Italy of the Centre was a small 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...

 Italian political party, based in Central

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 Southern Italy, and especially in Abruzzo

Abruzzo

Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...

. Its leader is Vincenzo Scotti

Vincenzo Scotti

Vincenzo Scotti is an Italian politician and member of Christian Democracy . He was Minister of the Interior and Minister of Foreign Affairs.-Biography:...

, former Christian Democratic

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 ....

 Minister of the Interior

Italian Minister of the Interior

This is a list of Italian Ministers of the Interior since 1861.-Kingdom of Italy:-Italian Republic:...

.

The party contested the 2006 general election

Italian general election, 2006

In the Italian general election, 2006 for the renewal of the two Chambers of the Parliament of Italy held on April 9 and April 10, 2006 the incumbent prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the center-right House of Freedoms, was narrowly defeated by Romano Prodi, leader of the center-left The...

 as Third Pole (Terzo Polo), independently from the two major coalitions. In 2007 the party counted four regional councillors: Giorgio De Matteis and Claudio Di Bartolomeo (Abruzzo

Abruzzo

Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...

), Antonio Milo (Campania

Campania

Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

) and Antonio Flovilla (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...

). In January 2008 the IdC formed a political pact with Raffaele Lombardo

Raffaele Lombardo

Raffaele Lombardo is an Italian politician, President of Sicily and former Member of the European Parliament for Islands with the Movement for Autonomies and has sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.He is a substitute for the Committee on the...

's 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...

 (MpA), whose power base is in Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

. Tha plan was to create a net of regionalist

Regionalism (politics)

Regionalism is a term used in international relations. Regionalism also constitutes one of the three constituents of the international commercial system...

 Christian-democratic parties.

After the 2008 general election

Italian general election, 2008

A snap general election was held in Italy on 13 April and 14 April 2008. The election came after President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved parliament on 6 February 2008 following the defeat of the government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi in a January 2008 Senate vote, and the unsuccessful tentative...

 Scotti was appointed Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs in Berlusconi IV Cabinet

Berlusconi IV Cabinet

Berlusconi IV Cabinet has been the cabinet of the government of Italy from 8 May 2008 to 16 November 2011.As of July 2011, it was composed of 24 ministers, 4 deputy ministers and 39 under-secretaries, for a total of 67 members.-Sources:*...

 and later also president of the MpA. In the 2008 Abruzzo regional election

Abruzzo regional election, 2008

A regional election took place on 14–15 December 2008 in Abruzzo, due to the early resignation of President Ottaviano Del Turco, after his indictment for alleged corruption...

the MpA won 3.3 of the vote and De Matteis was re-elected regional deputy.