Democratic Union (Italy)

Democratic Union Unione Democratica
President	Antonio Maccanico
Founded	26 February 1996[1]
Dissolved	27 February 1999
Preceded by	Democratic Alliance
Merged into	The Democrats
Ideology	Social liberalism
Political position	Centre-left
National affiliation	The Olive Tree
Politics of Italy Political parties Elections

The Democratic Union (Italian: Unione Democratica, UD) was a small social-liberal political party in Italy.

It was founded in February 1996 by Antonio Maccanico (president of the party until 1999), Gerardo Bianco,^[2] Willer Bordon and Giorgio Benvenuto, both of who were the members of Democratic Alliance, Valerio Zanone and Giorgio La Malfa.^[3] The party was a minor member of The Olive Tree,^[4] and formed the Populars for Prodi list with the Italian People's Party for the 1996 general election, electing four deputies and one senator. The party was part of the Prodi I Cabinet,^[5][6] with Maccanico becoming Minister for Communications, and later the D'Alema I Cabinet.

In 1999 the party joined Romano Prodi's new party, the Democrats.

References

1. Gabriella Fanello Marcucci (2003). Archivio del Parlamento, delle istituzioni, dei partiti e movimenti politici: documenti sonori in digitale. Rubbettino Editore. p. 180. ISBN 978-88-498-0701-1.
2. Alan Friedman (27 February 1996). "Berlusconi Looks Like the Loser in Dini's Jump into Politics". The New York Times. Paris. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
3. James J. Newell; Martin Bull (1997). "Party Organisations and Alliance in Italy in the 19902: A Revolution of Sorts". In Martin Bull; Martin Rhodes. Crisis and Transition in Italian Politics. Routledge. pp. 102–103. ISBN 978-1-135-22274-1.
4. Tom Lansford (2013). Political Handbook of the World 2013. SAGE Publications. p. 714. ISBN 978-1-4522-5825-6.
5. Catherine Moury (2010). "Common manifestoes and coalition governance: How political leaders lost the window of opportunity". In Andrea Mammone; Giuseppe A. Veltri. Italy Today: The Sick Man of Europe. Routledge. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-135-16494-2.
6. Catherine Moury (2013). Coalition Government and Party Mandate: How Coalition Agreements Constrain Ministerial Action. Routledge. p. 101. ISBN 978-1-136-18910-4.