Editing Christian Democracy (Italy) (section)

==History==
===Early years===
The party was founded as the revival of the [[Italian People's Party (1919)|Italian People's Party]] (PPI), a political party created in 1919 by [[Luigi Sturzo]], a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] priest.<ref name="Padovani2007">{{cite book|author=Cinzia Padovani|title=A Fatal Attraction: Public Television and Politics in Italy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aMsiP1HibrkC&pg=PA259|year=2007|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-1950-3|page=259}}</ref> The PPI won over 20% of the votes in the [[1919 Italian general election|1919]] and [[1921 Italian general election|1921 general elections]], but was declared illegal by the [[Italian Fascism|Fascist]] dictatorship in 1926 despite the presence of some ''Popolari'' in [[Benito Mussolini]]'s first government.

As [[World War II]] was ending, the Christian Democrats started organising post-Fascist Italy in coalition with all the other mainstream parties, including the [[Italian Communist Party]] (PCI), the [[Italian Socialist Party]] (PSI), the [[Italian Liberal Party]] (PLI), the [[Italian Republican Party]] (PRI), the [[Action Party (Italy)|Action Party]] (Pd'A) and the [[Labour Democratic Party]] (PDL). In December 1945 Christian Democrat [[Alcide De Gasperi]] was appointed [[Prime Minister of Italy]].

The Christian Democracy party was opposed to both Fascism and Communism. In elections Italians were voting based on a way of life, not just a political party.<ref name="reviewofpolitics">{{Cite journal|last=Einaudi|first=Mario|date=1947|title=Christian Democracy in Italy|journal=The Review of Politics|volume=9|issue=1|pages= 16–33|jstor=1404299|doi=10.1017/S003467050003792X|s2cid=144078864 }}</ref> Christian ideals were usually paired with the idea of freedom.<ref name="foreignaffairs">{{Cite journal|last=Ivella|first=Vittorio|date=1948|title=Favorable Omens in Italy|journal=Foreign Affairs|volume=26|issue=4|pages= 701–708|jstor=20030148|doi=10.2307/20030148}}</ref><ref name="ItalianAmericana">{{Cite journal|last=Murphy|first=Francis J.|date=1981|title=Don Sturzo and the Triumph of Christian Democracy|journal=Italian Americana|volume=7|issue=1|pages= 89–98|jstor=29776027}}</ref>

In the [[1946 Italian general election|1946 general election]] the DC won 35.2% of the vote.

===De Gasperi and centrism===
[[File:Alcide de Gasperi 2.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[Alcide De Gasperi]]]]

In May 1947 De Gasperi broke decisively with his Communist and Socialist coalition partners under pressure from U.S. President [[Harry Truman]]. This opened the way for a [[Centrism (Italy)|centrist coalition]] that included the [[Italian Democratic Socialist Party|Italian Workers' Socialist Party]] (PSLI), a centrist break-away from the PSI, as well as its usual allies, the PLI and the PRI.

In the [[1948 Italian general election|1948 general election]] the DC went on to win a decisive victory, with the support of the [[Catholic Church]] and the [[United States]], and obtained 48.5% of the vote, its best result ever. Despite his party's absolute majority in the [[Italian Parliament]], De Gasperi continued to govern at the head of the centrist coalition, which was successively abandoned by the Liberals, who hoped for more right-wing policies, in 1950 and the Democratic Socialists, who hoped for more leftist policies, in 1951.

Under De Gasperi, major land reforms were carried out in the poorer rural regions in the early postwar years, with farms appropriated from the large landowners and parcelled out to the peasants. In addition, during its years in office, Christian Democrats passed a number of laws safeguarding employees from exploitation, established a national health service, and initiated low-cost housing in Italy's major cities.<ref>Italy: Library of Nations: Italy, Time-Life Books, 1985</ref>

De Gasperi served as prime minister until 1953 and died a year later. No Christian Democrat would match his longevity in office and, despite the fact that DC's share of the vote was always between 38 and 43% from [[1953 Italian general election|1953]] to [[1979 Italian general election|1979]], the party was more and more fractured. As a result, Prime Ministers changed more frequently.

===Centre-left governments===
[[File:Amintore Fanfani Senato.jpg|thumb|150px|right|[[Amintore Fanfani]]]]
[[File:Aldo Moro headshot.jpg|thumb|150px|right|[[Aldo Moro]]]]

From 1954 the DC was led by progressive Christian Democrats, such as [[Amintore Fanfani]], [[Aldo Moro]] and [[Benigno Zaccagnini]], supported by the influential left-wing factions. In the 1950s the party formed centrist or moderately centre-left coalitions, and even a short-lived government led by [[Fernando Tambroni]] relying on parliamentary support from the [[Italian Social Movement]] (MSI), the post-fascist party.

In 1963 the party, under Prime Minister [[Aldo Moro]], formed a coalition with the PSI, which returned to ministerial roles after 16 years, the PSDI and the PRI. Similar "[[Organic Centre-left]]" governments became usual through the 1960s and the 1970s.<ref name="Botsiou">{{cite book|author=Konstantina E. Botsiou|chapter=The European Centre-Right and European Integration: The Formative Yearss|editor=Constantine Arvanitopoulos|title=Reforming Europe: The Role of the Centre-Right|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G6gWLW2oDJ0C&pg=PA180|year=2010|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-642-00560-2|page=180}}</ref>

===Historic Compromise===
From 1976 to 1979 the DC governed with the external support of the PCI, through the [[Historic Compromise]]. Moro, who was the party main leader and who had inspired the Compromise, was [[Kidnapping of Aldo Moro|abducted and murdered]] by the [[Red Brigades]].

The event was a shock for the party. When Moro was abducted, the government, at the time led by [[Giulio Andreotti]], immediately took a hardline position stating that the "State must not bend" on terrorist demands. This was a very different position from the one taken in similar cases before and after (such as the [[kidnapping of Ciro Cirillo]], a [[Campania]]n DC member for whom a ransom was paid thanks to the local ties of the party with the [[Camorra]]). It was however supported by all the mainstream parties, including the PCI, with the two notable exceptions of the PSI and the [[Radical Party (Italy)|Radicals]]. In the trial for [[Sicilian Mafia|Mafia]] allegations against Andreotti, it was said that he took the chance of getting rid of a dangerous political competitor by sabotaging all of the rescue options and ultimately leaving the captors with no option but killing him.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Francesco Pecorelli|author2=Sommella Roberto|title=I veleni di OP|url=http://www.rifondazione-cinecitta.org/pecorelli-dallachiesa.html|publisher=KAOS Edizioni|language=it|access-date=19 October 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090618130605/http://www.rifondazione-cinecitta.org/pecorelli-dallachiesa.html|archive-date=18 June 2009|url-status=usurped}}</ref> During his captivity Moro wrote a series of letters, at times very critical of Andreotti.{{Citation needed|reason=broken link to www.apolis.com/moro/moro/lettere/indice.htm|date=November 2022}}. Later the memorial written by Moro during his imprisonment was subject{{Clarify|date=November 2022}} to several plots, including the assassination of journalist [[Mino Pecorelli]] and general [[Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.repubblica.it/online/politica/procura/vitalone/vitalone.html|title=La Magliana, uno schizzo di fango su Vitalone|work=La Repubblica|language=it|access-date=19 October 2010}}</ref>

===''Pentapartito''===
[[File:Giulio Andreotti, ca 1987.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Giulio Andreotti]]]]

At the beginning of the 1980s, the DC had lost part of its support among Italian voters. In 1981, [[Giovanni Spadolini]] of the PRI was the first non-Christian Democrat to lead a government since 1944, at the head of a coalition comprising the DC, the PSI, the PSDI, the PRI and the PLI, the so-called ''[[Pentapartito]]''. In the successive [[1983 Italian general election|1983 general election]], the DC suffered one of its largest declines in votes up to that point, receiving only 32.5% of the vote cast (a decline of -5.8% relative to 1981). Subsequently, [[Bettino Craxi]] (leader of the rising PSI) reclaimed for himself the post of prime minister, again at the head of a ''Pentapartito'' government.

DC re-gained the post of prime minister in 1987, after a modest recovery in the [[1987 Italian general election|1987 general election]] (34.2%), and the ''Pentapartito'' coalition governed Italy almost continuously until 1993. While Italy experienced steady economic progress in the 1980s, the Italian economy was being undermined by a constant devaluation of the [[Italian lira]] and the issuing of large amounts of high-interest treasury bonds, so that, between 1982 and 1992, the excessive [[Government budget deficit|budget deficit]] built a significant proportion of the debt that would plague the country well into the 21st century.

===Dissolution and aftermath===
In 1992 the ''[[Mani pulite]]'' investigation was started in [[Milan]], uncovering the so-called ''Tangentopoli'' scandals (endemic corruption practices at the highest levels), and causing numerous, often controversial, arrests and resignations. After the dismal result in the [[1992 Italian general election|1992 general election]] (29.7%), also due to the rise of {{lang|it|[[Lega Nord]]|italic=no}} in [[northern Italy]] and two years of mounting scandals (which included several Mafia investigations which notably touched Andreotti), the party was disbanded in 1994. In the 1990s most of the politicians prosecuted during those investigations were acquitted, sometimes however on the basis of legal formalities or on the basis of [[statute of limitations|statutory time limit]] rules.

In 1992, [[Mario Segni]] led a breakaway faction called [[Populars for Reform]] (PR). The DC suffered heavy defeats in the 1993 provincial and municipal elections. Subsequently, Segni's PR would be reformed as the [[Segni Pact]], and contemporary polling suggested heavy losses for the DC in the upcoming [[1994 Italian general election|1994 general election]]. In hopes of changing the party's image, the DC's last secretary, [[Mino Martinazzoli]] decided to change the name of the party into the [[Italian People's Party (1994)|Italian People's Party]] (PPI).  

[[Pier Ferdinando Casini]], representing the right-wing faction of the party (previously led by Forlani) decided to launch a new party called [[Christian Democratic Centre]] and form an alliance with [[Silvio Berlusconi]]'s new party, [[Forza Italia]] (FI). The left-wing factions stayed within the new PPI, though a minority would form the [[Social Christians]] in 1993 and would join forces with the post-communist [[Democratic Party of the Left]] (DPS). Some right-wingers, feeling Casini was still too moderate, joined the [[National Alliance (Italy)|National Alliance]]. 

In 1995, the centre-right [[United Christian Democrats]], which were led by [[Rocco Buttiglione]], split off from the PPI and also entered in alliance with FI. In the following years, most Christian Democrats joined FI, which became the party with the most ex-DC members in absolute terms. In December 1999, Forza Italia gained full membership in the [[European People's Party]].

The PPI would continue in a rump fashion, usually finding itself in left of centre political coalitions. In [[1996 Italian general election|1996]], under [[Franco Marini]], the PPI would ally with the DPS and several smaller centre-left parties to form [[The Olive Tree (Italy)|The Olive Tree]]. The alliance, whose primary components were two legal successors to the two major political forces of pre-1990s Italy, won the election. [[Romano Prodi]], an independent former PPI member, led the list and became prime minister.

Faced with flagging poll numbers, the PPI formed [[Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy]] (DL) after allying three other smaller, social liberal parties to contest the [[2001 Italian general election|2001 election]]. DL would be formed as an official political party in 2002, succeeding the PPI and its three allies. In 2007, DL would merge with the [[Democrats of the Left]], the successor of the DPS, to form the [[Democratic Party (Italy)|Democratic Party]], which is today{{Efn|As of the [[2022 Italian general election]].}} the largest centre-left political party in Italy.