Action – Italia Viva (; A–IV), informally known as the Third Pole (), was a

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

and

centrist Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

parliamentary group and electoral list which ran in the

2022 Italian general election Snap election, Snap general elections were held in Italy on 25 September 2022. After the fall of the Draghi government, which led to a parliamentary impasse, President of Italy, President Sergio Mattarella dissolved Parliament on 21 July, and ca ...

. The list was led by

Carlo Calenda Carlo Calenda (born April 9, 1973 in Rome) is an Italian business executive and politician. Since October 13, 2022, he has served as a Senator of the Republic and, since February 20, 2022, as Secretary of ''Action (Italian political party), Azione ...

. During the 19th legislature, it named its parliamentary group Action – Italia Viva – Renew Europe in the Chamber and the Senate.

History

Following the resignation of

Mario Draghi Mario Draghi (; born 3 September 1947) is an Italian politician, economist, academic, banker, statesman, and civil servant, who served as the prime minister of Italy from 13 February 2021 to 22 October 2022. Prior to his appointment as prime mi ...

Prime Minister of Italy The prime minister of Italy, officially the president of the Council of Ministers (), is the head of government of the Italy, Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is established by articles 92–96 of the Co ...

and the call for a

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Snap elections in parliamentary systems are often called to resolve a political impasse such as a hung parliament where no single political party has a ma ...

Action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

(A) party signed on 2 August an alliance with

Enrico Letta Enrico Letta (; born 20 August 1966) is an Italian politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy The prime minister of Italy, officially the president of the Council of Ministers (), is the head of government of the Italy, Italian Republ ...

's Democratic Party (PD), the head of the

centre-left coalition The centre-left coalition () is a political alliance of political parties in Italy active under several forms and names since 1995, when The Olive Tree was formed under the leadership of Romano Prodi. The centre-left coalition has ruled the c ...

. On 6 August, the PD signed another pact with the

Greens and Left Alliance The Greens and Left Alliance (, AVS) is a left-wing political alliance active in Italy, which was launched on 2 July 2022 as a federation of two political parties, Italian Left (SI) and Green Europe (EV). The AVS is often referred to as a red– ...

(AVS), formed by

Green Europe Green Europe (, EV), officially Green Europe – Greens (''Europa Verde – Verdi''), is a green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 4 ...

(EV) and

Italian Left Italian Left (, SI) is a left-wing political party in Italy. SI was launched in November 2015 as a parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies (full name: Italian Left – Left Ecology Freedom), including Left Ecology Freedom (SEL), dissid ...

(SI), which had never supported Draghi's government. This caused tensions between Letta and Calenda. The latter, being a strong supporter of

economic liberalism Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism ...

and

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...

, considered impossible a coalition between his own party and the left-wing AVS. On 7 August, Calenda broke the alliance with the PD. On 11 August,

Matteo Renzi Matteo Renzi (; born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016. He has been a senator for Florence since 2018. Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having bee ...

Italia Viva Italia Viva (, IV) is a Liberalism, liberal list of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy founded in September 2019. The party is led by Matteo Renzi, a former Prime Minister of Italy and former secretary of the Democratic Party ( ...

(IV) and A signed an agreement to create a centrist alliance led by Calenda, using IV's symbol to avoid the requirement to collect signatures for Calenda's party. Early August polls speculated that the formation of the Third Pole would not be influential in

single-member constituencies A single-member district or constituency is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a Multiwinner voting, multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. In some countries, such as ...

but could cost the centre-left coalition votes in some competitive districts. Despite Draghi's dismissal, Calenda and Renzi said they would push for Draghi to remain as prime minister, should they win enough seats. They also ran a pro-

and pro-

regasification Regasification is a process of converting liquefied natural gas (LNG) at −162 °C (−260 °F) temperature back to natural gas at atmospheric temperature. LNG gasification plants can be located on land as well as on floating barges, i.e. a Float ...

campaign as solutions for the ongoing energy crisis. In the general election on 25 September, the Third Pole obtained 21 seats in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

and 9 seats in the Senate of the Republic, having polled about 8%. On 3 October, Calenda announced that the two parties would form a joint

parliamentary group A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political party, political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller politic ...

in the next parliament and start a federation between the two movements. Establishing a joint electoral list and parliamentary groups was supposed to be the first step towards forming a unitary Italian liberal party. A first constituent assembly held in January 2023 resulted in promising results, with the attendance of many figures from that area and the definition of a formal path towards the merger. However, increasing tensions between the two groups and their leaders about the structure and leadership of the proposed unitary party developed into a crisis in April 2023, leading a halt in the merger negotiations. Despite the crisis looking like a schism, the two parties managed to maintain the joint parliamentary groups. It was later announced that talks with other liberal movements were still underway towards the creation of a joint list for the

2024 European Parliament election The 2024 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 6 and 9 June 2024. It was the tenth Elections to the European Parliament, parliamentary election since the 1979 European Parliament election, first direct electio ...

involving

Renew Europe Renew Europe (or simply Renew) is a liberal, centrist to centre-right, pro-European political group of the European Parliament founded for the ninth European Parliament term. The group is the successor to the Alliance of Liberals and Dem ...

, potentially including

More Europe More Europe ( or ''+Europa''; +E or +Eu) is a liberal and pro-European political party in Italy, part of the centre-left coalition and member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party. History Foundation More Europe was laun ...

. However, in the following months, the two parties did not reach an agreement regarding the upcoming European election and, on 19 October 2023, Renzi officially announced the formation of IV's own parliamentary groups, marking the end to the Action – Italia Viva alliance.Terzo Polo, Renzi ufficializza separazione da Calenda: “Fine della telenovela”. E battezza i nuovi gruppi parlamentari
la Repubblica

Composition

Main parties

Associate parties

Regional partners

Former partners

Electoral results

Italian Parliament

Regional Councils

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Action - Italia Viva 2022 establishments in Italy Centrist parties in Italy Liberal parties in Italy Parliamentary groups in Italy Political parties established in 2022 Political parties disestablished in 2023