Union of Christian and Centre Democrats - Factions

Factions

At the last national congress in 2007 there were basically four factions within the party.

• Casiniani. Led by Pier Ferdinando Casini, Lorenzo Cesa and Rocco Buttiglione, the faction included also Mario Tassone (co-leader with Buttiglione of a sub-group composed of former members of the CDU, which controlled more than 15% of party delegates), Michele Vietti, Luca Volontè, Francesco D'Onofrio, Maurizio Ronconi, Francesco Bosi and Antonio De Poli, and gained the support of at least 45% of party members.
• Tabaccini. This group, which had the support of the 30% of party members, was basically the left-wing of the party, including leading politicians such as Bruno Tabacci, Mario Baccini and Armando Dionisi, who were formerly close allies of Marco Follini. They proposed to start a co-operation with the Democratic Party (PD) or the formation of a centrist party open to figures like Luca Cordero di Montezemolo and Mario Monti.
• Cuffariani. This third group consisted in the Southern faction of Salvatore Cuffaro, former President of Sicily and was somewhat critical of the centralist-styled leadership of the party. This group, which included Calogero Mannino, Francesco Saverio Romano, Giuseppe Naro and Giuseppe Drago, held the 10% of the party delegates and supported the Casini-Cesa line, although its members had been often friendlier to Berlusconi. In September 2010 most Cuffariani, led by Romano, left UDC to form The Populars of Italy Tomorrow (PID) and support the Berlusconi IV Cabinet.
• Giovanardiani. It was the group led by Carlo Giovanardi and Emerenzio Barbieri, who wanted closer ties with Forza Italia and the other parties of the House of Freedoms coalition, including Lega Nord. At the congress the bid of Giovanardi for the leadership was supported by the 13.8% of delegates. Before leaving UDC in February 2008 in order to join the PdL, Giovanardi and Barbieri organized their faction as Liberal Populars.

The three main schisms suffered by the party between 2004 and 2006, Middle-of-the-Road Italy (IdM), Movement for Autonomy (MpA) and Christian Democracy for Autonomies (DCA), were led by the most vocal supporters of each of the last three factions mentioned above, respectively Marco Follini, Raffaele Lombardo and Gianfranco Rotondi. By 2010 virtually all Giovanardiani and Cuffariani had left the party through the Liberal Populars and the PID.