Pisaniani refers to the faction around Giuseppe Pisanu

Giuseppe Pisanu

Giuseppe Pisanu is an Italian politician, longtime member of the Chamber of Deputies for the Christian Democracy and then for Forza Italia...

, a leading member of 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....

 (PdL), a political party in Italy.

Formerly a left-wing 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 ....

, Pisanu has been an ally of Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...

, first in 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....

 (FI) and later in the PdL, since 1994. He was leader of FI in the Chamber of 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...

 from 1996 to 2001, and, more important, he was minister of the Interior from 2002 to 2006, under Berlusconi. In 2006 he was elected to the Senate

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, since then, he has become a critical figure within the party. Moreover, he was often seen as being interested in building a new Christian Democracy

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 ....

.

Since early 2011 a group of senators started to coalesce around Pisanu. They were not a formal faction and they were called Pisaniani. They included: some party heavyweights no longer under spotlight, such as Marcello Pera

Marcello Pera

Marcello Pera is an Italian philosopher and politician. He was the President of the Italian Senate from 2001 to 2006.-Career:...

 and Lamberto Dini; some fellow Sardinian

Sardinian

Sardinian can refer to:* Sardinia* Sardinian people* Sardinian language* Sardinian...

s, such as Mariano Delogu, Fedele Sanciu, Piergiorgio Massidda; some Christian democrats, such as Franco Orsi, Raffaele Lauro, Gabriele Boscetto, Vincenzo Oliva and, again, Sanciu; and, strangely enough, a large group of liberals, such as Paolo Amato (ex-PRI

Italian Republican Party

The Italian Republican Party is a liberal political party in Italy.The PRI is party with old roots that originally took a left-wing position, claiming descent from the political position of Giuseppe Mazzini...

), Valter Zanetta (ex-PLI

Italian Liberal Party

The Italian Liberal Party was a liberal political party in Italy.-Origins:The origins of liberalism in Italy came from the so-called "Historical Right", a parliamentary group formed by Camillo Benso di Cavour in the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia following the 1848 revolution...

), Paolo Scarpa Bonazza Buora (ex-PLI) and the already mentioned Massidda (ex-PRI), Pera (ex-PR) and Dini, and social democrats, such as Ferruccio Saro (ex-PSI

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...

), Massimo Baldini (ex-PSI and ex-PSDI

Italian Democratic Socialist Party

The Italian Democratic Socialist Party is a minor social-democratic political party in Italy. Mimmo Magistro is the party leader. The PSDI, before the 1990s decline in votes and members, had been an important force in Italian politics, being the longest serving partner in government for Christian...

) and Carlo Vizzini

Carlo Vizzini

-Political life:Vizzini was Secretary of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party from 1992 to 1993, Minister of Mails, and Minister for Cultural Assets and Activities , and was a member of the Italian Senate from Sicily for Forza Italia and latterly The People of Freedom...

 (ex-PSDI, left in early November 2011).

Soon after Berlusconi decided to resign from Prime Minister, many Pisaniani, along with Scajoliani

Scajoliani

Scajoliani refers to the faction around Claudio Scajola, a leading member of The People of Freedom , a political party in Italy.The group wielded particular influence within Forza Italia , the main precursor of PdL. Scajola and his allies proposed a stronger party organization, differently from...

, opposed an early election and threatened to form a new party.