360 Association
Encyclopedia
Centrism
In politics, centrism is the ideal or the practice of promoting policies that lie different from the standard political left and political right. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of left-right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between...
faction within the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Italy)
The Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy, that is the second-largest in the country. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected in the 2009 leadership election....
(PD), a political party in Italy. It is led by Enrico Letta
Enrico Letta
Enrico Letta is an Italian politician, and was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in the 2006 General election for the Olive Tree coalition...
and that is why its members are often called Lettiani
Lettiani
Lettiani refers to the faction around Enrico Letta, a leading member of the Democratic Party, a political party in Italy.The followers of Letta are generally centrists proposing an alliance with the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats and a liberal approach to the economy...
.
The association was founded during the summer of 2007 in support of the candidacy of Enrico Letta, a former Christian Democrat
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
, to the leadership of the newly formed party and represents a centrist position within the party, as he has good relations with almost all the factions of the party, including Veltroniani
Veltroniani
Veltroniani refers to the faction around Walter Veltroni, leader of the Democratic Party, a political party in Italy, from 2007 to 2009. Most of them are social democrats coming from the Democrats of the Left....
, Rutelliani
Rutelliani
Rutelliani refers to the group around Francesco Rutelli, a former leading member of the Democratic Party, a political party in Italy, and later leader of Alliance for Italy...
, Dalemiani
Dalemiani
Dalemiani refers to the faction around Massimo D'Alema, a leading member of the Democratic Party, a political party in Italy.Dalemiani are generally social democrats who want the party to join the Party of European Socialists. D'Alema organized his faction as Reformists and Democrats, welcoming...
and the Reformists and Democrats
Reformists and Democrats
Reformists and Democrats is a predominantly social-democratic faction within the Democratic Party , a political party in Italy....
, Ulivists
Ulivists
The Ulivists are a faction within the Democratic Party , a political party in Italy.The group includes both Christian left politicians, social democrats and social liberals. They has been close supporters of Romano Prodi and want the party to be stuck in the tradition of The Olive Tree...
, of which he has been considered a member, and The Populars
The Populars
The Populars is a loose association within the Democratic Party , a political party in Italy.The Populars are the heirs of the Italian People's Party, a christian-democratic party of the Christian left, and of the left-wing of the late Christian Democracy...
, of which he is currently member.
One major goals of the group is to lead the party into an alliance with the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC), while it is critical with the populist Italy of Values
Italy of Values
Italy of Values is a centrist, populist and anti-corruption political party in Italy. The party, which is affiliated to the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party , is headed by former Mani pulite prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro, who entered politics in 1996.The party aims to gather and give...
party, a traditional ally of the Democrats. In a meeting organized by 360 in June 2008 in Piacenza
Piacenza
Piacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Piacenza...
, UDC leader Pier Ferdinando Casini
Pier Ferdinando Casini
Pier Ferdinando Casini is an Italian politician.-Biography:President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2006...
, explained that he could easily be member of a party alongside Letta, but not with Antonio Di Pietro
Antonio Di Pietro
Antonio Di Pietro is an Italian politician. He was a Member of the European Parliament, an Italian Senator, and Minister of the Prodi Government...
's Italy of Values.
Umberto Ranieri, a former Democrat of the Left
Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic Italian political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged with a number of centrist and leftist groups to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007...
, is president of the association.
Democrats for Letta
The candidacy of Letta in the 2007 Democratic primary electionDemocratic Party (Italy) leadership election, 2007
The 2007 Democratic Party leadership election was held on 14 October 2007 in order to elect the first leader of the Democratic Party, the largest political party in Italy at the time. The election was conducted as an open primary, with all Italian citizens aged at least 16 and non-Italian legal...
was supported by the Democrats for Letta lists, representing the liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
component of the Ulivists
Ulivists
The Ulivists are a faction within the Democratic Party , a political party in Italy.The group includes both Christian left politicians, social democrats and social liberals. They has been close supporters of Romano Prodi and want the party to be stuck in the tradition of The Olive Tree...
, that is to say the faction which was closer to Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
, and including Paolo De Castro
Paolo De Castro
Paolo De Castro is an Italian politician, and former Italian Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies. In 2009 he was elected to the European Parliament, and currently serves as chair of the parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.He has also served as professor of...
, Umberto Ranieri, Gianni Pittella (leader of the Italian delegation to the Party of European Socialists
Party of European Socialists
The Party of European Socialists is a European political party led by Sergei Stanishev, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria. The PES comprises social-democratic national-level political parties primarily from Member state of the European Union, as well as other nations of the European continent. The...
in the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
), Renato Soru
Renato Soru
Renato Soru is an Italian entrepreneur, the founder of the internet service company Tiscali, based in Cagliari. He was born in Sanluri, Sardinia....
(and his Sardinia Project
Sardinia Project
The Sardinia Project was a social-democratic regionalist political party active in Sardinia, Italy.It was founded in 2003 and was led by Renato Soru, who was elected President of Sardinia at the head of a centre-left coalition in the 2004 regional election...
party), Vito De Filippo, Gian Mario Spacca
Gian Mario Spacca
Gian Mario Spacca is an Italian politician and the incumbent President of the Marche Region.-Biography:He graduated in Political Science with Aldo Moro in 1976 with a degree in criminal law and procedure at the University of Rome. Since 1982 he is editor of the magazine "Economy Brands" published...
, Lorenzo Dellai
Lorenzo Dellai
Lorenzo Dellai is an Italian politician, the governor of the province of Trentino and the President of the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol....
, Marco Stradiotto and Francesco Boccia. Soru, De Filippo, Spacca and Dellai were respectively President of Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
, Basilicata
Basilicata
Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...
, Marche
Marche
The population density in the region is below the national average. In 2008, it was 161.5 inhabitants per km2, compared to the national figure of 198.8. It is highest in the province of Ancona , and lowest in the province of Macerata...
and Trentino, and the last three represented the more conservative and traditionally Christian-democratic
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...
faction within Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy, the party of which Letta was a leading member, while Ranieri and Pittella represented the more centrist wing of the Democrats of the Left
Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic Italian political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged with a number of centrist and leftist groups to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007...
.
The Democrats for Letta list won 11.0% of the vote nationally, having its strongholds in Northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
and in some regions of the South.
Bersani-Letta
Dalemiani
Dalemiani refers to the faction around Massimo D'Alema, a leading member of the Democratic Party, a political party in Italy.Dalemiani are generally social democrats who want the party to join the Party of European Socialists. D'Alema organized his faction as Reformists and Democrats, welcoming...
, the group around Massimo D'Alema
Massimo D'Alema
Massimo D'Alema is an Italian politician. He is also a journalist and a former national secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left...
, who himself supports the alliance with UDC and a more structured party. Paolo De Castro even became president of the new association of D'Alema, the Reformists and Democrats
Reformists and Democrats
Reformists and Democrats is a predominantly social-democratic faction within the Democratic Party , a political party in Italy....
, while Francesco Boccia, a former Christian Democrat like Letta, announced that he, as "left-wing Catholic", has no problems with joining the Party of European Socialists
Party of European Socialists
The Party of European Socialists is a European political party led by Sergei Stanishev, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria. The PES comprises social-democratic national-level political parties primarily from Member state of the European Union, as well as other nations of the European continent. The...
, which is the main goal of Dalemiani.
In the 2009 Democratic Party leadership election
Democratic Party (Italy) leadership election, 2009
The 2009 Democratic Party leadership election was held in July–November 2009 following the resignation of Walter Veltroni in February 2009, after 16 months as secretary of the Democratic Party , the second-largest political party in Italy....
Letta and his group thus supported Pier Luigi Bersani
Pier Luigi Bersani
Pier Luigi Bersani is an Italian politician and the current Secretary of the Democratic Party of Italy, the main center-left political party in Italy . He was Minister of Industry, Commerce and Craftmanship from 1996 to 1999, Minister of Transports from 1999 to 2001, and Minister of Economic...
. Soon after his election, Bersani appointed Letta as his deputy forming the so-called "Bersani-Letta" ticket.
In June 2010 the association organized a three-day meeting in Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
, during which the party, through its deputy-leader Letta, met entrepreneurs and key leaders of Lega Nord, the largest party in Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
and eastern Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
. An opinion poll among northern Democrats, released during the "Nord Camp", showed that they are keener on an alliance with Lega Nord than The People of Freedom
The People of Freedom
The People of Freedom is a centre-right political party in Italy. With the Democratic Party, it is one of the two major parties of the current Italian party system....
(43% vs. 30%). Letta was praised both by Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
and Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi
Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician, leader of the Northern League, a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy. He is married to Manuela Marrone and has four sons ....
.
Leadership
- President: Umberto Ranieri (2008–present)
- Vice President: Alessia Mosca (2010–present)
- Director: Monica Nardi (2008–present)
- Secretary: Marco Meloni (2008–2010), Francesco Russo (2010–present)