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Forza Italia (Go Italy) is an Italian populist party. It is headed by Silvio Berlusconi, twice Prime Minister of Italy. It is a strongly personality-driven party, founded in December 1993 and winning the elections already in March 1994. It is currently the main member of the House of Freedoms coalition, and is considered (by itself and outsiders) to be very different from other Italian political parties. Its headquarters are located in Rome.

History

Forza Italia was formed in 1993 by Silvio Berlusconi, a successful businessman and owner of all the main private television stations in Italy, along with Antonio Martino, Mario Valducci, Antonio Tajani, Marcello Dell'Utri, Cesare Previti and Giuliano Urbani. A few months after its creation, Forza Italia came to national power in the 1994 elections as the head of a political coalition called Polo delle Libertà, but fell when the northern separatist Northern League left the coalition.

In 1999 Forza Italy gained full membership of the European People's Party, of which Antonio Tajani is currently Vice President.

It regained power in the 2001 elections (29.4% with Giorgio La Malfa's Italian Republican Party), with the League's support in a new coalition called Casa delle Libertà (House of Freedoms). Occasionally, Forza Italia has surpassed 30% of votes (as in the 1994 elections for the European parliament), but presently (as of 2005) its base of support consists of about one-sixth of the electorate.

In the regional elections of April 2005, it received 18.5% of the vote. The party remains strong in the northern regions, such as Lombardy and Veneto, and in the South, where Sicily is a stronghold.

In the general election of April 2006, the party will be present with a slightly different logo, with the words "Berlusconi presidente" (Berlusconi president). It will be the only party to use the word "president" in its logo.

In Chamber of Deputies, FI got 9,039,585 votes (23.71%) and 137 seats. In Senate, FI got 78 seats (8,201,688 votes, i.e 24.01%)

Party ideology and factions

Forza Italia is a centre-right party, member of the European People's Party, formed mainly by ex-Christian Democrats, ex-Liberals and ex-Socialists. The ideology of the party ranges from Conservative Libertarianism to Christian Social-Democracy; the party presents itself as the party of renewal and modernization.

The preamble to the party's statute says that "it is a liberal party although not an elistist one, indeed a popular liberal-democratic party; it is a Catholic party although not a confessional one; it is a secular party, although not an intolerant and secularist one; it is a national party, although not a centralist one". Forza Italia's "Who we are" and Forza Italia's official statute

The party has also non-Catholic members, but they are a minority, a smaller one compared to the secular members of German CDU (in which there also prominent Jews) or Dutch CDA. In any case the party usually gives to its members freedom of conscience on moral matters (and hence a free vote), as in the case of the referendum on stem-cell research, but even Silvio Berlusconi, Giulio Tremonti and Marcello Pera (who is himself non-Catholic, although friend of Pope Benedict XVI) spoke in favour of abstaining (as asked by the Catholic Church).

Forza Italia claims at the same time to be a fresh-new party, with no ties with the last governments of the so-called First Republic and to be the heir of the best political traditions of Italy: a Christian-Democrat as Alcide De Gasperi, a Social-Democrat as Giuseppe Saragat, a Liberal as Luigi Einaudi and a Republican as Ugo La Malfa are cited in the preamble of the party's constitution as party icons.

Membership

Most members of the party are former Christian Democrats: Giuseppe Pisanu (former member of the leftish faction of DC and former minister of Interior), Roberto Formigoni (president of Lombardy, the richest region of Italy) and Claudio Scajola (former minister of Industry) are only three examples.

Many members are former Socialists, like Giulio Tremonti (former minister of Economy), Franco Frattini (Vice President of the European Commission), Renato Brunetta (leading European MP) and Fabrizio Cicchitto (vice-coordinator of the party). Berlusconi himself was a close friend of Bettino Craxi, leader of Italian Socialist Party, in spite of his Christian-Democratic and Liberal background (he was a DC's activist in 1948 elections).

Many are former Liberals, Republicans and Social-Democrats: two former leaders of the Italian Liberal Party (Alfredo Biondi, now president of Forza Italia's National Council, and Raffaele Costa) and the former leader of the Italian Socialist Democratic Party (Carlo Vizzini) are all Forza Italia's parlamentarians.

Even some former Communists are leading members of the party, like Sandro Bondi (national coordinator of Forza Italia) and Ferdinando Adornato (chairman of the Constituent Assembly for the Party of Moderates and Reformers, the party in which Forza Italia, AN and UDC will possibly merge in 2006).

Political origin of Forza Italia leading members

See also List of Forza Italia leading members by political origin

Most of Forza Italia's leading figures are from the Christian Democracy, with many others numbers from the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian Liberal Party. Minor numbers come from the Italian Democratic Socialist Party, the Italian Republican Party (itself an ally of Forza Italia in the House of Freedoms), the Italian Radicals. A few figures come from the Italian Communist Party, the Northern League and the Italian Social Movement.

Internal structure

Forza Italia has a president (currently Silvio Berlusconi), a vice-president (Giulio Tremonti), a Presidential Committee (Comitato di Presidenza), led by Claudio Scajola, and a National Council, led by Alfredo Biondi. Moreover it has thematic departments and regional, provincial or metropolitan coordination boards plus a lot of affiliate clubs (Club Azzurro) all over Italy. On at least one occasion, Berlusconi used his own financial means to pay debts accumulated by the party, drawing criticism from other political forces about the party being too closely related to one person only.

It is claimed that Forza Italia has no internal democracy, because there is no way of changing the leader of the party from below. Instead, key posts in the party structure are appointed by Berlusconi or his delegates. Party conventions normally do not have elections to choose the party leadership, but are more like events arranged for propaganda purposes. However, Berlusconi is highly popular among his party fellows, and it is unlikely he could be overthrown if such an election were to occur.

Leading members

Party leadership

Distinctive traits

Since its birth, Forza Italia has been using means unconventional for Italian politics. It is heavily dependent on Berlusconi's image, the party anthem is sung in karaoke fashion at American-style conventions, there is nominally no internal opposition, and it used TV advertising extensively, although this has been severely restricted since 2000 by a law passed by the then centre-left majority.

Polemics about supposedly racist statements

In August 2005 Marcello Pera, Speaker of the Italian Senate and a member of Forza Italia, was harshly criticised for saying (at a meeting of Comunione e Liberazione) Italy risked becoming an "hybrid of cultures" (the Italian word is "meticciato") because of immigration. Pera is well known for his criticisms of multiculturalist views and relativist theories. Many prominent members of Forza Italia, like for example the Minister of Interiors Giuseppe Pisanu, distanced themselves from Pera's statements.

On September 2005, Forza Italia MP Guido Crosetto, a member of the House Finance Committee, claimed that Bank of Italy Governor Antonio Fazio, involved in a controversial banking takeover probe, was the victim of a "Jewish, masonic plot". Crosetto said that he had been misunderstood and that the accuse of antisemitism had been the worst of his long-time political carrer (he had been member of the Christian Democracy party). Also Berlusconi apologized for Crosetto's anti-semitic comments but denied racist charges claiming that "nobody can doubt the party's liberal nature" and that "Italian Government is one of Israel's best friends".

Berlusconi himself was accused of racism when he declared that Western civilization is "superior" to Islam (he claimed that he was referring to the economic development and the respect of human rights).

In any case it is clear that no other Italian government before has been more pro-Israel than the Berlusconi's one (something often criticized by the left from Fausto Bertinotti to Massimo D'Alema, but recently defended by Francesco Rutelli), so that this government has even declared its favour to the project of the Israel security-barrier. Important members of the Rome Jewish Community, as the spokesman Riccardo Pacifici, back Berlusconi's party. Besides Forza Italia and its allies had been strong advocates of putting the reference to "Jewish and Christian roots" in the European Constitution.

Berlusconi has also very good relations with Muslim leaders and he is a close friend of some of them, like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Berlusconi has been one of the witnesses of Erdoğan's son at his wedding). Forza Italia is strongly in favour of Turkey's admission to the European Union, differently from other European christian-democratic parties like the German CDU and the French UMP.

2006 elections

In the 9-10 April 2006 general elections, the party was member of the defeated House of Freedoms and won 79 out of 315 senators and 138 out of 630 deputies.

External links

Notes

  1. The name is not usually translated into English: forza means "force" or "strength", while Italia is Italy. The party's name seems to originate from a football chant with the meaning "Forward(s) Italy!", but it is not to forget that this was also the slogan of Christian Democracy in 1987 elections. See article body for details.

Conservative parties | Political parties in Italy | 1993 establishments

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