Movement for Autonomy

Infobox Italian political party
name_english = Movement for Autonomy

leader = Raffaele Lombardo
leader1_title =
leader1_name =
leader2_title =
leader2_name =
leader3_title =
leader3_name =
leader4_title =
leader4_name =
foundation = 30 April 2005
dissolution =
headquarters = Via dell'Oca, 27 00186 Rome
newspaper = none
membership_year=
membership = "unknown"
ideology = Regionalism,
Christian democracy,
Conservatism
coalition = with The People of Freedom and Lega Nord
international = "none"
european = "none"
europarl = European People's Party–European Democrats
website = http://www.mpa-italia.it
colorcode = lightblue

The Movement for Autonomy ("Movimento per l'Autonomia", MpA) is a minor Italian political party. It demands economic development and greater autonomy for Sicily, mainly, and for other regions of Southern Italy.

History

The party was founded on April 30, 2005 by a number of Southern Italian, especially Sicilian, right-of-centre autonomist dissidents, notably from Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) and New Italian Socialist Party (NPSI). It is led by Raffaele Lombardo, President of the Province of Catania and MEP, formerly UDC Sicilian leader. The party made its debut for the mayoral election of Messina a few months later.

The first party congress, held in Bari from December 16 to December 18, 2005, did not immediately decide any alliance for the next general election, claiming the new movement recognized itself as a centrist party. However, on February 4, 2006, an electoral alliance in the House of Freedoms sphere with the Northern League, a regionalist movement based in Northern Italy, and the Sardinian Action Party, was announced. The electoral alliance was named Pact for the Autonomies and, in the 2006 general election, MpA elected 5 deputies (2 in the lists of Forza Italia) and 2 senators (1 in the lists of Forza Italia).

Lombardo claimed to have discarded the possibility of an alliance with the centre-left The Union mainly because of the latter's opposition to the building of the Strait of Messina Bridge and to PACS. Because of the party's support for the Messina Bridge, Moviment for Authonomy's actual interest on Sicilian matters was often questioned by its opponents.

In January 2008 MpA formed a political pact with Italy of the Centre named "Movement for Autonomy/Italy of the Centre". It is currently the smallest member of Berlusconi's three-party ruling coalition. [Citation | publication-date =2008-04-17 | date = | year =
title =Italy embraces Silvio, again and again | periodical =The Economist | series = | publication-place =London | place =| publisher = | volume = | issue = | pages = | url =http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11067600 | issn = | doi = | oclc = | accessdate =2008-04-30]

Leadership

*Raffaele Lombardo (2005–...)

Notes and references