Union of the Centre Unione di Centro | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | UDC |
| Secretary | Antonio De Poli |
| President | Lorenzo Cesa |
| Founded | 6 December 2002; 22 years ago (2002-12-06) |
| Merger of | Christian Democratic Centre United Christian Democrats European Democracy |
| Headquarters | Via in Lucina 10,Rome |
| Youth wing | Giovani UDC |
| Membership(2016) | 50,000[1] |
| Ideology | Christian democracy[2][3][4] Social conservatism[4][5] |
| Political position | Centre[6][7][8][9] to centre-right[10][11] |
| National affiliation | Centre-right coalition |
| European affiliation | European People's Party |
| European Parliament group | European People's Party (2004–2019) |
| International affiliation | Centrist Democrat International |
| Colors | Light blue |
| Chamber of Deputies | 1 / 400 |
| Senate | 1 / 205 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 76 |
| Regional Councils | 6 / 896 |
| Website | |
| udc-italia.it | |
TheUnion of the Centre (Italian:Unione di Centro,UdC), whose complete name isUnion of Christian Democrats and Centre Democrats (Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e Democratici di Centro,UDC),[12] is aChristian-democratic[2][3][4]political party inItaly.
Antonio De Poli is the party's current secretary, whileLorenzo Cesa its president. For years,Pier Ferdinando Casini was the most recognisable figure andde facto leader of the party, before eventually distancing from it in 2016. The UdC is a member of theEuropean People's Party (EPP) and theCentrist Democrat International (CDI), of which Casini was president from 2004 to 2015.[13][14]
The party was formed as "Union of Christian and Centre Democrats" in December 2002 upon the merger of theChristian Democratic Centre (CCD), theUnited Christian Democrats (CDU) andEuropean Democracy (DE). In 2008 the party was the driving force behind the "Union of the Centre" (UdC), an alliance comprising, among others,The Rose for Italy ofBruno Tabacci andSavino Pezzotta, thePopulars ofCiriaco De Mita and theLiberal Clubs ofFerdinando Adornato. Since then, the party's official name was neglected in favour of the alliance's and, since most of the UdC member parties have joined the UDC too, the UDC and the UdC started to overlap almost completely to the point that they are now indistinguishable.
The CCD was an early ally ofSilvio Berlusconi'sForza Italia in 1994 and was part of the centre-rightPole/House of Freedoms since its establishment. Consequently, the UDC was consistently part of the centre-right until 2006. Later, it was affiliated neither to the centre-right nor the centre-left at the national level. Despite this, the party continued to take part in several regional, provincial and municipal governments with the old and the newForza Italia, while forming alliances also with the centre-leftDemocratic Party in some regions and cities. In the2013 general election the UdC was part ofWith Monti for Italy, the coalition formed aroundMario Monti'sCivic Choice, and obtained a mere 1.8% of the vote, down from 5.6% in2008 and 6.8% in2006. In December 2014 the party, which sat inEnrico Letta'sgovernment andMatteo Renzi'sgovernment (2013–2016), formedPopular Area withAngelino Alfano'sNew Centre-Right. In December 2016 the UdC left the alliance, did not joinPaolo Gentiloni'sgovernment and suffered the final split by Casini and his followers. The party has since returned into thecentre-right coalition's fold and took part to the2018 and2022 general elections within centrist joint lists. More recently, the UdC distanced from Forza Italia and formed an alliance with theLeague.
In the2001 Italian general election, theChristian Democratic Centre (CCD), led byPier Ferdinando Casini, and theUnited Christian Democrats (CDU), a 1995 split from theItalian People's Party (PPI) led byRocco Buttiglione were part of the winning centre-rightHouse of Freedoms coalition, but their joint list (informally known asWhite Flower) won a mere 3.2% of the vote (−2.6pp from1996). In the event, the two parties suffered the competition ofEuropean Democracy (DE), led bySergio D'Antoni and formed largely by further splinters from the PPI, which obtained 2.4% of the vote.
After the election, Casini was electedPresident of the Chamber of Deputies and was replaced byMarco Follini as secretary of the CCD. Soon after,Silvio Berlusconi appointedCarlo Giovanardi (CCD) and Buttiglione (CDU) as ministers in hissecond government.
A few months later, the CCD and the CDU jointly scored 19.7% of the vote in aregional election (+0.7pp from theprevious regional election) inSicily, which was a stronghold for both parties, andSalvatore Cuffaro (CDU) was electedPresident of Sicily with a landslide 59.1% of the vote. DE won 4.5% of the vote and D'Antoni was elected to theSicilian Regional Assembly.
On 6 December 2002, the CCD, the CDU and DE were merged into the "Union of Christian and Centre Democrats" (UDC). During the party's first congress, Follini was elected secretary, D'Antoni deputy secretary and Buttiglione president.
At the2004 European Parliament election, the UDC won 5.9% of the vote and fiveMEPs. Consequently, the party successfully lobbied for Follini's appointment as Deputy Prime Minister in Berlusconi's government with the goal of strengthening and balancing the coalition, while diminishing the influence of theNorthern League.
At the2005 regional elections, the UDC and the House of Freedoms faced a severe defeat by winning only two regions out of 14. Follini asked Berlusconi to resign and form a new government. In the new executive, Buttiglione became minister of Culture, while Follini stepped down from his previous post to concentrate on the party. On 15 October 2005 Follini suddenly resigned from his position as party secretary and was replaced on 27 October byLorenzo Cesa, an ally of Casini.
The party took part to the2006 general election with a new logo, characterised by the inclusion of the name of Casini, who also headed party electoral lists in most constituencies. Despite the defeat of the House of Freedoms, the UDC improved its electoral performance by gaining 6.8% of the vote. In the followingSicilian regional election Cuffaro was re-elected President, but the UDC's share of the vote was reduced to 13.0%, due to two factors: the presence of president's list named after Cuffaro (which obtained 5.7% and elected mostly UdC members) and the strong showing of theMovement for Autonomy (MpA) (12.5%).
In October 2006, Follini, a harsh critic of Berlusconi, finally left the party to form a new grouping, calledMiddle Italy, which was eventually merged into the centre-leftDemocratic Party (PD) upon its foundation in October 2007. This was the fourth split suffered by the UDC in two years after three much bigger splits: the first led bySergio D'Antoni, who joinedThe Daisy in 2004; the second byGianfranco Rotondi, who launched theChristian Democracy for Autonomies (DCA) in 2005; the third byRaffaele Lombardo, who formed theSicilian-based MpA later that year.
After the departure of Follini, however, Casini became highly critical of Berlusconi too and further distanced the UDC from him. A fifth major split happened at the end of January 2008 whenBruno Tabacci andMario Baccini left the party because Casini seemed eager to re-join Berlusconi for the upcoming election, after that theProdi II Cabinet had not passed through a vote of confidence. Shortly afterwards, when Casini refused to merge his party into Berlusconi's then-new political movement,The People of Freedom (PdL), the UDC was joined byThe Rose for Italy of Tabacci, Baccini andSavino Pezzotta, as well as by two leading members ofForza Italia (FI),Ferdinando Adornato andAngelo Sanza. On the other side, the UDC was left by those who wanted to continue the alliance with Berlusconi: Giovanardi and his faction (theLiberal Populars) joined the PdL, citing that the 72% of UDC voters wanted the party to do so.[15] They were soon followed by many others.
On 28 February 2008, the UDC announced that it would contest the2008 general election under the banner of the "Union of the Centre" (UdC), in alliance with The Rose for Italy and other smaller groups,[16][17] notably including thePopulars aroundCiriaco De Mita, former leader ofChristian Democracy (DC),[18] theLiberal Clubs, theChristian Democratic Party,Veneto for the EPP, theDemocratic Populars and theAutonomist Democrats. Despite having lost many votes to the PdL, the UDC was able to woo some new voters from the centre-left and gained 5.6% of the vote, 36 deputies (all UDC members but four) and three senators. Soon after the election, Baccini, one of the leaders of The Rose, surprisingly left the UdC to join the PdL.[19]
After the election, Casini relaunched his plan for a new "centrist" party, as an alternative to both the PdL and the PD. This is what he called the "party of the nation", open to "centrists", "Christian democrats", "liberals" and "reformers", even though he presented it as a party based on Christian values, as opposed both to the PD and the PdL, which, despite being a centre-right party, also included social-liberal factions.[20][21][22] Casini long criticised the PdL for not being "Catholic" enough, particularly criticising Berlusconi, who once spoke of "anarchy of values" in describing thecatch-all nature of the PdL,[23] andGianfranco Fini, who was known for his social-liberal stance onstem-cell research,abortion and right-to-die issues,[24] and explicitly wooed the "Christian democrats of the PD" to join him.[25]
In the2009 European Parliament election, the UdC won 6.5% of the vote and five of its candidates were elected to theEuropean Parliament, including De Mita andMagdi Allam. In the2010 regional elections, the UdC chose to form alliances both with the centre-right and the centre-left (or stood alone) in different regions, depending on local conditions,[26] losing ground everywhere but in those southern regions where it was in alliance with the centre-right.
In December 2010, the UdC was a founding member of theNew Pole for Italy (NPI), along withFuture and Freedom (FLI) and theAlliance for Italy.[27][28] The NPI alliance was short-lived and the three parties, which were supporters ofMario Monti'stechnocratic government in 2011–2013, parted ways. In 2012 the UdC suffered the split of another Sicilian-based group,Cantiere Popolare (CP), which would be a strong competitor for the party in Sicily, along with the evergreen MpA.
The UdC contested the2013 general election as part of theWith Monti for Italy coalition, alongside FLI and Monti'sCivic Choice (SC). The election was a huge defeat for the UdC, which obtained a mere 1.8% of the vote, eight deputies and two senators. After the election, the party joinedEnrico Letta'sgovernment withGianpiero D'Alia as minister of Public Administration (2013–2014) andMatteo Renzi'sgovernment withGianluca Galletti as minister of the Environment (2014–2016).
In February 2014, during the party's fourth congress, Cesa was narrowly re-elected secretary over D'Alia, who was then elected president.[29]
The UdC ran in the2014 European Parliament election on ajoint list with theNew Centre-Right (NCD), a mainly Christian-democratic outfit emerged from a split from the PdL in its final days. The list obtained 4.4% of the vote and three MEPs, two for the NCD and one for the UdC.
In December 2014, the alliance with the NCD was strengthened with the formation of thePopular Area (AP) joint parliamentary groups.
In 2016, Casini did not renew his membership to the party, which was thus deprived of its most recognisable leader. Additionally, while still being part of the government and AP, the UdC chose not to support the "yes" in the2016 constitutional referendum and to distance from the NCD, rejecting any notion of a joint party.[1][30][31] In the run-up of the referendum the party was also abandoned by president D'Alia.[32][33] After the referendum, which saw a huge defeat of the "yes" side, the UdC left AP altogether, but, other than Casini and D'Alia, the party lost another deputy and, more important, minister Galletti.[34][35][36]Antonio De Poli replaced D'Alia as president.[37][38]
In 2017, the UdC was joined by three senators from other parties.[39][40] The party's new course was marked also by the return of Follini.[41] For the2017 Sicilian regional election, the UdC re-joined the centre-right at the regional level.[42] The decision led some leading former UdC members in Sicily to return into the party's fold, but was criticised by the party's deputy secretaryGiuseppe De Mita,[43] his uncle Ciriaco and Follini, who would jointly launchItaly Is Popular,[44][45] lead it into thePopular Civic List and join thecentre-left coalition.
In the run-up of the2018 general election, the UdC officially re-joined thecentre-right coalition also at the national level, aiming at teaming up with other Christian-democratic parties, notably including theUnion of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR),[46] as well as theItalian Liberal Party (PLI) andEnergies for Italy (EpI).[47] Thus, the UdC joinedUs with Italy (NcI),[48][49][50] a pro-Berlusconi centrist electoral list formed by AP splinters (two groups, a Christian-democratic one led byMaurizio Lupi and a liberal one led byEnrico Costa),Direction Italy (DI),Civic Choice (SC),Act!, CP and the MpA,[51][52][53] with the goal of reaching 3%, required to win seats from proportional lists under a new electoral law. NcI was later joined also by IdeA,[54][55] UdC's partner in the Chamber of Deputies. In the election, the NcI obtained a mere 1.3% of the vote and the UdC had three senators elected from single-seat constituencies: De Poli,Paola Binetti andAntonio Saccone. Soon after the election, the party quit NcI and formed a pact with FI.[56]
In the run-up of the2022 general election, the UdC first formed a joint list withCoraggio Italia (CI),[57] then it was a founding member ofUs Moderates (NM), a broader joint list within the centre-right coalition, along with CI, NcI andItaly in the Centre (IaC).[58]
In the run-up of the2024 European Parliament election, the UdC joined forces with theLeague.[59][60]
In July 2025 Cesa stepped down from secretary after 20 years and the party's national council elected De Poli to succeed him.[61]
Although it is the most vocal supporter ofsocial conservatism in Italy (opposition toabortion,euthanasia,same-sex marriage,LGBT adoption andlegality of cannabis are some of its main concerns) and can be easily connected with theChristian right, the UdC is usually identified with thepolitical centre in Italy, thanks to its roots in theChristian Democracy (DC).
However,The Economist once described it as aright-wing, sometimesreactionary party, which "stretches a long way from the centre". Moreover, it wrote that many UDC members are "diehard corporatists who [...] get most of their votes from the south, where many households depend either on welfare or on public-sector employment".[62] Indeed, the party is stronger in the South and especially inSicily, where public-sector employment is widely spread.
The UDC was an independent-minded and often reluctant member of theHouse of Freedoms coalition from 2002 to 2008. The party's leading figure,Pier Ferdinando Casini, was critical ofSilvio Berlusconi's leadership over the Italian centre-right and presented himself as a moderate alternative topopulism, which, in his view, denoted the alliance betweenThe People of Freedom (PdL) and theNorthern League. UDC's main goal, similarly to that of theDemocratic Movement inFrance, has been to form governments beyond the left-right divide (e.g.:Monti Cabinet andLetta Cabinet) and, possibly, reassembling the remnants of the old DC and control Italian politics from the centre. In this respect, Casini and his followers have long tried to form the nucleus of a third force in Italian politics (e.g.:New Pole for Italy,With Monti for Italy,Popular Area).
This "centrist option" has not succeeded yet: the UdC has remained a much lighter force compared to Berlusconi's parties (Forza Italia, the PdL and finally the newForza Italia), which have drawn most former DC voters, and Italians like confrontational politics based on alternative coalitions and many would support a two-party system, in place of the typically Italian fragmented political spectrum.[63] Finally, several political scientists think that the return of DC is all but likely as the "political unity of Catholics" (the core idea on which DC was based) is not repeatable and it would be anti-historical to try uniting all strains of political Catholicism in a single party.
Moreover, although UdC members are keen on presenting themselves as moderates, their solid social conservatism has harmed their prospects, while FI/PdL/FI has been popular also among secularised middle-class voters. Knowing that, Casini tried to open his party, through the UdC, also to non-Christian-democratic "centrists", "liberals" and "reformers", while wooing former DC members affiliated with other parties, especially the PdL and the centre-leftDemocratic Party (PD).[20] After Casini's exit from the party in 2016, the UdC is likely to return to its traditional Christian-democratic roots, as declared by Cesa in a speech to the party's national council.[64]
On specific issues, it is relevant to state that the UdC is one of the main supporters ofnuclear energy in the Italian political arena.[65]
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Union of the Centre" 2002 – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
At the 2007 national congress, there were basically four factions within the party.
The three main schisms suffered by the party between 2004 and 2006,Middle Italy (IdM),Movement for Autonomy (MpA) andChristian Democracy for Autonomies (DCA), were led by the most vocal supporters of each of the last three factions mentioned above, respectively Marco Follini,Raffaele Lombardo andGianfranco Rotondi. By 2010 virtually allGiovanardiani andCuffariani had left the party through the Liberal Populars and the PID.
The UDC/UdC has been historically stronger in theSouth and in regional elections.
The electoral results of the UDC/UdC in the 10 most populatedregions of Italy are shown in the table below.
The score for the 2006 Sicilian regional election refers to the combined result of the UDC (13.0) and ofL'Aquilone–Lista del Presidente (5.7%), the personal list ofSalvatore Cuffaro, UDC regional leader andPresident of Sicily. The elected members of this list were mostly UDC members.
| 2004 European | 2005 regional | 2006 general | 2008 general | 2009 European | 2010 regional | 2013 general | 2015 regional | |
| Piedmont | 5.0 | 4.6 | 6.2 | 5.2 | 6.1 | 3.9 | 1.2 | -(2014) |
| Lombardy | 3.6 | 3.8 | 5.9 | 4.3 | 5.0 | 3.8 | 1.1 | -(2013) |
| Veneto | 5.0 | 6.4 | 7.8 | 5.6 | 6.4 | 4.9 | 1.7 | - |
| Emilia-Romagna | 2.8 | 3.9 | 5.8 | 4.3 | 4.7 | 3.8 | 1.1 | -(2014) |
| Tuscany | 3.3 | 3.7 | 5.9 | 4.2 | 4.6 | 4.8 | 1.1 | - |
| Lazio | 7.1 | 7.8 | 6.9 | 4.8 | 5.5 | 6.1 | 1.5 | -(2013) |
| Campania | 7.0 | 6.7 | 6.8 | 6.5 | 8.7 | 9.4 | 3.6 | 2.4 |
| Apulia | 8.1 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 7.9 | 9.1 | 6.5 | 2.0 | 5.9 |
| Calabria | 9.6 | 10.4 | 7.7 | 8.2 | 9.3 | 9.4 | 4.1 | 2.7 |
| Sicily | 14.0 | 18.7(2006) | 10.0 | 9.4 | 11.9 | 12.5(2008) | 2.8 | 10.8(2012) 7.1(2017) |
| Italy | 5.9 | - | 6.8 | 5.6 | 6.5 | - | 1.8 | - |
| Chamber of Deputies | |||||
| Election year | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 2,580,190 (4th) | 6.8 | 39 / 630 | – | |
| 2008 | 2,050,309 (4th) | 5.6 | 36 / 630 |  3 | |
| 2013 | 608,199 (9th) | 1.8 | 8 / 630 | 28 | |
| 2018 | intoUs with Italy | 1.3 | 0 / 630 | 8 | |
| 2022 | intoUs Moderates | 0.9 | 1 / 400 |  1 | |
| Senate of the Republic | |||||
| Election year | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 2,309,442 (6th) | 6.8 | 21 / 315 | – | |
| 2008 | 1,898,842 (4th) | 5.7 | 3 / 315 | 18 | |
| 2013 | intoMonti for Italy | – | 2 / 315 | 1 | |
| 2018 | intoUs with Italy | 1.2 | 3 / 315 | 1 | |
| 2022 | intoUs Moderates | 0.9 | 1 / 200 | 2 | |
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | EP Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Pier Ferdinando Casini | 1,914,726 (5th) | 5.9 | 5 / 72 | New | EPP |
| 2009 | 1,995,021 (5th) | 6.5 | 5 / 72 |  0 | ||
| 2014[a] | Lorenzo Cesa | 1,202,350 (5th) | 4.4 | 1 / 73 | 4 | |
| 2019 | IntoForza Italia | 0 / 73 | 1 | – | ||
| 2024 | IntoLega | 0 / 73 | 0 | |||
| Region | Election year | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | Status in legislature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aosta Valley | 2025 | — | — | 0 / 35 | – | No seats |
| Piedmont | 2024 | WithForza Italia | – | 0 / 50 | – | No seats |
| Lombardy | 2023 | IntoUs Moderates | – | 0 / 80 | – | No seats |
| South Tyrol | 2023 | — | — | 0 / 35 | – | No seats |
| Trentino | 2023 | 1,362 | 0.6 | 0 / 35 | – | No seats |
| Veneto | 2020 | IntoForza Italia | – | 0 / 51 | 3 | No seats |
| Friuli-Venezia Giulia | 2023 | Into Fedriga list | – | 1 / 49 | 1 | Majority |
| Emilia-Romagna | 2024 | IntoLega | – | 0 / 50 | 0 | No seats |
| Liguria | 2024 | 7,294 | 1.3 | 0 / 31 | 0 | No seats |
| Tuscany | 2025 | WithForza Italia | – | 0 / 41 | 0 | No seats |
| Marche | 2025 | 10,853 | 1.9 | 1 / 31 | 0 | Majority |
| Umbria | 2024 | 1,432 | 0.5 | 0 / 20 | 0 | No seats |
| Lazio | 2023 | 24,983 (10th) | 1.6 | 1 / 50 | 1 | Majority |
| Abruzzo | 2024 | 6,784 | 1,2 | 0 / 31 | 1 | No seats |
| Molise | 2023 | 5,005 | 3.5 | 0 / 21 | 0 | No seats |
| Campania | 2020 | 45,326 | 1.9 | 0 / 51 | 2 | No seats |
| Apulia | 2020 | 31,736 | 1.9 | 0 / 51 | 3 | No seats |
| Basilicata | 2024 | 6,636 | 2.5 | 0 / 21 | 0 | No seats |
| Calabria | 2025 | 9,750 | 1.3 | 0 / 30 | 2 | Majority |
| Sicily | 2022 | IntoDC | — | 1 / 70 | 4 | Majority |
| Sardinia | 2024 | 19,237 | 2.8 | 1 / 60 | 3 | Opposition |
.jpg)
.png)
.jpg)
.jpg)
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
