Forza Italia

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Forza Italia^[a] (FI; lit. 'Forward Italy' or 'Come on Italy' or 'Let's Go Italy')^[b] was a centre-right^[2] liberal-conservative^{[3][13][14][15]} political party in Italy, with Christian democratic,^[16][2][17] liberal^{[16][2][17][18]} (especially economic liberalism),^[19] social democratic^[16] and populist^[20][21][22] tendencies. It was founded by Silvio Berlusconi, who served as Prime Minister of Italy four times.

The party was founded in December 1993 and won its first general election soon afterwards in March 1994. It was the main member of the Pole of Freedoms/Pole of Good Government, Pole for Freedoms and House of Freedoms coalitions. Throughout its existence, the party was characterised by a strong reliance on the personal image and charisma of its leader (it has been called a "personality party"^[23][24] or Berlusconi's "personal party"),^[25][26][27] and the skillful use of media campaigns, especially via television.^[28] The party's organisation and ideology depended heavily on its leader, so much so that its appeal to voters was based on Berlusconi's personality more than on its ideology or programme.^[29]

In November 2008, the national council of the party, presided by

Forza Italia was formed in 1993 by Silvio Berlusconi, a successful businessman and owner of four of the main private television stations in Italy, along with Antonio Martino, Mario Valducci [it], Antonio Tajani, Marcello Dell'Utri, Cesare Previti and Giuliano Urbani.

Italy was shaken by a series of corruption scandals known as

Forza Italia's aim was to attract moderate voters who were "disoriented, political orphans and who risked being unrepresented" (as Berlusconi described them), especially if the Democratic Party of the Left (the direct heirs of the Italian Communist Party) had been able to win the next election and enter in government for the first time since 1947.

The establishment of Forza Italia was supported in terms of finance, personnel and logistics by Berlusconi's Fininvest corporation: The area managers of its advertisement branch Publitalia '80 (managed by Dell'Utri)^[31] organised the selection of FI candidates, its marketing network staffed the opinion research centre Diakron that surveyed the "market potential" of the new party and the financial intermediaries of Fininvest subsidiary Programma Italia encouraged the launch of Forza Italia clubs.^[32] The new party's campaigning was strongly dependent on Fininvest's TV stations and PR resources.^[33] This earned Forza Italia labels like "virtual",^[34] "plastic"^[35] or "business-firm party".^[36][37][38] In her 2001 study of the party, political scientist Emanuela Poli described Forza Italia as "a mere diversification of Fininvest in the political market".^[39] The case of Forza Italia was unprecedented as never before had a large political party been launched by a business corporation.^[32] Only slowly it transformed into a mass-membership organisation. It took four years until the first party congress was held.^[31] To extend its representation in different regions, FI often recruited established politicians of the "old" parties, mainly DC and PSI, who defected to the new party, bringing their local clientele with them.^[33]

FI's political programme was strongly influenced by the manifesto "In Search of Good Government" (Alla ricerca del buongoverno) authored in late 1993 by Giuliano Urbani who was then a political science professor at Milan's private Bocconi University and an occasional collaborator of Fininvest. It denounced corruption, dominance of political parties and remnants of communism as Italy's ills, while advocating market economy, the assertion of civil society and more efficient politics as the solutions.^[40] In a couple of months Forza Italia became one of the leading Italian parties, achieving a large consensus through an accurate strategy of communication and pounding electoral spots aired by the Mediaset TV channels.^[41]

A few months after its creation, Forza Italia came to national power after the

Silvio Berlusconi was sworn in May 1994 as Prime Minister of Italy in a

In the 1994 European Parliament election held in June, Forza Italia was placed first nationally, with 30.6% of the vote, electing 27 MEPs. The party did not join an existing group in the European Parliament, instead forming the new group Forza Europa, composed entirely of Forza Italia MEPs.^[42]

The first Berlusconi-led government had a short life and fell in December, when Lega Nord left the coalition, after disagreements over pension reform and the first avviso di garanzia (preliminary notice of an investigation) for Berlusconi, passed by Milan prosecutors. Forza Italia's leader was replaced as prime minister by Lamberto Dini, an independent politician who had been the administration's Treasury Minister. No members of Forza Italia joined the new government and the party leader was relegated to opposition. However, the party obtained substantial successes in the 1995 Italian regional elections, both in the North (winning in Piedmont, Lombardy and Veneto) and the South (Campania, Apulia and Calabria).

In 1996 the Pole for Freedoms coalition led by Forza Italia lost that year's general election and began what Berlusconi called "the crossing of the desert", something that could have proved fatal for such a young and unstructured party. Between 1996 and 1998, the party started to strengthen its organisation under Claudio Scajola, a former Christian Democrat who served as national coordinator of Forza Italia from 1996 to 2001.

In December 1999, Forza Italia gained full membership in the European People's Party,^[43] of which Antonio Tajani, the party leader of Forza Italia in the European Parliament, became a Vice President. In the same year, the party scored well (25.2% of votes) in the European Parliament election of 1999.

In the Italian regional elections of 2000, the Pole for Freedoms, with the support of Lega Nord, won in eight out of fifteen regions (all the most populous ones, except for Campania), while three members of Forza Italia were re-elected as presidents of the Region in Piedmont (Enzo Ghigo), Lombardy (Roberto Formigoni), and Veneto (Giancarlo Galan), together with three more elected for the first time in Liguria (Sandro Biasotti), Apulia (Raffaele Fitto) and Calabria (Giuseppe Chiaravalloti).

The party regained power in the

In June 2001, after the huge success in May elections, Silvio Berlusconi was returned head of the Italian government, the longest-serving

In 2004 European elections, Forza Italia was second place nationally, receiving 20.1% of the vote and returning 16 MEPs.

In national office, the government's popularity kept declining steadily year after year. Regional elections in April 2005 were a serious blow for the party, which however remained strong in the

During his five years in office, Berlusconi government passed a series of reforms: a pension system reform, a labour market reform, a judiciary reform and a constitutional reform – the latter rejected by a referendum in June 2006. In foreign policy he shifted the country's position to more closeness to the United States, while in economic policy he was not able to deliver the tax cuts he had openly promised throughout all 2001 electoral campaign.

In the

On 21 November 2008 the national council of the party, presided over by Alfredo Biondi and attended by Berlusconi himself, officially decided the dissolution of Forza Italia into The People of Freedom (PdL), whose official foundation took place on 27 March 2009.

In June 2013 Berlusconi announced the upcoming revival of Forza Italia, and the transformation of the People of Freedom into a centre-right

Ideology

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Forza Italia was a centre-right party, formed mainly by former members of Christian Democracy, the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian Liberal Party. The ideology of the party ranged from libertarianism to social democracy (often referred to as "liberal socialism" in Italy), including elements of the Catholic social teaching and the social market economy.^{[51][independent source needed]} The party was a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and presented itself as the party of renewal and modernization. The core values of Forza Italia were "freedom" and the "centrality of the individual".^[16] From a comparative perspective the ideology of Forza Italia has been characterized as liberal conservative,^{[13][52][53][54]} or conservative liberal,^[55][56] national conservative,^[57] and liberal.^[18]

The electoral base of Forza Italia was highly heterogeneous and the ideological differences among its voters are explained also by its different regional constituencies; while voters from the North tended to support the original libertarian line of the party, voters from the South tended to be more statist.^[58] Both its Northern strongholds (Lombardy and Veneto) and its Southern strongholds (Sicily and Apulia) were once dominated by the Christian Democracy party; while in the South most leading members of Forza Italia are former Christian Democrats, the party was highly influenced also by liberals in the North.^[59]

Forza Italia claimed to be a fresh new party, with no ties with the last governments of the so-called First Republic, and at the same time to be the heir of the best political traditions of Italy: Christian Democrat Alcide De Gasperi, Social Democrat Giuseppe Saragat, Liberal Luigi Einaudi and Republican Ugo La Malfa were considered as party icons.^[51]

The "Secular Creed", that was also the preamble to the party's constitution, described the party in this way:

Forza Italia is a liberal party although not an elitist one, indeed a popular liberal-democratic party; it is a Catholic party although not a confessional one; it is a secular party, although not an intolerant and secularist one; it is a national party, although not a centralist one.^[60][61]

Forza Italia presented itself as a bridge between Catholics and non-Catholics, who have been previously divided in the political system of the First Republic, and "the union of three political-cultural areas: that of liberal and popular Catholicism, that of secular, liberal and republican humanism and that of liberal socialism".^[51] In a speech during a party congress in 1998, Berlusconi himself proclaimed: "our liberal vision of the State is perfectly in agreement with the Catholic social teaching".^{[62][independent source needed]}

The "Secular Creed" of the party explains that FI was a party that primarily underlined freedom and the centrality of the individual, which are basic principles of both liberalism^[63] and the Catholic social teaching, often connected in party official documents:

We believe in freedom, in all its several and vital forms: in the freedom of thought, in the freedom of expression, in religious freedom, of every religion, in the freedom of association. ... Freedom is not graciously conceded by the State, because it comes before it. It is a natural right, which belongs to us as we are human beings and it itself rather lays the foundations of the State. ... We believe that the State should be at the service of citizens, and not citizens at the service of the State. We believe that the State should be the servant of the citizen and not the citizen the servant of the State. The citizen is sovereign. For this, we believe concretely in the individual ... . We believe in the values of our Christian tradition, in the life values which cannot be renounced, in common good, in freedom of education and learning, in peace, in solidarity, in justice, in tolerance ... .^[64]

In 2008 Berlusconi stated that:

We want a social market economy. A democracy cannot afford citizens in poor conditions. With our book on welfare we tackle the needs of the weakest families. It is decidedly a left-wing policy. This government which centrist, liberal, with Catholics and reformists, intends to advance with policies that the left-wing promises by word of mouth.^[65]

Sandro Bondi, a leading member of the party, wrote:

Forza Italia considers liberal classics as Croce, Sturzo, Hayek and Einaudi as reference authors. In particular, it hark back to the social market economy of Röpke, which was conceived in reference to the traditional social teaching of the Church. Forza Italia has imparted a deep cultural innovation, combining the language of the Church tradition with the liberal and reformist thought.^[16]

The party included also non-

Members

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Most members of the party were former Christian Democrats (DC): Giuseppe Pisanu (former member of the leftist faction of DC and Minister of Interior), Roberto Formigoni (President of Lombardy), Claudio Scajola (former Minister of the Interior and of Industry), Enrico La Loggia, Renato Schifani, Guido Crosetto, Raffaele Fitto, Giuseppe Gargani, Alfredo Antoniozzi, Giorgio Carollo, Giuseppe Castiglione, Francesco Giro, Luigi Grillo, Maurizio Lupi, Mario Mantovani, Mario Mauro, Osvaldo Napoli, Antonio Palmieri, Angelo Sanza, Riccardo Ventre and Marcello Vernola are only some remarkable examples.

Several members were former Socialists (PSI), as Giulio Tremonti (vice-president of the party and former Minister of Economy), Franco Frattini (Vice President of the European Commission), Fabrizio Cicchitto (national deputy-coordinator of the party), Renato Brunetta, Francesco Musotto, Amalia Sartori, Paolo Guzzanti and Margherita Boniver. Berlusconi himself was a close friend of Bettino Craxi, leader of the PSI, in spite of his own Christian Democratic and Liberal background (Berlusconi was a DC activist in occasion of the 1948 general election).

Many were former Liberals (PLI), Republicans (PRI) and Social Democrats (PSDI): Alfredo Biondi (president of Forza Italia's national council) and Raffaele Costa, both former PLI leaders, and former PSDI leader Carlo Vizzini were later MPs for Forza Italia. Also Antonio Martino and Giancarlo Galan were formers Liberals, Jas Gawronski was a leading Republican, while Marcello Pera has a Socialist and Radical background.

Even some former Communists were leading members of the party, such as national party coordinator Sandro Bondi and Ferdinando Adornato.

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Members of Forza Italia were divided in factions, which were sometimes mutable and formed over the most important political issues, despite previous party allegiances; however, it is possible to distinguish some patterns. The party was divided over ethical (between social conservatives and progressives), economic (between social democrats and some Christian democrats on one side and liberals on the other one), and institutional issues.

Regarding the latter issue, generally speaking, northern party members were staunch proposers of political and fiscal federalism, and autonomy for the Regions (in some parts of Veneto and Lombardy, it was sometimes difficult to distinguish a member of FI from a member of the LN), while those coming from the South were more cold on the issue. Also some former Liberals, due to their role of unifiers of Italy in the 19th century, were more centralist.

A scheme of the internal factions within Forza Italia could be this:

• Liberals. Supporters of free markets, deregulation, economic freedoms, civil rights and, in general, personal responsibility and freedom. This group was basically formed by two wings: classical liberals (former members of the Italian Liberal Party, most of them organised in Popular Liberalism, as Alfredo Biondi, Raffaele Costa, Egidio Sterpa and Enrico Nan); former Socialists, as Renato Brunetta and Paolo Guzzanti; others like Stefania Prestigiacomo and Simone Baldelli) and libertarians, as Antonio Martino (ex-PLI), Dario Rivolta, Benedetto Della Vedova (ex-Radical) and his Liberal Reformers. The latter were more staunchly pro-United States than the former and supported the idea of transforming Italy into a federal State.
• Liberal-
  Gianfranco Micciché and Aldo Brancher
  ). They were strong in Northern Italy and strong supporters of political and fiscal federalism.
• europeanist wing of the party, along with former Socialists, but many of them were also the most atlanticists within it, as Adornato and Pera. In 2007 Adornato, Pisanu and Formigoni launched a faction named Liberal-Popular Union, but, the faction soon was disbanded as Adornato left Forza Italia to join UDC. Formigoni had also his own group, Network Italy, mainly composed of Catholics active in Communion and Liberation
  , to which group both Crosetto and Fitto showed closeness.
• Young Italy and the Clubs of Reformist Initiative
  .

Christian democrats and liberal-centrists were undoubtedly the strongest factions within the party, but all four were mainstream for a special issue: for example liberals and liberal-centrists were highly influential over economic policy, Christian democrats led the party over ethical issues (although there was a substantial minority promoting a more progressive outlook), while social democrats had their say in defining the party's policy over labour market reform and, moreover, it is thanks to this group (and to those around Tremonti, he himself a former Socialist) that constitutional reform was at the top of Forza Italia's political agenda. It is difficult to say to what faction Berlusconi was closer, what is sure is that his political record was a synthesis of all the political tendencies within the party.

Internal structure

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Before being merged into the PdL, Forza Italia had a president (currently Silvio Berlusconi), two vice-presidents (Giulio Tremonti and Roberto Formigoni), a presidential committee (presided by Claudio Scajola) and a national council (presided by Alfredo Biondi).

The president was the party's leader, but a national coordinator was in charge of internal organisation and day-to-day political activity, similarly to the secretary-general in many European parties. Moreover, the party had thematic departments and regional, provincial or metropolitan coordination boards plus many affiliate clubs (Club Azzurro) all over Italy.

FI is considered a prototypical example of the business-firm party, in that it was strongly centered on Berlusconi, who had created the party to further his own private interests.^{[73][74][75][76][77]}

It has been claimed that Forza Italia had no internal democracy because there was no way of changing the leader of the party from below (although the party's constitution makes it possible). Key posts in the party structure were appointed by Berlusconi or by his delegates. Forza Italia's organisation was based on the idea of a "party of the elected people", giving more importance to the whole electorate than to party's members.

Party national-level conventions did not have normally elections to choose the party leadership (although the national congress elected some members of the national council), and they seemed to be more like events arranged for propaganda purposes. However, Berlusconi was highly popular among his party fellows, and it was unlikely he could have been overthrown if such an election had occurred.

Within the party there was a long debate over organisation. The original idea was the so-called "light party" (partito leggero), intended to be different from Italian traditional, bureaucratic and self-referential, party machines. This was the line of the early founders of the party, notably Marcello Dell'Utri and Antonio Martino. However Claudio Scajola and most former Christian Democrats supported a more capillary-based organisation, to make participate as much people as possible, and a more collegial, participative and democratic decision-making process.^{[citation needed]}

In a 1999 study, political scientists Jonathan Hopkin and Caterina Paolucci likened the organisational model of the party to that of a business firm, describing it as having "a lightweight organisation with the sole basic function of mobilising short-term support at election time".^[37] Several other authors have adopted this comparison,^{[78][79][80][81]} and have labeled Berlusconi as a "political entrepreneur".^[82][83][84]

Given the perceived use of government responsibility to advance Berlusconi's personal and Fininvest's business interests during the period of Forza Italia-led government, the political scientist Patrick McCarthy in 1995 proposed to describe Forza Italia as a "clan" rather than a reform-minded political party.^[85] In 2004, ten years after the emergence of the party and during its second term in government, Mark Donovan summarised that this still might be an accurate description. He asserted that the party (and the centre-right camp) was only coherent and disciplined when it came to questions that strongly concerned Berlusconi, while he allowed great liberties to the diverse factions in other issues that did not concern his personal interests.^[86]

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From its inception, Forza Italia used unconventional means in regards to European politics. Forza Italia's methods more closely resembled the American model, and utilized methods such as: stickering, SMS messaging, and mass-mailing of campaign material. This additionally included the widespread distribution of Berlusconi's biography, which was titled "An Italian Story" (Una storia italiana).

The party was heavily dependent on the image surrounding Berlusconi's personality. The party's anthem was sung in karaoke fashion at American-style conventions. There was nominally no internal opposition (although some critical voices raised up, such as those of Senators Paolo Guzzanti and Raffaele Iannuzzi). The party used TV advertising extensively, although this was slightly restricted following 2000 by a law passed by the centre-left majority of the time.

Following its first European election in 1994, Forza Italia MEPs formed their own political group in the European Parliament called Forza Europa.^[42] In 1995, Forza Europa merged with the European Democratic Alliance to form the Union for Europe group alongside the Rally for the Republic of France and Fianna Fáil of Ireland.^[87][88] Following an abandoned attempt to form a European political party with Rally for the Republic in 1997,^[88] on 10 June 1998 Forza Italia was accepted into the

Popular support

The electoral results of FI in general (Chamber of Deputies) and European Parliament elections since 1994 are shown in the chart below.

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

The electoral results of Forza Italia in the 10 most populated regions of Italy are shown in the table below.

Chamber of Deputies
Election year	Votes	%	Seats	+/−	Leader
1994	8,138,781 (1st)	21.0	113 / 630	–	Silvio Berlusconi
1996	7,712,149 (2nd)	20.6	122 / 630	9	Silvio Berlusconi
2001	10,923,431 (1st)	29.4	178 / 630	56	Silvio Berlusconi
2006	9,045,384 (2nd)	23.6	140 / 630	38	Silvio Berlusconi

Senate of the Republic
Election year	Votes	%	Seats	+/−	Leader
1994	with PdL/PBG	–	36 / 315	–	Silvio Berlusconi
1996	with PpL	–	48 / 315	12	Silvio Berlusconi
2001	with CdL	–	82 / 315	34	Silvio Berlusconi
2006	9,048,976 (2nd)	23.7	79 / 315	3	Silvio Berlusconi

European Parliament
Election year	Votes	%	Seats	+/−	Leader
1994	10,809,139 (1st)	30.6	27 / 87	–	Silvio Berlusconi
1999	7,913,948 (1st)	25.2	22 / 87	5	Silvio Berlusconi
2004	6,806,245 (2nd)	20.9	16 / 78	6	Silvio Berlusconi

• President: Silvio Berlusconi (1994–2009)
  • Vice President: Giulio Tremonti (2004–2009), Roberto Formigoni (2008–2009)
  • Spokesperson: Antonio Tajani (1994–1996), Paolo Bonaiuti (1996–2001), Sandro Bondi (2001–2004), Elisabetta Gardini (2004–2008), Daniele Capezzone (2008–2009)
• President of the President's Committee: Claudio Scajola (2004–2009)
  • Vice President of the President's Committee: Carlo Vizzini (2005–2009)
• President of the National Council: Alfredo Biondi (2004–2009)
• Coordinator: Domenico Mennitti (1994), Luigi Caligaris (1994), Cesare Previti (1994–1996), Claudio Scajola (1996–2001), Roberto Antonione (2001–2003), Claudio Scajola (2003), Sandro Bondi (2003–2008), Denis Verdini (2008–2009)
  • Deputy-Coordinator:
    Gianfranco Micciché (2004–2009), Renato Brunetta (2007–2009), Gian Carlo Abelli
    (2008–2009)
• Treasurer: Mario Valducci (1994–1995), Domenico Lo Jucco (1995–1997), Giovanni Dell'Elce (1997–2003), Rocco Crimi (2003–2009)
• Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: Raffaele Della Valle (1994), Vittorio Dotti (1994–1996), Giuseppe Pisanu (1996–2001), Elio Vito (2001–2008), Fabrizio Cicchitto (leader of PdL's group, 2008–2009)
• Party Leader in the Senate: Enrico La Loggia (1994–2001), Renato Schifani (2001–2008), Gaetano Quagliariello (deputy leader of PdL's group, 2008–2009)
• Party Leader in the European Parliament: Giancarlo Ligabue (1994–1997), Claudio Azzolini (1997–1999), Antonio Tajani (1999–2009)

• 
  1994 general election
• 
  1996 general election
• 
  2001 general election
• 
  2006 general election

• Ruzza, Carlo; Fella, Stefano (2009), "Forza Italia", in Ruzza, Carlo; Fella, Stefano (eds.), Re-inventing the Italian right: territorial politics, populism and 'post-fascism', London New York: Routledge, pp. 104–140,
  ISBN 9780415344616
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• Hopkin, Jonathan (2004). "Forza Italia after ten years". Italian Politics. 20: 83–99.
  JSTOR 43039789
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• McDonnell, Duncan (April 2013). "Silvio Berlusconi's Personal Parties: From Forza Italia to the Popolo Della Libertà".
  S2CID 143141811
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• Paolucci, Caterina (August 2006). "The nature of Forza Italia and the Italian transition". Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans. 8 (2): 163–178.
  S2CID 154702539
  .
• Poli, Emanuela (2001). Forza Italia: Strutture, leadership e radicamento territoriale. Bologna: Il Mulino.
• Raniolo, Francesco (December 2006). "Forza Italia: a leader with a party". South European Society and Politics. 11 (3–4): 439–455.
  S2CID 153444704
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