New Centre-Right Nuovo Centrodestra | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President | Angelino Alfano |
| Founded | 15 November 2013 |
| Dissolved | 18 March 2017 |
| Split from | The People of Freedom |
| Succeeded by | Popular Alternative |
| Headquarters | Via Arcione 71 00186Rome |
| Newspaper | l'Occidentale (online) |
| Youth wing | NCD Young People |
| Membership(2014) | 100,000[1] |
| Ideology | Conservatism[2] Christian democracy[3] |
| Political position | Centre-right |
| National affiliation | Popular Area |
| European affiliation | European People's Party |
| Colours | Blue |
| Website | |
| www | |
New Centre-Right (Italian:Nuovo Centrodestra,NCD) was acentre-right political party in Italy.[4] The party was launched on 15 November 2013 by a group of dissidents ofThe People of Freedom (PdL) who opposed the party's reformation asForza Italia (FI), which would take place the following day.[5] The NCD leader wasAngelino Alfano, who had beenSilvio Berlusconi's protégé and national secretary of the PdL from 2011 to 2013.
The NCD was a member of theEuropean People's Party (EPP). The party participated in theLetta,Renzi andGentiloni governments. On 18 March 2017, the NCD was dissolved intoPopular Alternative (AP).
The party was formed by splinters from the PdL on 15 November 2013. Its founders, lately known as "doves" in the party, were strong supporters ofEnrico Letta'sgovernment and refused to join the newForza Italia (FI), founded upon the dissolution of the PdL. All five PdL ministers, three under-secretaries, 30senators and 27deputies immediately joined the NCD.[6][7] Most wereChristian democrats and many came from thesouthern regions ofCalabria andSicily.[8]
Besides Alfano (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior), leading members includedMaurizio Lupi (Minister of Infrastructure and Transport),Nunzia De Girolamo (Minister of Agriculture),Beatrice Lorenzin (Minister of Health),Gaetano Quagliariello (Minister of Constitutional Reforms),Giuseppe Scopelliti (President ofCalabria),Roberto Formigoni (formerPresident of Lombardy),Renato Schifani (former President of the Senate and PdL floor leader until November 2013),Fabrizio Cicchitto (former PdL leader in the Chamber in 2008–2013) andCarlo Giovanardi (a former minister for theUDC).[9]
In February 2014, after the fall of Letta's government, the NCD joined a new coalitiongovernment led byMatteo Renzi, who had been elected secretary of theDemocratic Party (PD) in December 2013. In the new government the NCD retained three ministers: Alfano at the Interior, Lupi at Infrastructures and Transports, and Lorenzin at Health.[10] Quagliariello, who had not been confirmed as minister of Institutional Reforms, was elected national coordinator by the assembly of the parliamentary groups.[11]
The party ran in the2014 European Parliament election on ajoint list with theUnion of the Centre (UdC). The list obtained 4.4% of the vote and three MEPs, two for the NCD and one for the UdC. The list did especially well in theSouth: 7.1% inApulia, 11.4% in Calabria and 9.1% in Sicily.[12]
On 11 September 2014, the NCD was officially accepted into theEuropean People's Party (EPP).[13][14]
In December 2014 the NCD formed joint parliamentary groups with the UdC in both theChamber of Deputies andSenate. The two groups, a step toward a complete merger of the two parties,[15] were namedPopular Area, where "popular" was a reference topopolarismo, the Italian variety ofChristian democracy.
Following Alfano's decision to supportSergio Mattarella's bid to becomePresident of Italy during the2015 presidential election (Matteralla was effectively elected on 31 January), the NCD experienced an internal crisis. Most notably,Barbara Saltamartini andMaurizio Sacconi resigned from party's spokesperson and leader in the Senate, respectively.[16][17][18] Schifani was unanimously elected to succeed to Sacconi,[19] while Saltamartini left the party altogether.[20] In March Lupi was hit by a minor corruption scandal and resigned from minister of Infrastructures and Transports.[21][22] As result, the party was left with only two ministers. In April De Girolamo, a frequent critic of the government since Mattarella's election, was replaced as leader in the Chamber by Lupi.[23][24] During the summer, one deputy (De Girolamo,[25][26] who had been a founder ofThe Republicans)[27][28] and one MEP (Massimiliano Salini)[29] re-joined FI.
A bigger blow to Alfano came in October, when Quaglieriello resigned from coordinator and threatened to lead a splinter group out of the party if the NCD were to continue its support to Renzi.[30][31] In the following weeks, Quaglieriello deserted a meeting of the party's national board[32] and made clear he was leaving the party. Two deputies (Vincenso Piso[33][34] andEugenia Roccella)[33] and two colleagues of Quaglieriello (Andrea Augello[34][35] and Giovanardi)[36][37] in the Senate followed suit. These, along with a fourth senator (Luigi Compagna, a formerLiberal) finally launchedIdentity and Action (IDEA).[38][39]
In February 2016, during a government reshuffle, NCD'sEnrico Costa was appointed minister of Regional Affairs and Autonomies.[40] Shortly afterwards, it was announced by Lorenzin that the party would soon change its name, dropping the word "right", or take part to the formation of an entirely new party.[41][42]
After NCD's dismal results in the2016 local elections, several MPs, mainly senators, started weighing on leaving the party.[43][44] In July 2016 Schifani, who criticised the party's permanence in the government and aimed at re-unifying the Italian fractured centre-right, stepped down from leader in the Senate[45][46] and was replaced byLaura Bianconi, a close ally of Alfano.[47] A couple of weeks later, Schifani left the party, along with another senator, and returned to FI.[48]
In the run-up of the2016 constitutional referendum the UdC campaigned for the "no", while the NCD was among the keenest supporters of the "yes". After the referendum, which saw a huge defeat by the "no" side, the UdC left AP altogether, but some splinters namedCentrists for Italy, notably includingPier Ferdinando Casini and ministerGian Luca Galletti, stayed with AP.[49][50][51] The referendum's result and the demise ofRenzi Cabinet revived NCD's internal tensions too, that led to splits (one deputy left in December,[50][52] one senator in February).[53][54] In the followinggovernment led by DemocratPaolo Gentiloni, Alfano was sworn in as minister of Foreign Affairs, while Lorenzin, Galletti (CpI) and Costa were confirmed as ministers of Health, the Environment and Regional Affairs, respectively.
On 18 March 2017 the party was dissolved in order to make way forPopular Alternative (AP), which consisted mostly of the former NCD.
Despite being home to somesocial democrats (Reformism and Freedom, We Reformers), the party was mainly aChristian-democratic party with asocial-conservative streak. According toCorriere della Sera, differently from FI, NCD's stances on the "so-called ethical issues" (abortion,LGBT rights, etc.) were "closer to those of the European traditionalist right" and "thus not very compatible with those of theEPP's parties in big countries such asGermany".[55] However, the party voted in favor ofcivil unions, whereas most FI members voted against it.[56] The NCD was also criticised by someCatholic associations for not opposing enough the teaching ofgender studies in schools.[57] In addition, the NCD, as part ofcentre-left governments, proved more progressive than FI on the management ofillegal immigration, which was negatively evaluated by Berlusconi's party.[58] Precisely for these and other reasons, several NCD politicians left the party to either formIdentity and Action (IdeA) led byGaetano Quagliariello or re-joined FI (e.g.Nunzia De Girolamo,Renato Schifani andMassimiliano Salini),[59] in both cases re-aligning with the FI-ledcentre-right coalition.[60]
Former PdL-affiliated factions or think tanks which joined the NCD included:
In January 2014 three bigwigs of the party who later left the party (Quagliariello,Eugenia Roccella andMaurizio Sacconi) published a book titledModerati. Per un nuovo umanesimo politico ("Moderates: For a new political humanism"), a sort of manifesto of the party. The book, whose key words are "person", "family", "enterprise" and "tradition", emphasises institutional reforms (including direct election of the President and federalism), ethical issues (marriage, opposition to abortion, limits to assisted reproductive technology, etc.) and the need for a smaller state ("less public law, more private rights").[66][67][68] According toBenedetto Ippolito, a university professor of history of philosophy, while NCD members insist that their party is "moderate", it is in fact "conservative" and "anti-progressive", albeit not "berlusconiano".[2]
In February 2014 the NCD unveiled a platform on labour, including a universal protection system safety net for the unemployed, a tax relief for entrepreneurs hiring the young, the reduction of thetax wedge on labour and the overcoming of article 18 of the "Statute of Workers", making easier for entrepreneurs to hire and fire employees.[69]
| European Parliament | |||||
| Election year | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 1,202,350 (5th) | 4.38[a] | 2 / 73 | – | |
| Region | Election year | Votes | % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abruzzo | 2014[a] | 40,219 (4th) | 5.9 | 1 / 31 |
| Apulia | 2015[b] | 101,817 (7th) | 6.0 | 4 / 51 |
| Calabria | 2014 | 47,574 (6th) | 6.1 | 3 / 30 |
| Campania | 2015 | 133,753 (5th) | 5.9 | 1 / 51 |
| Emilia-Romagna | 2014[a] | 31,635 (7th) | 2.6 | 0 / 50 |
| Liguria | 2015[c] | 9,269 (9th) | 1.7 | 1 / 31 |
| Marche | 2015[d] | 21,049 (7th) | 4.0 | 1 / 31 |
| Piedmont | 2014[a] | 49,059 (7th) | 2.5 | 0 / 50 |
| Tuscany | 2015[c] | 15,808 (8th) | 1.2 | 0 / 41 |
| Umbria | 2015[a] | 9,285 (9th) | 2.6 | 0 / 20 |
| Veneto | 2015[c] | 37.937 (11th) | 2.0 | 1 / 51 |
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