Italy of Values - Ideology and Factions

Ideology and Factions

While the party had been generally aligned with the centre-left, its members had been very diverse ideologically, ranging from the far left (i.e. Franca Rame, a former member of Soccorso Rosso, and Pancho Pardi, a former activist of Potere Operaio) to the right, thanks to the populist message of the party. The party includes former Communists and former Leghisti, as well as former Missini and several former Christian Democrats. According to 2009 a study by Pino Pisicchio, a political scientist who was then deputy of IdV, 57.1% of the party's MPs were former Christian Democrats or members of post-Christian Democratic parties (including 11.9% from the UDEUR Populars), 9.5% were former Communists, 4.8% came from far-left parties and movements, 2.4% were former Missini and 2.4% former Leghisti.

The party is a supporter of legality, law and order, the police forces, first-past-the-post voting, federalism, corporate reform, lowering the costs of politics, improving the efficiency of public services, fighting corruption, simplifying trials bureaucracy to achieve faster verdicts and regulating conflict of interest.

During the Prodi II Cabinet IdV was the most centrist party in the centre-left coalition and sometimes, despite its harsh criticism of Berlusconi, it switched sides in Parliament on some key issues. At some point, Di Pietro even proposed an electoral alliance between its party, the UDEUR Populars and the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC), ruling out any future alliance with the far left. Also during the Berlusconi IV Cabinet IdV supported some plans of the government, notably the introduction of fiscal federalism. However, due to its harsh anti-berlusconismo, IdV has been at times very popular among left-wing voters, a fact that was highlighted also by the increasing number of communists in party ranks and often forms stable alliances with the parties of the far left at the local level, such as in the case of Luigi de Magistris' election as mayor of Naples or in the 2012 regional election in Sicily.

This shift to the left represented by people such as de Magistris was criticised by Pisicchio because, in his view, it was endangering the centrist nature of the party. In November 2009 the party was joined by Franco Grillini, honorary president of Arcigay and former member of the Democrats of the Left. However the party continues to recruit people also on the right, such as Alessandro Cè, a social-conservative former member of Lega Nord with whom Grillini clashed in the past.

The fact that IdV is member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) does not mean that it is a liberal party. Notwithstanding its European affiliation, the party is rarely regarded as liberal in Italy, due to its "justicialist" and "populist" tendencies. In fact the party's character is that of a "protest party" and it opposes many policies generally supported by liberals. On the left Di Pietro is described as a right-wing populist by Fausto Bertinotti, as well as by some political commentators. According to Panorama, the reason for these bitter comments by Bertinotti is that Di Pietro is very able to attract votes from the far-left electorate, as well as the right, and this could prevent a resurgence of those parties which were driven out of Parliament in the 2008 general election.

During a council meeting in Rome, ELDR President Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck underlined that European Liberals are honored to have IdV as one of its Italian member parties as it exemplifies a political party of integrity and high quality politics. Di Pietro added that "ELDR as the common house of European Liberals is the political home for us in terms of common convictions and a strong support for the cause of political freedoms in Italy". During the 2010 party congress, Di Pietro remarked IdV's liberal identity and denounced what he called "Berlusconi's false liberalism".

In May 2012, IdV became the first Italian political party to announce publicly that it would push for marriage equality. Di Pietro said: "Our party has been the first in Italy to follow U.S. president Barack Obama. We invite other Italian parties to support gay marriage. You don't have to be shy, you have to say yes".