The Citizens' Union for South Tyrol (german: BürgerUnion für Südtirol, BUfS), formerly Union for South Tyrol (''Union für Südtirol'', UfS), was a national-conservative

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

active in

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous area, Autonomous Provinces of Italy, province , image_skyline = ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. The party was committed to the German-speaking minority and its right to self-determination. Recently, the party re-branded itself as a

centrist Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to Left-w ...

party and distanced from the separatism of other German-speaking parties. Its long-time leader has been Andreas Pöder.

History

The Union for South Tyrol was founded on 2 October 1989 by the merger of the nationalist South Tyrolean Homeland Federation of

Eva Klotz Eva Klotz (born 4 June 1951) is an Italian politician. She was a member of the Landtag of South Tyrol for 31 years, from 1983 until 2014. She represented several parties during that time, latterly (from 2007) the South Tyrolean Freedom. Life ...

(2.3% in the 1988 provincial election), the national-liberal

Freedom Party of South Tyrol The Freedom Party of South Tyrol (german: Freiheitliche Partei Südtirols, FPS) was a regionalist national-liberal political party in South Tyrol. History It was launched in 1988 as the continuation of the Party of Independents by Gerold Meran ...

led by Gerold Meraner and right-wing splinters from the

South Tyrolean People's Party The South Tyrolean People's Party (german: Südtiroler Volkspartei, SVP) is a regionalist and autonomist political party in South Tyrol, an autonomous province with a German-speaking majority in northern Italy. Founded on 8 May 1945, the SVP h ...

led by Alfons Benedikter.
or In the 1993 provincial election the party won 4.8% of the vote and gained two seats in the Provincial Council, one for Klotz and one for Benedikter. In the 1996 general election the party had its best result ever (7.7% for party list and 19.2% in single-seat constituencies), because the

had formed an alliance with some Italian parties. In the 1998 provincial election the UfS won 5.5% and Andreas Pöder, party secretary since 1994, was elected for the first time to the Council, along with Klotz. This was a turning point for the party as Pöder started to gain influence over Klotz. In the 2003 provincial election, the UfS won 6.8% of the vote and gained two seats in the Provincial Council. In May 2007, during a heated party congress, Pöder was re-elected party president with 76 votes in favour and 70 against. This led to a split led by Kloz, who launched a new strictly separatist movement named South Tyrolean Freedom (STF). In the 2008 general election, severely damaged by the split and by the competition of

Die Freiheitlichen ''Die Freiheitlichen'' (), abbreviated dF, is a regionalist, separatist and national-conservative political party in South Tyrol, Italy. The party, which is part of the South Tyrolean independence movement, seeks to represent the German-sp ...

(9.4%), the UfS gained only 4.2% of the vote in the Province. In the 2008 provincial election the party got only 2.3% of the vote and one elect in the Provincial Council, while STF and Die Freiheitlichen won the 14.3% and the 4.9% of the vote, respectively. The UfS renamed itself to Citizens' Union for South Tyrol (BUfS) on 12 May 2011. In the forthcoming 2013 provincial election the BUfS will run as part of a three-party list, along with

Ladins Dolomites Ladins Dolomites is a minor political party representing the Ladin-speaking minority in South Tyrol. History The party, whose original name was Ladins Political Movement ( lld, Moviment Politich Ladins, MPL), was founded in the early 1990s by Ca ...

, a centre-left outfit, and We South Tyroleans, a left-wing split from Die Freiheitlichen. The joint list won 2.1% of the vote and Pöder was re-elected to the Provincial Council. In the 2018 general election was League supported by BUfS. In the 2018 provincial election the party won barely 1.3% and no seats. Thus, Pöder was not elected to the Provincial Council, after 20 consecutive years of elective service. The BUfS was rarely active after 2018. It did not field any lists in the 2020 municipal elections: three municipal councillors were candidates for the Die Freiheitlichen, while another one ran with STF. The party was dissolved in 2020.

Ideology

Since the exit of

, the UfS tried to renew its image and to present itself as a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

party. The

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

party programme included defense of family values, protection of the environment, and a moderately liberal economic policy, along with the historic goal of separating South Tyrol from Italy in order to re-unify it with old historic Tyrol composed from South, North and East Tyrol, founding the '' Europaregion Tirol'' (North-and East-Tyrol are actually parts of

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

). More recently, the party re-branded itself as a

, to some extent

centre-left Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...

, party and distanced from its original separatism and the parties of the "German right". In 2011 Pöder said that, were he a German citizen, he would be a

Social Democrat Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soc ...

and in 2013 declared: "Don't call us German right, we are a centrist movement".

Popular support

The electoral results of the UfS in the Province of Bolzano since 1992 are shown in the table below.

Notes

Leadership

*President/Secretary: Alfons Benedikter (1989–1991),

Martin Wenter Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

(1991–1993), Karl Augusten (1993–1994), Andreas Pöder (1994–2020)

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control 1989 establishments in Italy Conservative parties in Italy German nationalist political parties National conservative parties Political parties established in 1989 Political parties in South Tyrol Political parties of minorities Separatism in Italy South Tyrolean nationalism Social conservative parties Right-wing populist parties