The Populars

The Populars ("I Popolari") is an association and a faction within the Democratic Party (PD), a political party in Italy.

Populars are the heirs of the Italian People's Party, a christian-democratic party of the Christian Left, and of the left-wing of the late Christian Democracy.

Its leading members include Dario Franceschini (Deputy-Secretary of the party), Franco Marini (former President of the Senate), Giuseppe Fioroni (former Minister of Education), Antonello Soro (President of the parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies) and Pierluigi Castagnetti. Also Rosy Bindi and Enrico Letta, who are leaders of the Ulivists and the "Lettiani" are members of the association.

As also the membership of Bindi and Letta is an evidence of the fact that The Populars, albeit being united on some issues such as the refusal to join the Party of European Socialists, are increasingly a loose group.

In this respect Franceschini and Fioroni are organizing a more reliable faction called Fourth Phase. This name was chosen to identify the new stage of left-wing Catholics in Italian politics, the first three being within the Italian People's Party (1919–1926), the Christian Democracy (1943–1994) and the Italian People's Party (1994–2002) respectively, and the fourth the current one, with the Democratic Party, a party where Catholics are a minority. [ [http://www.quartafase.it/pagina.asp?sez=testo&id=1 Quarta Fase ] ]

Moreover also Franceschini and Fioroni have their differences, the first being a keen supporter of Walter Veltroni and the second more interested in unifying former Christian Democrats and Catholics in general within the party, including the Theo-Dem, the Ulivists, the "Lettiani" and the Social Christians.

References

External links

* [http://www.ipopolari.com/ Official website]