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With theItalian unification in 1861, numerous political parties began operating as part ofItalian politics. SinceWorld War II, no party has ever gained enough support to govern alone, thus parties formpolitical alliances andcoalition governments. Coalitions of parties for regional elections can be slightly different from those for general elections due to different regional conditions (for instance, theDemocratic Party and theFive Star Movement are in coalition but not in otherItalian regions, and the same applies to the Democratic Party and the formerThird Pole) and the presence of several regional parties, some of which active only at regional level.
In the2022 Italian general election, four groupings obtained most of the votes and most of the seats in the two houses of theItalian Parliament: thecentre-right coalition composed ofBrothers of Italy,Lega,Forza Italia, and minor allies; thecentre-left coalition composed of the Democratic Party and minor allies; the populist Five Star Movement; and the liberalAction –Italia Viva (also known as the Third Pole).
The first modern political party in Italy was theItalian Socialist Party, established in 1892.[1] Until then, the main political groupings of the country, theHistorical Right and theHistorical Left, were not classifiable as parties but represented simple groups of notables, each with their own electoral fiefdom, that joined together according to their own ideas.[2] From time to time, in the context of theHistorical Far Left, other parties emerged: theItalian Republican Party, established in 1895;[3] and theItalian Radical Party, established in 1904.[4]
The Italian Socialist Party envisaged itself as amass party, a form of party that would dominate throughout the 20th century. It was followed a few years later by theItalian People's Party, established in 1919. Both parties achieved electoral success until the advent ofItalian fascism, contributing decisively to the loss of strength and authority of the old liberal ruling class, which had not been able to structure itself into a proper party: theLiberals' grouping, launched in 1913, was not a coherent one and theItalian Liberal Party, formed in 1922, came too late. The beginning of 1921 saw the foundation of theCommunist Party of Italy, born from a split of the Italian Socialist Party. Also in 1921,Benito Mussolini gave birth to theNational Fascist Party, and the next year, through theMarch on Rome, he was appointedPrime Minister of Italy. In 1926, through theleggi fascistissime (lit. 'very fascist laws'), all parties were dissolved except the National Fascist Party, which thus remained the only legal party in theKingdom of Italy until thefall of the fascist regime in Italy in July 1943.
Following the dissolution of theCommunist International in May 1943, the Communist Party of Italy was rebranded Italian Communist Party. In September 1943, sixanti-fascist parties (theChristian Democracy, the Italian Socialist Party, the Italian Communist Party, the Italian Liberal Party, theAction Party, and theLabour Democratic Party) formed the jointNational Liberation Committee, which gained official recognition as the representative of theItalian resistance movement (the National Liberation Committee recognised theItalian monarchs, thus the Italian Republican Party stayed out because of its full loyalty to republican principles). The parties then formed in various combinations the governments of Italy from theliberation of Rome in 1944 until 1947, when the Italian Communist Party and the Italian Socialist Party were ejected.
With the1946 Italian institutional referendum, Italy became a republic and aConstituent Assembly wrote the republicanConstitution of Italy. Between 1948 and 1992, the party system was dominated by two major parties:Christian Democracy, the structural party of government, and the Italian Communist Party, the main opposition party.[5] Another stable opposition party was theItalian Social Movement, aneo-fascist party founded by Mussolini'sfascist followers, which was subjected to acordone sanitaire and excluded from theConstitutional Arch. When the short-livedTambroni government received the necessaryvote of confidence from theItalian Parliament thanks to the support of the Italian Social Movement in 1960, a unique case in the history of the Italian Republic, it sparked significant criticism and protests.[6][7] For about half a century, following aconventio ad excludendum of the Italian Communist Party,[8] the governments were led by Christian Democracy, which chose its coalition partners among smaller parties situated either to its left or right: the Italian Socialist Party, theItalian Democratic Socialist Party, the Italian Liberal Party, and the Italian Republican Party.[9]
TheItalian system of centrism, which began in 1947 with the expulsion of the Italian Communist Party and the Italian Socialist Party were ejected, lasted until around 1958, when theorganic centre-left began to take root and governed the country between from 1963 to 1976, leading to theHistoric Compromise between Christian Democracy and the Italian Communist Party. Between 1981 and 1991, with the failure of the Historic Compromise the Christian Democrats formed coalition governments namedPentapartito with Italian Socialist Party, the Italian Democratic Socialist Party, the Italian Liberal Party, and the Italian Republican Party.[10] That was the time when severalNorthern Italy regional parties, whose policy themes werefederalism andautonomism, were established. In 1991, they federated themselves intoLega Nord, which became the country's fourth largest party in the1992 Italian general election.[11]
From 1991 to 1993, Italy was governed by theQuadripartito, which included all parties of thePentapartito with the exception of the Italian Republican Party. Between 1992 and 1994, the established party system was shaken by a series of corruption scandals known collectively asTangentopoli. These events led to the disappearance of the five parties of government.[12] Consequently, the Italian Communist Party, which had evolved to become theDemocratic Party of the Left in 1991, with the exit of theCommunist Refoundation Party, and thepost-fascists, who had launchedNational Alliance in 1994, gained strength. On the contrary, Christian Democracy, which changed its name toItalian People's Party in 1994, lost its centrality in the Italian party system. Following the1994 Italian general election, media tycoonSilvio Berlusconi became Prime Minister at the head of a government composed mainly of his brand-newForza Italia party, joined by several members of the defunct mainstream parties, National Alliance and Lega Nord.[13]
Between 1996 and 2008, the political parties were organised into two big coalitions, which took turns in government: the centre-rightPole for Freedoms, which was renamedHouse of Freedoms after the re-entry of Lega Nord in 2000, andThe Olive Tree, lately part of a broader coalition namedThe Union, on the centre-left.[14] As for the centre-left, the Democratic Party of the Left changed its name again in 1998, becomingDemocrats of the Left,[15] while in 2002 a new party calledDemocracy is Freedom – The Daisy was founded by the merger of some centrist parties (including the Italian People's Party). In 2008, following the fall of the centre-left government led byRomano Prodi, theDemocratic Party (established in 2007 upon the merger of the Democrats of the Left and The Daisy) decided to break the alliance with the Communist Refoundation Party and other minor left-wing parties. Contextually, on the centre-right of the political spectrum, Forza Italia and National Alliance merged to formThe People of Freedom,[16] which continued the alliance with Lega Nord and prevailed in the2008 Italian general election.[17]
In the2013 Italian general election, the party system was fragmented in four groupings: the centre-left alliance led by the Democratic Party; the traditional centre-right alliance between the People of Freedom, Lega Nord, and the newly-foundedBrothers of Italy (a right-wing split of The People of Freedom, formed mainly by former members of National Alliance); theFive Star Movement founded byBeppe Grillo; and a new centrist coalition around the outgoing Prime MinisterMario Monti with theCivic Choice party.[18] In November 2013, the national council of The People of Freedom, at the behest of Berlusconi, suspended all party activities, to relaunchForza Italia,[19] which would experience multiple splits. In the2018 Italian general election, the major groupings were reduced to three: the centre-right coalition, composed ofLega (Lega Nord's evolution on a countrywide scale), Forza Italia, Brothers of Italy, and minor allies; the Five Star Movement (which was the single most voted party); and the centre-left coalition, composed of the Democratic Party and minor allies.[20] The centre-right coalition won a full majority in the2022 Italian general election, leading to a government led by Brothers of Italy's leaderGiorgia Meloni (the first since 2008 to be formed by a coalition of parties having fought the election together), while the opposition was fragmented in three segments: the Democratic Party-led centre-left coalition; the Five Star Movement; and a centrist alliance betweenAction andItalia Viva (both splinter groups of the Democratic Party).
| Party | Founded | Ideology | Leader | Regional Council | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Italian Socialist Party Partito Socialista Italiano | 2007 | Social democracy | Enzo Maraio | Campania Basilicata Sardinia | |
| Possible Possibile | 2015 | Social democracy Green politics | Francesca Druetti | Piedmont Sardinia | |
| Italian Republican Party Partito Repubblicano Italiano | 1895 | Liberalism | Corrado De Rinaldis Saponaro | Campania | |
| Populars for Italy Popolari per l'Italia | 2014 | Christian democracy Liberal conservatism | Mario Mauro | Molise | |
| Us of the Centre Noi di Centro | 2021 | Christian democracy | Clemente Mastella | Campania | |
| Vita | 2022 | Populism Anti-establishment | Sara Cunial | Trentino-Alto Adige | |
