Pole of Freedoms

The Pole of Freedoms (Italian: Polo delle Libertà) was a centre-right political and electoral alliance in Italy, launched at the 1994 general election by Silvio Berlusconi. Its counterpart in central and southern Italy was the Pole of Good Government.

Pole of Freedoms

Polo delle Libertà
LeaderSilvio Berlusconi
Umberto Bossi
Founded1994
Dissolved1995
Succeeded byPole for Freedoms
Political positionCentre-right
National affiliationwith Pole of Good Government

Differently from the other coalition in the Italian history, it was simply a political, and not an administrative alliance, so contributing to its failure.[1][2]

History

The alliance was composed primarily of Forza Italia and the Lega Nord, but also included Christian Democratic Centre and the Union of the Centre,[3][4] the latter represented in Forza Italia's electoral lists. The Pole of Freedoms was present only in Northern Italy, while the Pole of Good Government, composed of Forza Italia and the National Alliance, was present in most of Southern Italy.[5] The National Alliance ran individually in the North as a rightist coalition in opposition to the Pole. The Pannella List also ran against the Pole, since the League saw the List as contrary to its liberal and federalist ideas.[6]

However, the term "Pole of Freedoms" (as that of "Pole of Good Government") had no official character: the logo that identified the coalition included just the symbols of the lists that were part of the alliance (furthermore, this symbol was only present for the election of the Senate).

Even if this alliance, differently from the Pole of Good Government, had the explicit goal to run for the Government of Italy, it was not extended to the local level, where the parties composing it ran individually.

The Pole had good results between the young people, with three percentage points of difference between the House and the age-restricted Senate.[7]

After the fall of the Berlusconi I Cabinet because of disagreements with the Lega Nord, the alliance ended. Afterwards Forza Italia, the National Alliance and Christian Democratic Centre formed another coalition, the Pole for Freedoms, which in 2000, after the re-entry of Lega Nord, was renamed the House of Freedoms.[8]

Composition

The Pole was composed of the following political parties:

Party Ideology Leader
Forza Italia (FI) Liberal conservatism Silvio Berlusconi
Lega Nord (LN) Regionalism Umberto Bossi
Christian Democratic Centre (CCD) Christian democracy Pier Ferdinando Casini
Union of the Centre (UdC) Liberalism Raffaele Costa

Election results of the Pole

Italian Parliament
Chamber of Deputies - FPTP only
Election year Votes % Seats +/− Leader
1994 8,767,720 22.8
164 / 475
–
Silvio Berlusconi
Senate of the Republic
Election year Votes % Seats +/− Leader
1994 6,570,468 19.9
82 / 315
–
Silvio Berlusconi

References
  1. “Rightist Coalition Falters In Local Italian Elections”, NY Times, 21 Nov 1994
  2. Various local competitions between the League and Forza Italia: Asti municipal election, 1994, Como municipal election, 1994, Piacenza local election, 1994, Treviso municipal election, 1994.
  3. Isabella Pezzini (2001). "Advertising politics on television: the party election broadcast". In Luciano Chelos; Lucio Sponza (eds.). The Art of Persuasion: Political Communication in Italy from 1945 to the 1990s. Manchester University Press. pp. 187–188. ISBN 978-0-7190-4170-9.
  4. Stefan Köppl (2007). Das politische System Italiens: Eine Einführung. Springer-Verlag. p. 98. ISBN 978-3-531-14068-1.
  5. Mark Donovan (2004). "The Italian State: No Longer Catholic, no Longer Christian". In Zsolt Enyedi; John T.S. Madeley (eds.). Church and State in Contemporary Europe. Routledge. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-135-76141-7.
  6. Bull, A.; Gilbert, M. (2001). The Lega Nord and the northern question in Italian politics. Palgrave. pp. IX, 204. ISBN 978-1-4039-1998-4.
  7. 22.8% for the Pole of Freedoms, House of Deputies; 19.9% for the Pole of Freedoms, Senate.
  8. Vittorio Vandelli (2014). 1994-2014 Berlusconi's new ventennio. Vittorio Vandelli. p. 189. ISBN 978-605-03-2890-5.

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