New Centre-Right (Italian: Nuovo Centrodestra, NCD) was a centre-right political party in Italy.[4] The party was launched on 15 November 2013 by a group of dissidents of The People of Freedom (PdL) who opposed the party's reformation as Forza Italia (FI), which would take place the following day.[5] The NCD leader was Angelino Alfano, who had been Silvio Berlusconi's protégé and national secretary of the PdL from 2011 to 2013.
The party was formed by splinters from the PdL on 15 November 2013. Its founders, lately known as "doves" in the party, were strong supporters of Enrico Letta's government and refused to join the new Forza Italia (FI), founded upon the dissolution of the PdL. All five PdL ministers, three under-secretaries, 30 senators and 27 deputies immediately joined the NCD.[6][7] Most were Christian democrats and many came from the southern regions of Calabria and Sicily.[8]
In February 2014, after the fall of Letta's government, the NCD joined a new coalition government led by Matteo Renzi, who had been elected secretary of the Democratic Party (PD) in December 2013. In the new government the NCD retained three ministers: Alfano at the Interior, Lupi at Infrastructures and Transports, and Lorenzin at Health.[10] Quagliariello, who had not been confirmed as minister of Institutional Reforms, was elected national coordinator by the assembly of the parliamentary groups.[11]
In December 2014 the NCD formed joint parliamentary groups with the UdC in both the Chamber of Deputies and Senate. The two groups, a step toward a complete merger of the two parties,[15] were named Popular Area, where "popular" was a reference to popolarismo, the Italian variety of Christian democracy.
Internal squabbles and splits
Following Alfano's decision to support Sergio Mattarella's bid to become President of Italy during the 2015 presidential election (Matteralla was effectively elected on 31 January), the NCD experienced an internal crisis. Most notably, Barbara Saltamartini and Maurizio Sacconi resigned from party's spokesperson and leader in the Senate, respectively.[16][17][18] Schifani was unanimously elected to succeed to Sacconi,[19] while Saltamartini left the party altogether.[20] In March Lupi was hit by a minor corruption scandal and resigned from minister of Infrastructures and Transports.[21][22] As result, the party was left with only two ministers. In April De Girolamo, a frequent critic of the government since Mattarella's election, was replaced as leader in the Chamber by Lupi.[23][24] During the summer, one deputy (De Girolamo,[25][26] who had been a founder of The Republicans)[27][28] and one MEP (Massimiliano Salini)[29] re-joined FI.
A bigger blow to Alfano came in October, when Quaglieriello resigned from coordinator and threatened to lead a splinter group out of the party if the NCD were to continue its support to Renzi.[30][31] In the following weeks, Quaglieriello deserted a meeting of the party's national board[32] and made clear he was leaving the party. Two deputies (Vincenso Piso[33][34] and Eugenia Roccella)[33] and two colleagues of Quaglieriello (Andrea Augello[34][35] and Giovanardi)[36][37] in the Senate followed suit. These, along with a fourth senator (Luigi Compagna, a former Liberal) finally launched Identity and Action (IDEA).[38][39]
In February 2016, during a government reshuffle, NCD's Enrico Costa was appointed minister of Regional Affairs and Autonomies.[40] Shortly afterwards, it was announced by Lorenzin that the party would soon change its name, dropping the word "right", or take part to the formation of an entirely new party.[41][42]
After NCD's dismal results in the 2016 local elections, several MPs, mainly senators, started weighing on leaving the party.[43][44] In July 2016 Schifani, who criticised the party's permanence in the government and aimed at re-unifying the Italian fractured centre-right, stepped down from leader in the Senate[45][46] and was replaced by Laura Bianconi, a close ally of Alfano.[47] A couple of weeks later, Schifani left the party, along with another senator, and returned to FI.[48]
Road to the new party
In the run-up of the 2016 constitutional referendum the UdC campaigned for the "no", while the NCD was among the keenest supporters of the "yes". After the referendum, which saw a huge defeat by the "no" side, the UdC left AP altogether, but some splinters named Centrists for Italy, notably including Pier Ferdinando Casini and minister Gian Luca Galletti, stayed with AP.[49][50][51] The referendum's result and the demise of Renzi Cabinet revived NCD's internal tensions too, that led to splits (one deputy left in December,[50][52] one senator in February).[53][54] In the following government led by Democrat Paolo Gentiloni, Alfano was sworn in as minister of Foreign Affairs, while Lorenzin, Galletti (CpI) and Costa were confirmed as ministers of Health, the Environment and Regional Affairs, respectively.
On 18 March 2017 the party was dissolved in order to make way for Popular Alternative (AP), which consisted mostly of the former NCD.
In January 2014 three bigwigs of the party who later left the party (Quagliariello, Eugenia Roccella and Maurizio Sacconi) published a book titled Moderati. Per un nuovo umanesimo politico ("Moderates: For a new political humanism"), a sort of manifesto of the party. The book, whose key words are "person", "family", "enterprise" and "tradition", emphasises institutional reforms (including direct election of the President and federalism), ethical issues (marriage, opposition to abortion, limits to assisted reproductive technology, etc.) and the need for a smaller state ("less public law, more private rights").[66][67][68] According to Benedetto Ippolito, a university professor of history of philosophy, while NCD members insist that their party is "moderate", it is in fact "conservative" and "anti-progressive", albeit not "berlusconiano".[2]
In February 2014 the NCD unveiled a platform on labour, including a universal protection system safety net for the unemployed, a tax relief for entrepreneurs hiring the young, the reduction of the tax wedge on labour and the overcoming of article 18 of the "Statute of Workers", making easier for entrepreneurs to hire and fire employees.[69]
^Nicolas Bonnet (2015). "Silvo's Party". In Agnès Alexandre-Collier; François Vergniolle De Chantal (eds.). Leadership and Uncertainty Management in Politics: Leaders, Followers and Constraints in Western Democracies. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 105–106. ISBN978-1-137-43924-6.
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