Partito Popolare Italiano (1919)
The Partito Popolare Italiano (PPI, Italian People's Party) was a Catholic people 's party in Italy that existed from 1919 to 1926. Its founder and most important leader was the priest Don Luigi Sturzo .
prehistory
Until 1912, the Kingdom of Italy had a census suffrage that allowed only a small minority of aristocratic and upper-class men to vote. In addition, the 1874 of Pope Pius IX was valid . issued bull Non expedit (“It is not appropriate”), which forbade religious Catholics in the Italian nation-state to vote because the latter had annexed the papal state and abolished ecclesiastical privileges. That is why the political system was dominated by secular-liberal notables parties until 1912 . In 1909 Pope Pius X relaxed the ban on political participation for Catholics in an apostolic letter motu proprio , whereupon Count Vincenzo Gentiloni first founded the Unione Elettorale Cattolica Italiana (UECI) in 1909 as a loose association of Catholic politicians.
The introduction of universal suffrage for men of age during Giovanni Giolitti's government initially strengthened the socialists . To counter this, the UECI concluded the so-called patto Gentiloni with the liberal party of the prime minister for the first election held under the new law in 1913 . Catholic politicians then called on their clientele to elect liberal candidates, on condition that they agree to a catalog of seven demands (including religious instruction in state schools, rejection of the legalization of divorce). With this Catholic support, the liberals became the strongest force by far ahead of the socialists.
Foundation and development
After the end of the First World War, the Partito Popolare Italiano was founded in Rome on January 18, 1919, on the initiative of the Sicilian priest Luigi Sturzo. Its founding manifesto was headed Appello ai liberi e forti (“Appeal to the free and strong”) and was largely shaped by Catholic social doctrine , as justified by the papal encyclical Rerum novarum . However, it wanted to be an autonomous, non-denominational people's party and not a clerical party of the Catholic Church. In particular, she advocated intact families, proportional representation and women's suffrage, decentralization in favor of the regions , freedom of association , progressive taxation , freedom of the church and teaching, disarmament and the League of Nations . She also called for the creation of a welfare state . The PPI brought together both conservative and left-wing Catholics. It had the strongest support from small self-employed farmers and tenants in northern and central Italy. Pope Benedict XV approved this establishment and finally lifted the non-expedit of participation in the parliamentary elections in November 1919 . With 20.5% of the vote and 100 of the 508 seats, the PPI became the second strongest force behind the socialists.
In the spring of 1920 the PPI had about 250,000 members. In June of the same year she entered the last government under Giolitti, which remained in office for a little over a year. When the liberals called on all non-socialist forces (including the fascists Benito Mussolini ) to form a “national bloc” in the early election of 1921 , the PPI did not take part. Although she was an opponent of socialist anti-clericalism, she also rejected the totalitarianism of the fascists. With 20.4% of the vote and 108 seats, she defended her position in this election. She was then represented in the government of the moderate social democrat Ivanoe Bonomi . A decision to exclude any cooperation with the fascists was rejected at the 3rd party congress of the PPI; their danger was underestimated by a large part of the party.
Under fascist rule
After the march on Rome and Mussolini's appointment as Prime Minister in October 1922, the leadership of the Catholic Church endeavored to maintain a good relationship with its government, in the sense of reconciliation with the state (which in the medium term led to the conclusion of the Lateran Treaty in 1929). The PPI initially worked with two ministers in Mussolini's government. The PPI parliamentary group leader Alcide De Gasperi advocated a "conditional cooperation" with Mussolini. A new electoral law, the legge Acerbo of November 1923, which was supposed to secure two thirds of the parliamentary seats for the strongest party - if it received at least 25% of the vote - split the party. Most of their MPs abstained and a minority voted in favor. Don Sturzo, who firmly opposed fascism, increasingly appeared to be a hindrance to the Vatican, which was keen to maintain good relations with Mussolini. He was urged to resign from the party chairmanship and even went into exile in 1924.
In the new election taking place in March 1924 under the new suffrage, the remaining core of the PPI, led by De Gasperi, consciously positioned itself to be anti-fascist. However, their share of the vote collapsed to 9.0%, the number of their parliamentary seats even to 39, making them still the most important opposition party. The fascist-led “National List” dominated with over 60%. After the socialist MP Giacomo Matteotti , who had accused the fascists in parliament of electoral fraud, was murdered by black shirts , the PPI boycotted parliamentary work. When their MPs tried to resume their seats in the Chamber of Deputies in January 1926, they were forced out by the fascists. In November 1926 the party was banned. However, its members did not attempt to actively resist in the period that followed and were not persecuted by the fascist regime.
heritage
Former members of the PPI were instrumental in founding the Democrazia Cristiana (DC), the new Catholic collective party, in December 1942 , which was the dominant party in the Italian Republic until the early 1990s. In 1994 the DC was renamed Partito Popolare Italiano again, referring to the historical predecessor party.
literature
- Gabriele De Rosa: Il Partito popolare italiano. Laterza, Rome / Bari 1988.
- Tiziana di Maio: Between the Crisis of the Liberal State, Fascism and a Democratic Perspective. The Partito Popolare Italiano 1919–1926. In: Christian Democracy in Europe in the 20th Century. Böhlau, Vienna 2001, pp. 122–142.
Individual evidence
- ^ Reimut Zohlnhöfer: The party system of Italy. In: The party systems of Western Europe. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, pp. 275-298, on p. 276.
- ^ A b Helena Dawes: Catholic Women's Movements in Liberal and Fascist Italy. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke (Hampshire) / New York 2014, pp. 17-18.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Mark F. Gilbert, K. Robert Nilsson: Historical Dictionary of Modern Italy. Scarecrow Press, Lanham (MD) / Plymouth 2007, pp. 328-329, entry Partito Popolare Italiano
- ^ A b Helena Dawes: Catholic Women's Movements in Liberal and Fascist Italy. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke (Hampshire) / New York 2014, pp. 20–21.