Popular Area (Italian: Area Popolare, AP) was a centre-right and mainly Christian-democratic coalition, which included two parliamentary groups active in each house of the Italian Parliament: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

Popular Area
Area Popolare
LeaderAngelino Alfano
Founded11–16 December 2014
Dissolved21–29 March 2017
Preceded byNew Centre-Right – Union of the Centre
Succeeded byPopular Civic List
IdeologyChristian democracy
Social conservatism
Pro-Europeanism
Political positionCentre to centre-right
European affiliationEuropean People's Party
European Parliament groupEPP Group

"Popular" was a reference to popolarismo, the Italian variety of Christian democracy.

History

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The groups, launched in December 2014, originally included 34 deputies and 36 senators, comprising the New Centre-Right (NCD), the Union of the Centre (UdC), some dissidents from Civic Choice (SC) and a splinter from the Five Star Movement (M5S).[1][2][3][4] The UdC and most former SC members were previously affiliated to the For Italy groups.

In the 2015 regional elections, Popular Area ran lists in Veneto, Liguria and Tuscany. In Campania and Umbria the names "Popular Campania" and "For Popular Umbria" were used, respectively. Finally, in Marche and Apulia, the NCD (without the UdC) formed a joint list with Marche 2020 and Francesco Schittulli's movement, respectively, under the Popular Area banner. The best results were obtained in Apulia (6.0%), Campania (4.0%) and Marche (4.0%); in Apulia and Marche the UdC, which was in alliance with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), scored 6.0% and 3.4%, respectively.

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 of the "Yes" side, the UdC left Popular Area altogether. However, some UdC splinters, notably including Pier Ferdinando Casini, Gianpiero D'Alia and Gian Luca Galletti, launched an alternative party named Centrists for Europe (CpE) and confirmed their alliance with the NCD within Popular Area.[5][6][7][8]

In March 2017 the NCD was dissolved into Popular Alternative (AP) and also Popular Area was set aside.

Composition

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The alliance was originally composed by the following two parties:

Party Ideology Leader
New Centre-Right (NCD) Conservatism
Christian democracy
Angelino Alfano
Union of the Centre (UdC) Christian democracy
Social conservatism
Pier Ferdinando Casini
Lorenzo Cesa

Since December 2016, the alliance is composed by the following parties:

Party Ideology Leader
New Centre-Right (NCD) Conservatism
Christian democracy
Angelino Alfano
Centrists for Europe (CpE) Christian democracy
Centrism
Pier Ferdinando Casini
Gianpiero D'Alia

Electoral results

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Regional Councils

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Region Latest election # of
overall votes
% of
overall vote
# of
overall seats won
Abruzzo 2014 40,219 (#4) 5.9
1 / 31
Apulia 2015 101,817 (#7) 6.4
4 / 51
Calabria 2014 101,817 8.2
3 / 30
Campania 2015 68,594 (#5) 5.9
1 / 51
Emilia-Romagna 2014 31,635 (#7) 2.6
0 / 50
Liguria 2015 9,269 (#9) 1.7
1 / 31
Marche 2015 21,049 (#7) 4.0
1 / 31
Piedmont 2014 49,059 (#7) 2.5
0 / 50
Tuscany 2015 15,808 (#8) 1.2
0 / 41
Umbria 2015 9,285 (#9) 2.6
0 / 20
Veneto 2015 37,937 (#11) 2.0
1 / 51

Leadership

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References

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  1. ^ "Il dado è tratto per Area Popolare | l'Occidentale". Archived from the original on 2015-02-16. Retrieved 2014-12-15.
  2. ^ "Parlamento: nascono i gruppi di area popolare, a formarli membri di Ncd, Udc e Scelta Civica". InfoOggi.it. Retrieved 2015-06-05.
  3. ^ "Senato, l'ex M5s Anitori passa ad Area popolare: "Sosterrò il governo Renzi" - Il Fatto Quotidiano". Ilfattoquotidiano.it. 6 December 2014. Retrieved 2015-06-05.
  4. ^ "Fabiola Anitori entra nel gruppo Area Popolare | l'Occidentale". Archived from the original on 2015-04-03. Retrieved 2014-12-15.
  5. ^ "Area Popolare si spacca dopo il referendum. Udc: "L'esperienza, forse mai decollata, si conclude qui"". Il Fatto Quotidiano. Dec 6, 2016.
  6. ^ "Fuggi fuggi al Senato: i centristi guardano a Fi. E Alfano resta da solo". ilGiornale.it. Dec 7, 2016.
  7. ^ ""Alfano succube di Renzi, ce ne andiamo" - giornaleditalia". Archived from the original on 2016-12-07. Retrieved 2016-12-07.
  8. ^ "Articolo dall'Archivio Storico". AGV (in Italian). Retrieved 2021-05-13.