The Federalist Party was a federalist

Federalism

Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...

 Italian political party.

It was launched as Federalist Union (Unione Federalista) on 1 June 1994 by Gianfranco Miglio

Gianfranco Miglio

thumb|Gianfranco Miglio School Centre in [[Adro]].Gianfranco Miglio was an Italian jurist, political scientist and politician, founder of the Partito Federalista. For 30 years, he presided over the Political science Faculty of Milan's Università Cattolica...

, an influent Senator

Italian Senate

The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...

 and political scientist

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 who left Lega Nord in May over disagreements with 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 ....

, and Umberto Giovine, an ex-Socialist

Italian Socialist Party

The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...

 who was at the time member of Forza Italia

Forza Italia

Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....

. In July 1995 the group was strengthened by the joining of eleven deputies

Italian Chamber of Deputies

The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...

: all former members of Lega Nord, who had previously joined the Federalist Italian League

Federalist Italian League

The Federalist Italian League was a short-lived federalist and liberal Italian political party.-History:The party was founded by dissident members of Lega Nord on 13 February 1995, including Luigi Negri , Enrico Hüllwech and Giorgio Vido...

 and the Federalists and Liberal Democrats

Federalists and Liberal Democrats

The Federalists and Liberal Democrats was a federalist and liberal Italian political party.-History:...

. This made possible the establishment of a sub-group within the Mixed Group in the Chamber.

The party was officially founded, changing its denomination, on 17 December 1995. At the founding congress in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

 also Vittorio Sgarbi

Vittorio Sgarbi

Vittorio Umberto Antonio Maria Sgarbi is an Italian art critic, politician, cultural commentator and TV personality.He was appointed curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale...

, art critic and maverick politician, joined the party. The program of the party included the idea of transforming Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 in a federal State, modelled onto the examples of Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, composed by three cantons (Padania

Padania

Padania is an alternative name for the Po Valley in Italy. The term was sparingly used until the early 1990s, when Lega Nord, a political party in Italy, proposed Padania as a possible denomination for an autonomous Northern Italy...

, Etruria

Central Italy

Central Italy is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics , a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency...

and Mediterranea) and the five existing autonomous regions. The federation would have been presided by a strong President

Presidential system

A presidential system is a system of government where an executive branch exists and presides separately from the legislature, to which it is not responsible and which cannot, in normal circumstances, dismiss it....

.

For the 1996 general election

Italian general election, 1996

An early national general election was held in Italy on 21 April, 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic...

 Sgarbi left Miglio to form a list with Marco Pannella

Marco Pannella

Giacinto Pannella, better known as Marco Pannella is an Italian politician.He is the historic leader of the Italian Radicals...

, the Pannella-Sgarbi List. Miglio was elected Senator in his sigle-seat constituency in Como

Como

Como is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy.It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como....

 with the support of the Pole of Freedoms

Pole of Freedoms

The Pole of Freedoms was a centre-right electoral alliance in Italy, launched at the 1994 general election by Silvio Berlusconi.The alliance was composed primarily of Forza Italia and the Lega Nord, but also included Christian Democratic Centre and the Union of the Centre...

 as Umberto Giovine, the party's secretary, did in Lodi. In 1997 the Federalist Party formed joint lists with the Union of the Centre at the local level and continued its approachment with Forza Italia.

The party was almost disbanded after the death of Miglio in 2001, but continued to exist and to be active under the leadership of Giovine until 2008, when it was merged into the Movement for Autonomy

Movement for Autonomy

The Movement for Autonomies is a regionalist Christian democratic political party in Italy. It demands economic development and greater autonomy for Sicily, mainly, and for other regions of Southern Italy...

.

Leadership

• President: Gianfranco Miglio
  Gianfranco Miglio
  thumb|Gianfranco Miglio School Centre in [[Adro]].Gianfranco Miglio was an Italian jurist, political scientist and politician, founder of the Partito Federalista. For 30 years, he presided over the Political science Faculty of Milan's Università Cattolica...
  
   (1994–2001)
  • Vice President: Vittorio Sgarbi
    Vittorio Sgarbi
    Vittorio Umberto Antonio Maria Sgarbi is an Italian art critic, politician, cultural commentator and TV personality.He was appointed curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale...
    
     (1995–1996)
• Secretary: Umberto Giovine (1994–2008)