Populars for Italy Popolari per l'Italia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President | Mario Mauro |
| Founded | 28 January 2014 |
| Split from | Civic Choice |
| Ideology | Christian democracy Social conservatism Pro-Europeanism |
| Political position | Centre-right |
| National affiliation | Forza Italia |
| European affiliation | European People's Party |
| Chamber of Deputies | 0 / 400 |
| Senate | 0 / 200 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 73 |
| Regional Councils | 1 / 896 |
| Website | |
| www.popolariperlitalia.org | |
Populars for Italy (Italian:Popolari per l'Italia, PpI) is aChristian-democraticpolitical party in Italy led byMario Mauro,minister of Defence inLetta Cabinet and, previously, long-servingMEP forForza Italia.
The party was launched in November 2013 by splinters fromCivic Choice (SC) led byMario Mauro andLorenzo Dellai, who wanted to continue supportingEnrico Letta'sgovernment (in which Mauro served as minister of Defence), but disagreed with SC's perceived liberal outlook.[1] Soon after, the PpI formed joint parliamentary groups, namedFor Italy, with theUnion of the Centre (UdC).[2][3][4] According to its leaders, the party would soon merge with the UdC into a new "centrist" party.[5]
The party was officially founded on 28 January 2014. In the meantime, Mauro was appointed president.[6][7]
In February 2014, Mauro was not confirmed as minister of Defence inMatteo Renzi'sgovernment, but the PpI joined the government with one deputy minister (Andrea Olivero at Agriculture) and three undersecretaries.[8]
In the2014 European Parliament election, the party endorsed theNew Centre-Right – Union of the Centre joint list.
In July 2014, the PpI suffered the defection of its left-wing faction (composed by the majority of the party's MPs: eight deputies out of twelve and two senators out of eight), led by Dellai, Olivero,Mario Marazziti,Mario Giro andLucio Romano, who launchedSolidary Democracy (Demo.S). The new party re-affirmed the strategic alliance with Renzi'sDemocratic Party and its support for the government, while the PpI considered it just temporary as the party's declared goal was to restructure the centre-right camp instead.[9][10][11][12] By November, the PpI were reduced to two deputies and three senators.
On 11 September 2014, the PpI were officially accepted into theEuropean People's Party (EPP).[13]
In November 2014, in an interview toIl Giornale,[14] Mauro hinted that the party might leave the Renzi Cabinet[15][16] and explained that its goal was that of dissolving Italy's EPP-member parties (the newForza Italia, theNew Centre-Right, the UdC and the PpI) in a joint centre-right party.[17] Consequently, the three PpI senators left For Italy in order to joinGreat Autonomies and Freedom,[18] a centre-right miscellaneous group, but the PpI continued to participate in the government with two undersecretaries,Domenico Rossi (Defense) andAngela D'Onghia (Education).
Eventually, after the2015 regional elections, which the party contested with its own list only inApulia (obtaining a mere 0.4% of the vote),[19] the PpI decided to end their support to the Renzi Cabinet. As a consequence, three MPs left the party: Rossi and D'Onghia in order to continue to be part of the government, andTito Di Maggio to join theConservatives and Reformists, a group of splinters from the new Forza Italia, led byRaffaele Fitto.[20] Finally, in January 2016,Mario Caruso left the party and formedPopular Civil Italy,[21][22][23][24] leaving senator Mauro as the only remaining member of Parliament of the party.
In March 2017, the PpI made an alliance agreement with Forza Italia, therefore Mauro joined that party's group in the Senate.[25]
In 2018, the party participated in theMolise regional election within thecentre-right coalition, gaining 7.1% of vote and two seats.
| European Parliament | |||||
| Election year | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 80,553 | 0.30 | 0 / 76 | – | |
| Region | Election year | Votes | % | Seats | +/− |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marche | 2015 | 18,109[a] | 3.41 | 0 / 31 | – |
| Molise | 2018 | 10,351 | 7.12 | 2 / 21 |  2 |
| Campania | 2015 | 17,475[b] | 0.76 | 0 / 51 | – |
| Apulia | 2015 | 6,575 | 0.41 | 0 / 51 | – |
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