Force of the South ( it, Forza del Sud, FdS) was a

liberal-conservative Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by libe ...

political party in Italy This article contains a list of political parties in Italy since Italian unification in 1861. Throughout history, numerous political parties have been operating in Italy, and since World War II no party has ever gained enough support to govern ...

based in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. In September 2010, after years of weighting, Gianfranco Micciché, long-time leader of Forza Italia and, later,

The People of Freedom The People of Freedom ( it, Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL, launched by Silvio Berlusconi on 18 November 2007, was initially a federation of political parties, notably including Forza Italia a ...

(PdL) in Sicily and Under-Secretary in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet, announced his exit from the PdL and his intention to launch a "Sicilian people's party", which would have then merged with other southern "people's parties" to form the "Party of the South". In October 2010 Force of the South was launched. Only five out of 16 regional deputies of the PdL–Sicily, the faction of the PdL led by Micciché, followed their leader into the new party. The party was officially launched during a convention in Palermo on 30 October 2010, which was attended also by

Stefania Prestigiacomo Stefania Prestigiacomo (born 16 December 1966) is an Italian politician, member of the centre-right political party Forza Italia and Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy from 1994 to 2022. Biography Stefania Prestigiacomo belongs to a fam ...

, who, although very supportive of Micciché, chose to stay in the PdL. In that occasion Micciché announced that some 25 deputies and senators were ready to join FdS. Finally only ten have managed to do so: they include seven deputies ( Giuseppe Fallica, Ugo Grimaldi, Maurizio Iapicca, Gianfranco Micciché, Antonino Minardo, Francesco Stagno D'Alcontres and Giacomo Terranova) and three senators ( Roberto Centaro, Mario Ferrara and Salvo Fleres), all elected in Sicily. FdS soon broadened its scope throughout the South. In May 2011 the party had promising results in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

(5.2%) and Reggio Calabria (4.7%), while in October it gained 6.5% of the vote in a regional election in Molise. On 14 July 2011 FdS launched, along with

We the South We the South ( it, Noi Sud, NS), whose complete name is Freedom and Autonomy - We the South ( it, Libertà e Autonomia - Noi Sud), is a regionalist political party in Italy based in the Campania but seeking to represent the whole South. Histo ...

and I the South, the Federation of the South, later Great South, a coalition which aimed at becoming the party of the South. In January 2012 FdS formed a sub-group in the Mixed Group of the Chamber of Deputies, which included the seven FdS deputies and two new entries ( Aurelio Misiti, a former member of

Italy of Values Italy of Values ( it, Italia dei Valori, IdV) is a populist and anti-corruption political party in Italy. The party was founded in 1998 by former '' Mani pulite'' prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro, who entered politics in 1996 and finally left the p ...

who was appointed chairman, and Gerardo Soglia, from the PdL), but not the three deputies of NS. In October 2012, the balance of accounts of the People of Freedom showed that the Force of the South had received €300,000 of financial support from PdL.

References

External links

Official websiteGianfranco Micciché's official website
{{Historical Italian political parties Regionalist parties in Italy Political parties in Sicily Defunct political parties in Italy Sicilian nationalist parties 2010 establishments in Italy 2011 disestablishments in Italy Political parties established in 2010 Political parties disestablished in 2011