Forza Italia - Ideology

Ideology

Forza Italia was a centre-right party, formed mainly by ex-Christian Democrats, ex-Liberals and ex-Socialists. The ideology of the party ranged from libertarianism to social democracy (often referred to as "liberal socialism" in Italy), including elements of the Catholic social teaching and the social market economy. The party was a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and presented itself as the party of renewal and modernization. The core values of Forza Italia were "freedom" and the "centrality of the individual". From a comparative perspective the ideology of Forza Italia has been characterized as both "liberal conservative", "national conservative" and "liberal".

Alessandro Campi wrote that "the political culture of Forza Italia – a curious and, on many respects, untold mixture of "liberalism" and "democratic populism" – deserves to be described as an "anti-ideologic ideology", as a synthesis or fusion of very diverse political families and traditions (from liberal catholicism to social conservatism, from reformist socialism to economic liberalism), kept together by the mobilizing appeal to "freedom"". Chiara Moroni, who explains Forza Italia's ideology as a mixture of liberal, christian-democratic and social-democratic values (united in the concept of "popular liberalism" in party documents), wrote that "Berlusconi offered to voters liberal values through a populist style" and that "Forza Italia has made the liberal political ideal popular" among voters, so that "it was spread and shared by broad and heterogenous sectors of the Italian population".

In fact the electoral base of Forza Italia was highly heterogeneous and the ideological differences among its voters are explained also by its different regional constituencies: while voters from the North tended to support the original libertarian line of the party, voters from the South tended to be more statist. Both its Northern strongholds (Lombardy, Veneto) and its Southern strongholds (Sicily, Apulia) were once dominated by the Christian Democracy party, but, while in the South most leading members of Forza Italia are former Christian Democrats, the party was highly influenced also by liberals in the North.

Forza Italia claimed to be a fresh-new party, with no ties with the last governments of the so-called First Republic, and at the same time to be the heir of the best political traditions of Italy: Christian Democrat Alcide De Gasperi, Social Democrat Giuseppe Saragat, Liberal Luigi Einaudi and Republican Ugo La Malfa were considered as party icons.

The "Secular Creed", that was also the preamble to the party's constitution, described the party in this way:

Forza Italia is a liberal party although not an elitist one, indeed a popular liberal-democratic party; it is a Catholic party although not a confessional one; it is a secular party, although not an intolerant and secularist one; it is a national party, although not a centralist one.

Forza Italia thus presented itself as a bridge between Catholics and non-Catholics, who have been previously divided in the political system of the First Republic, and "the union of three political-cultural areas: that of liberal and popular Catholicism, that of secular, liberal and republican humanism and that of liberal socialism". In a speech during a party congress in 1998, Berlusconi himself proclaimed: "our liberal vision of the State is perfectly in agreement with the Catholic social teaching".

The "Secular Creed" of the party explains that FI was a party that primarily underlined freedom and the centrality of the individual, which are basic principles of both liberalism and the Catholic social teaching, often connected in party official documents:

We believe in freedom, in all its several and vital forms: in the freedom of thought, in the freedom of expression, in religious freedom, of every religion, in the freedom of association. Freedom is not graciously conceded by the State, because it comes before it. It is a natural right, which belongs to us as we are human beings and it itself rather lays the foundations of the State. We believe that the State should be at the service of citizens, and not citizens at the service of the State. We believe that the State should be the servant of the citizen and not the citizen the servant of the State. The citizen is sovereign. For this, we believe concretely in the individual . We believe in the values of our Christian tradition, in the life values which cannot be renounced, in common good, in freedom of education and learning, in peace, in solidarity, in justice, in tolerance .

In 2008 Berlusconi stated that:

We want a social market economy. A democracy cannot afford citizens in poor conditions. With our book on welfare we tackle the needs of the weakest families. It is decidedly a left-wing policy. This government which centrist, liberal, with Catholics and reformists, intends to advance with policies that the left-wing promises by word of mouth.

Sandro Bondi, a leading member of the party, wrote:

Forza Italia considers liberal classics as Croce, Sturzo, Hayek and Einaudi as reference authors. In particular, it hark back to the social market economy of Röpke, which was conceived in reference to the traditional social teaching of the Church. Forza Italia has imparted a deep cultural innovation, combining the language of the Church tradition with the liberal and reformist thought.

The party included also non-Catholic members, but they were a minority, and it was less secular in its policies than German Christian Democratic Union (in which there are also prominent Jews). The party usually gave to its members freedom of conscience on moral issues (and hence a free vote), as in the case of the referendum on stem-cell research, but leading members of the party, including Silvio Berlusconi, Giulio Tremonti and Marcello Pera (who is himself non-Catholic, although friend of Pope Benedict XVI), spoke in favour of "abstention" (as asked by the Catholic Church, in order to not surpass the 50% of turnout needed for making the referendum legally binding). While Pera campaigned hard for the success of the boycott alongside with most FI members, both Berlusconi and Tremonti explicitly said that "abstention" was their personal opinion, not the official one of the party.