Italian People's Party (1994)

For the party with the same name which was active from 1919 to 1926, see Italian People's Party (1919).

Italian People's Party Partito Popolare Italiano
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Former Leaders	Mino Martinazzoli, Rosa Russo Jervolino, Franco Marini, Ciriaco De Mita
Founded	22 January 1994
Dissolved	6 December 2002
Preceded by	Christian Democracy
Merged into	The Daisy
Newspaper	Il Popolo
Ideology	Christian democracy Christian left Centrism
Political position	Centre-left
National affiliation	Pact for Italy (1994) The Olive Tree (1995–2002)
European affiliation	European People's Party
International affiliation	Christian Democrat International
European Parliament group	European People's Party
Politics of Italy Political parties Elections

The Italian People's Party (Italian: Partito Popolare Italianocode: it is deprecated , PPI) was a Christian democratic, centrist, and progressive Catholic political party in Italy.

The successor of Christian Democracy, the PPI was a member of the European People's Party. In December 2002 the PPI merged into Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy, later which formed the Democratic Party in 2007.

History

The party emerged as the successor to Christian Democracy (DC) in January 1994 following the final National Congress of DC, prior to the right-wing faction lead by Pier Ferdinando Casini splitting to form the Christian Democratic Centre. The first secretary of the PPI was Mino Martinazzoli, replaced by Rocco Buttiglione in June, after that the party was soundly defeated in the 1994 general election by both the centre-right and the centre-left, gaining only the 11.1%, as part of the centrist alliance Pact for Italy.

In 1995, when Buttiglione's proposal to join the centre-right Pole of Freedoms coalition (composed of Forza Italia, the National Alliance and the Christian Democratic Centre) was rejected by the party's National Council, the outgoing secretary, along with Roberto Formigoni and Gianfranco Rotondi, formed the United Christian Democrats, leaving the PPI in the hands of the leftist factions of the late DC.

For the 1996 general election the party formed the Populars for Prodi list with the Democratic Union, the Italian Republican Party and the South Tyrolean People's Party. The Populars for Prodi list was part of The Olive Tree, a broad centre-left coalition, and won 6.8% of the vote. The PPI was represented in Romano Prodi's first government by three ministers: Beniamino Andreatta was Minister of Defense, Rosy Bindi Minister of Health and Michele Pinto Minister of Agriculture.

In the 1999 European Parliament election the PPI was damaged by the competition from The Democrats (Dem), a centrist and social-liberal party launched by Romano Prodi: the PPI won only 4.3% of the vote, while The Democrats took the 7.7%.

For the 2001 general election the PPI formed an electoral alliance with The Democrats, the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR) and Lamberto Dini's Italian Renewal (RI). The alliance won 14.5% of vote. In January 2002 the PPI finally chose to merge into the new centrist party, called Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL), along with The Democrats and Italian Renewal. The PPI was transformed in a think tank: The Populars (I Popolari). In October 2007, Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy merged into the Democratic Party, within which The Populars became an internal faction.

Electoral results

Italian Parliament

Chamber of Deputies
Election year	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of overall seats won	+/–	Leader
1994	4,287,172 (#4)	11.1	33 / 630	–	Mino Martinazzoli
1996	2,554,072 (#6)	6.8	67 / 630	34	Franco Marini

Senate of the Republic
Election year	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of overall seats won	+/–	Leader
1994	5,526,090 (#4)	16.7	34 / 315	–	Mino Martinazzoli
1996	with Ulivo (#1)	–	31 / 315	3	Franco Marini

European Parliament

European Parliament
Election year	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of overall seats won	+/–	Leader
1994	3,295,337 (#4)	10.0	8 / 87	–	Mino Martinazzoli
1999	1,316,830 (#8)	4.2	4 / 87	4	Ciriaco De Mita

Leadership

• Secretary: Mino Martinazzoli (1994), Rocco Buttiglione (1994–1995), Gerardo Bianco (1995–1997), Franco Marini (1997–1999), Pierluigi Castagnetti (1999–2002)
  • Deputy Secretary: Enrico Letta (1997–1998), Dario Franceschini (1997–1999)
  • Coordinator: Dario Franceschini (1997–1999), Lapo Pistelli (1999–2002)
• President: Rosa Russo Jervolino (1994), Giovanni Bianchi (1994–1997), Gerardo Bianco (1997–1999)

• Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: Beniamino Andreatta (1994–1996), Antonello Soro (1996–2001)
• Party Leader in the Senate: Nicola Mancino (1994–1996), Leopoldo Elia (1996–2001)
• Party Leader in the European Parliament: Pierluigi Castagnetti (1994–1999), Guido Bodrato (1999–2004)