Partito Repubblicano Italiano

Partito Repubblicano Italiano
Party executive	Corrado De Rinaldis Saponaro (Segretario)
founding	April 12, 1895
ideology	Liberalism Left Liberalism
European party	ELDR (until 2010)
MPs	0/630
Senators	0/315
MEPs	0/76
Headquarters	Rome , Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 326
Party newspaper	La Voce Repubblicana
Website	partitorepubblicanoitaliano.it

The Partito Repubblicano Italiano (PRI, Republican Party of Italy) is a liberal party in Italy .

From the foundation to 1945

It was founded in Bologna in 1895 . Its founders referred to the ideas of the Republicans Giuseppe Mazzini , Carlo Cattaneo and Aurelio Saffi . At the time, the PRI was considered extreme left because it rejected the monarchy. The party's first secretary was Giuseppe Gaudenzi . In the elections from 1897 to 1909, in which census suffrage existed, i.e. H. Only a small class of upper-class men was allowed to vote, the PRI received around 5% of the vote and between 24 and 29 of the total of 508 parliamentary seats.

During the First World War, she was represented for the first time in the government of national unity from 1915 to 1917. In the interwar period, the party lost its importance with the introduction of universal male suffrage and the emergence of socialist, Catholic and fascist parties. It fell back to 1–2% of the vote and 4–7 seats. It was banned under Benito Mussolini . It was re-established after the end of World War II .

First republic

In the election of the Constituent Assembly in 1946 , it received over a million votes (4.4%) and 23 of the 556 seats. In the simultaneous referendum on the form of government, she naturally spoke out in favor of the republic. During the “First Republic” (1946–94) there were two liberal parties in the Italian parliament: In contrast to the Partito Liberale Italiano (PLI), which represented more economically liberal positions, the PRI was more center-left or socially liberal .

The PRI was involved in numerous Italian governments from 1946 to 1952 and from 1962, mostly in center-left coalitions led by the Christian Democrats (Centro-sinistra Organico) . Important representatives of the PRI at this time were Carlo Sforza (Foreign Minister 1947-51, campaigned for Italy's accession to NATO and the Coal and Steel Union ), Oronzo Reale (Minister of Justice 1963-68, 1970-71 and 1974-76, then constitutional judge) and Ugo La Malfa (Minister of Finance 1962–63 and 1973–74, Deputy Prime Minister 1974–76 and 1979). In the mid-1970s, the PRI had over 100,000 members. Until then, the PRI was the smaller of the two liberal parties. Then, however, the PLI lost much of its popularity, while the PRI's share of the vote increased significantly in the course of the 1970s and 80s under the leadership of Giovanni Spadolini and Ugo La Malfa's son Giorgio . At the same time, the PRI switched to a more economically liberal course and enjoyed stronger relationships with the employers ' association Confindustria .

From 1981 the PRI was an integral part of the five-party block Pentapartito (the other four were DC, PSI, PSDI, PLI). With Giovanni Spadolini, she even provided the Prime Minister from 1981 to 1982. The PRI received its best result in the 1983 general election , in which it received around 5% of the vote and 39 seats in parliament.

As one of the five established governing parties, the PRI was hit by the Tangentopoli corruption scandal in 1992 . The number of members and voters then fell rapidly. Since then it has regularly recorded a share of the vote of less than one percent.

Second republic

After the reform of the electoral law (1993), the PRI was initially on the side of the center-left alliance L'Ulivo around Romano Prodi , but in 2001 turned to the Casa delle Libertà around Silvio Berlusconi . As a result of this change of direction, the Movimento Repubblicani Europei (MRE), which remained part of the Ulivo , split off . In 2011 the two parties reunited.

In the 1999 European elections , the Republicans joined forces with the PLI ; in the 2004 European elections they were allied with the right-wing liberal Vittorio Sgarbi . The PRI has not been represented in parliament since the 2013 parliamentary elections , in which the party entered the Scelta Civica lists . The party only has a few mandates at the local level.

Footnotes

1. ↑ http://www.partitorepubblicanoitaliano.it/new/html/storia/storia.asp# > Tra la fine '800 e inizio' 900
2. ^ Mark Donovan: The fate of the secular center. The Liberals, Republicans and Social Democrats. In: Stephen Gundle, Simon Parker: The New Italian Republic. From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to Berlusconi. Routledge, London / New York 1996, pp. 99-109, at p. 102.