Historical Far Left

Historical Far Left

Estrema Sinistra Storica
Historical Far Left Estrema Sinistra Storica
Leaders	Radicalism; Socialism; Anti-clericalism
Political position	Left-wing
	Politics of Italy; Political parties; Elections;

The Historical Far Left (

left-wing parliamentary group and coalition of Radical, Republican and Socialist politicians in Italy during the second half of the 19th century. Formerly known as the extreme wing of the Historical Left before the unification of Italy, it became a separate group when the more moderate branch of the Left accepted the leadership of the House of Savoy to build the new Italian state

History

The Historical Far Left was founded in 1877 by

The Extreme was mainly formed by three groups:

The Radicals, which supported democratic ideas, transitionally accepting the constitutional monarchy if it would allow universal suffrage.
The Republicans, which insisted upon an Italian Republic and consequently refused any collaboration with the existing monarchist state.
The Socialists, which saw the universal suffrage and the proclamation of the republic as a first step to a social revolution.

The Historical Far Left, supporting the republic and consequently the abrogation of the

Italian Chamber of Deputies and the winning coalition in many municipal and provincial elections in Northern Italy.^[6]

The Historical Far Left emerged as an important parliamentary force when the progressive Historical Left overthrew Marco Minghetti's government during the so-called Parliamentary Revolution of 1876, which brought Agostino Depretis to become Prime Minister. However, Depretis immediately began to look for support among the Right Members of Parliament, who readily changed their positions, in a context of widespread corruption. This phenomenon, known in Italian as trasformismo (roughly translatable in English as "transformism"—in a satirical newspaper, Prime Minister Depretis was depicted as a chameleon), effectively removed political differences in Parliament, which was dominated by an undistinguished liberal bloc with a landslide majority until after World War I.^[7]

Election year	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Leader
Chamber of Deputies
1861	Unknown (3rd)	2.3	14 / 493	14	Giuseppe Mazzini
1865	Unknown (3rd)	4.9	15 / 493	1	Giuseppe Mazzini
1867	Unknown (3rd)		0 / 493	15	Agostino Bertani
1870	Unknown (3rd)	1.9	0 / 493	–
1874	Unknown (3rd)	1.6	0 / 508	–
1876	Unknown (3rd)	1.5	0 / 508	–
1880	Unknown (4th)	1.8	0 / 508	–
1882	105,251 (3rd)	8.6	44 / 508	44
1886	123,958 (3rd)	5.2	45 / 508	1	Felice Cavallotti
1890	101,924 (3rd)	6.9	42 / 508	3
1892	182,256 (3rd)	11.0	56 / 508	14
1895	224,879 (3rd)	18.5	62 / 508	6
1897	201,120 (3rd)	16.2	82 / 508	20
1900	333,945 (2nd)	26.3	96 / 508	14	Ettore Sacchi

^ Francesco Leoni (2001). Storia dei partiti politici italiani. Guida: Naples.
^ Massimo L. Salvadori (2000). Enciclopedia storica. Zanichelli: Bologna.
^ David Busato (1996). Il Partito Radicale in Italia da Mario Pannunzio a Marco Pannella.
^ La Stampa historical archive.
^ "L'Estrema Sinistra e il movimento Garibaldino di fronte alla crisi d'Oriente del 1875-1878" (PDF).
^ Including Milan and Bologna.
^ "Italian Liberal Party" Archived 2006-11-21 at the Wayback Machine. Britannica Concise.