Radical Party (Italy)

"See Italian Radicals (disambiguation)".

The Radical Party ("Partito Radicale") was an Italian political party.

For decades it has been a bastion of liberalism and radicalism in Italy and proposed itself as the strongest opposition to the Italian political establishment, seen as corrupt and conservative. Since 1955 the party changed its name numerous times and in 1989 it was transformed into the Transnational Radical Party. One of the current incarnations of the party is called Italian Radicals, which was founded after a period in the 1990s when Radicals presented electoral lists for Italian general elections, without having a structured party.

History

The Radical Party was founded in 1955 by the progressive left wing of the Italian Liberal Party, including Bruno Villabruna, Mario Pannunzio, Ernesto Rossi, Leo Valiani, Guido Calogero, Giovanni Ferrara, Paolo Ungari, Eugenio Scalfari, and Marco Pannella.

After a temporary disbandment, the party was re-founded by Marco Pannella and Gianfranco Spadaccia in 1963 and came to political success in 1976, when the Radicals entered Parliament with 4 deputies: Marco Pannella, Emma Bonino, Adele Faccio and Mauro Mellini. In 1979 the party scored 3.5% and elected 18 deputies and 2 senators, its best result ever.

In 1989 the party was transformed into the Transnational Radical Party. Radicals continued to participate in Italian political life through the Rainbow Greens, the Pannella List and the Bonino List (see disambiguation). In 2001 Radicals re-organized themselves in the Italian Radicals.

Ideology

The Radical Party was the first party in Italy to give expression to the transformation of Italian society towards more liberal behaviour and ideas in the post-war period. It placed itself strongly in the left-wing of Italian politics, often working for the unity of all the leftist political parties (thus proposing the adoption of an American-style electoral system), but also often being rejected by certain areas of the left itself, especially those linked with the Italian Communist Party, due to the Radicals' strong belief in libertarian policies, both socially and economically speaking.

Its first victorious campaign was the creation in the mid 1960s of the Italian League for Divorce ("Lega Italiana per il Divorzio"))which was the first to succeed in marshalling together all the secular political forces into a unified political alliance thus getting the law on divorce approved. During the 1970s, the Radical Party succeeded in starting up a vast movement in favour of civil rights by setting up the Women's Liberation Movement (Movimento di liberazione della donna), by supporting the activities of the Italian Centre for Sterilization and Abortion ("Centro Italiano Sterilizzazioni e Aborti"), by giving its support to "Fuori", the first Italian gay movement, and by promoting the popular referendum to legalize abortion.Fact|date=April 2007

Leadership

ecretaries

*Mario Pannunzio (1956–1959)
*Leopoldo Piccardi (1959–1962)
*Bruno Villabruna (1962–1963)
*Marco Pannella (1963–1967)
*Gianfranco Spadaccia (1967–1968)
*Mauro Mellini (1968–1969)
*Angiolo Bandinelli (1969–1970)
*Roberto Cicciomessere (1970-1971)
*Angiolo Bandinelli (1971–1973)
*Giulio Ercolessi (1973–1974)
*Gianfranco Spadaccia (1974–1976)
*Adelaide Aglietta (1976–1978)
*Jean Fabre (1978–1979)
*Giuseppe Rippa (1979–1980)
*Francesco Rutelli (1980–1981)
*Marco Pannella (1981–1983)
*Roberto Cicciomessere (1983–1984)
*Giovanni Negri (1984–1988)
*Sergio Stanzani (1988–1989)

Presidents

*Elio Vittorini (1962–1964)
*Gianfranco Spadaccia (1964–1967)
*Marco Pannella (1967–1975)
*Adele Faccio (1975–1976)
*Marco Pannella (1976–1981)
*Enzo Tortora (1981–1986)
*Marco Pannella (1986–1989)

External links

* [http://www.radicalparty.org/party/hist_teod.htm The Radical Party (1955–1977)]
* [http://www.radicalparty.org/history/chron2/ General chronology of the Radical Party, 1955–1989]
* [http://www.radicalparty.org/history/ponzone/index.htm The Radical Party in the Politics of Italy: 1962–1989]
* [http://www.emmaforeurope.it/cd-rom/immagini/cron_part_fr.htm Chronology of the history of the Radical Party and of the Radical Movements (1955–1998)]