Popular Unity ( it, Unità Popolare, UP) was a short-lived social-democratic and

social-liberal Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...

and

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 ...

. Its leaders were

Piero Calamandrei Piero Calamandrei (21 April 1889 – 27 September 1956) was an Italian author, jurist, soldier, university professor, and politician. Born in Florence, he was one of Italy's leading authorities on the law of civil procedure. After studies in Pis ...

, a Democratic Socialist, and

Ferruccio Parri Ferruccio Parri (; Pinerolo, 19 January 1890 – Rome, 8 December 1981) was an Italian partisan and anti-fascist politician who served as the 29th Prime Minister of Italy, and the first to be appointed after the end of World War II. During the w ...

, a Republican and former

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

History

Popular Unity was formed in April 1953 by disgruntled members of the

Italian Democratic Socialist Party The Italian Democratic Socialist Party (, PSDI), also known as Italian Social Democratic Party, was a minor social-democratic political party in Italy. The longest serving partner in government for Christian Democracy, the PSDI had been an ...

(PSDI) and the

Italian Republican Party The Italian Republican Party ( it, Partito Repubblicano Italiano, PRI) is a liberal and social-liberal political party in Italy. Founded in 1895, the PRI is the oldest political party still active in Italy. The PRI has old roots and a long hist ...

(PRI), who again did not agree with the new electoral law. Three different parties came together in Popular Unity: *Socialist Autonomy Movement (''Movimento di Autonomia Socialista''), officially established on 1 February 1953 in

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a thr ...

, on the initiative of the ex-social democrats

, Tristano Codignola and Antonio Greppi; *Union of Republican Rebirth (''Unione di Rinascita Repubblicana''), established on 8 December 1952 by a group of left-wing dissidents of the Italian Republican Party, led by Oliviero Zuccarini and Marcello Morante and to which, subsequently,

had joined; *Justice and Freedom (''Giustizia e Libertà''), a political organization established on 18 January 1953 by the writer

Carlo Cassola Carlo Cassola (17 March 1917 – 29 January 1987) was an influential Italian novelist and essayist. His novel ''La Ragazza di Bube'' (1960), which received the Strega Prize, was adapted into a film of the same name by Luigi Comencini in 1963. ...

, taking up the name of the homonymous anti-fascist movement of Carlo Rosselli. The party won 0.6% of the vote in the 1953 general election and, along with the like-minded National Democratic Alliance, prevented the governing coalition from passing the 50% and getting the majority bonus (two thirds of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies). The party was active until 1957. After that, some of its members joined the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Socialism, socialist and later Social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the l ...

, but most of them returned to their former parties.

References

{{Historical Italian political parties 1953 establishments in Italy Political parties established in 1953 Political parties disestablished in 1957 Defunct political parties in Italy Defunct social democratic parties in Italy 1957 disestablishments in Italy