The Autonomist Federation (, FA) was a regionalist,

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 ...

, Italian political party active in

Aosta Valley The Aosta Valley ( ; ; ; or ), officially the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley, is a mountainous Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region in northwestern Italy. It is bordered by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Fr ...

Social-liberal Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited ...

and

social-democratic Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, socia ...

, the party's ideology lately tilted toward

Christian democracy Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

. The party's last leader was Claudio Lavoyer, a long-time regional councillor and former regional minister.

History

The party was founded in 1998 by the merger of the Progressive Democratic Autonomists, which included several splinters of the

Italian Republican Party The Italian Republican Party (, PRI) is a political party in Italy established in 1895, which makes it the oldest political party still active in the country. The PRI identifies with 19th-century classical radicalism, as well as Mazzinianism, a ...

, and the Autonomist People's Alliance, basically formed by former members of the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Social democracy, social democratic and Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parti ...

. In the 1998 regional election the party list, which also included some members of the

Christian Democratic Centre The Christian Democratic Centre (, CCD) was a Christian-democratic political party in Italy from 1994 to 2002. Formed from a right-wing split from Christian Democracy, the party joined the centre-right coalition, and was a member of the European ...

and the

United Christian Democrats The United Christian Democrats (, CDU) was a minor Christian democratic political party in Italy. The CDU was a member of the European People's Party from 1995 until 2002. History The party was started in 1995 by splinters of the Italian People ...

, obtained 9.7% of the vote and four regional councillors. In the 2001 the FA was merged with the

Autonomists The Autonomists (; ) were a Christian-democratic Italian political party active in the Aosta Valley. The party was founded in 1997 by the union of the regional Italian People's Party with For Aosta Valley, and some former Socialists Soci ...

into

Edelweiss ''Leontopodium nivale'', commonly called edelweiss () ( ; or ), is a mountain flower belonging to the daisy or sunflower family Asteraceae. The plant prefers rocky limestone places at about altitude. It is a non-toxic plant. Its leaves and f ...

(SA). In the 2003 regional election SA was the second-largest party with 19.8% of the vote, but the party soon split and the FA re-gained its autonomy in 2004. In the 2008 regional election the party, which was part of the winning regionalist coalition, obtained 6.2% of the vote and two regional councillors (out of 35). Claudio Lavoyer was appointed to the regional government. In 2009 a group of Socialists, members of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

at the national level, were expelled from the FA. In 2013 a larger group of Socialists, led by

Leonardo La Torre Leonardo or The Leonardo may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' Leonardo Journal'', an arts journal * ''Leonardo'' (Italian magazine), a philosophy magazine published in Florence, Italy, in 1903–1907 * ''Leonardo'' (journal), published b ...

, a former leader of the party, left and joined the

Valdostan Union The Valdostan Union (, UV), also Valdostian Union or Valdotanian Union, is a regionalist and centrist political party in Aosta Valley, Italy. It represents mainly the French-speaking minority in the region. One of its leading members, Renzo Te ...

. In the 2013 regional election the FA, which included the

Union of Christian and Centre Democrats The Union of the Centre (, UdC), whose complete name is Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (''Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e Democratici di Centro'', UDC), is a Christian-democratic political party in Italy. Lorenzo Cesa is the part ...

, obtained a mere 2.2% of the vote and was excluded from the Regional Council, after 15 years of continuous presence. As a result, Lavoyer resigned from party leader. In 2014 the party was merged into a short-lived outfit named "Create VdA", which was finally merged into the UV, of which La Torre was still a regional councillor.

Leadership

*Secretary: ''unknown'' (1998–2001), Cristina Vasini (2003–2008),

(2008–2012), Claudio Lavoyer (2012–2013)">La Stampa - Lavoyer segretario della Fédération "Io non devo chiarire nulla, nessuno mi ha contestato alcun illecito"
/ref> *President: ''unknown'' (1998–2001), Guglielmo Piccolo (2003–2008), Cristina Vasini (2008–2014)

References

External links

Official website
{{Aosta political parties Political parties in Aosta Valley Christian democratic parties in Italy Catholic political parties Centrist parties in Italy Defunct social democratic parties in Italy