante i partiti e lancia il processo costituente. In: Blastingpop , November 4, 2018.