The Democratic Union for the Republic (, UDR) was a short-lived

Christian-democratic 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 a ...

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 ...

political party in Italy This is a list of political parties in Italy since Italian unification in 1861. Throughout history, numerous political parties have been operating in Italy. Since World War II no party has ever gained enough support to govern alone; thus, partie ...

. It was founded in February 1998 by

Francesco Cossiga Francesco Maurizio Cossiga (; , ; 1928 – 2010)
. was an Italian politician who served as President of ...

(former

Prime Minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

and

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

) in order to provide a majority in Parliament for the creation of the

D'Alema I Cabinet The first D'Alema government was the Politics of Italy, government of Italy from 21 October 1998 to 22 December 1999. The first Prodi government fell in 1998 when the Communist Refoundation Party withdrew its support to Prodi. This led to the fo ...

. The party also included

Clemente Mastella Mario Clemente Mastella (born 5 February 1947) is an Italian politician who has been the mayor of Benevento since 20 June 2016. He also served as leader of the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR), a minor centrist and Christian-democratic I ...

(ex- Christian Democratic Centre, CCD, then leader of the

Christian Democrats for the Republic The Christian Democrats for the Republic (, CDR) was a Christian-democratic political party in Italy. The party was formed in February 1998 as a splinter group from the Christian Democratic Centre (CCD), under the leadership of Clemente Mastella ...

Rocco Buttiglione Rocco Buttiglione (; born 6 June 1948) is an Italian Union of Christian and Centre Democrats politician and an academic. Buttiglione's nomination for a post as European Commissioner with a portfolio that was to include civil liberties, resulted ...

(leader of 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 ...

, CDU),

Mario Segni Mariotto Segni (born 16 May 1939) is a retired Italian politician and professor of civil law. He founded several parties, which focused on fighting for electoral reform through referendums. He is the son of the politician Antonio Segni, one-time ...

(leader of

Segni Pact The Segni Pact (), officially called Pact of National Rebirth (''Patto di Rinascita Nazionale''), was a Christian-democratic, centrist and liberal political party in Italy. The party was founded and named after Mario Segni, a former member of t ...

Carlo Scognamiglio Carlo Scognamiglio Pasini (born 27 November 1944) is an Italian economist and politician. He is a university professor in applied economics, and was Chancellor of the LUISS University of Rome (1984–1992). He was President of the Italian Se ...

(ex-

Forza Italia (FI; ) was a centre-right liberal-conservative political party in Italy, with Christian democratic,Chiara Moroni, , Carocci, Rome 2008 liberalOreste Massari, ''I partiti politici nelle democrazie contempoiranee'', Laterza, Rome-Bari 2004 (esp ...

, FI), Enrico Ferri (ex-CCD, former leader of the

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

and

European Liberal Social Democracy The European Liberal Social Democracy (), was a social-democratic political party in Italy. It was initially founded as an internal faction of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party on 10 December 1994 by Enrico Ferri and Luigi Preti to defend t ...

) and Irene Pivetti (ex-

Lega Nord Lega Nord (LN; ), whose complete name is (), is a right-wing politics, right-wing, federalism, federalist, populism, populist and conservatism, conservative list of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy. In the run-up to the 201 ...

), along with several other MPs elected for the centre-right. Cossiga'a sim was to facilitate the creation of a centre-left governments without the support of the

Communist Refoundation Party The Communist Refoundation Party (, PRC) is a Communism, communist List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who r ...

. The UDR was initially only a federation of parties, but in June CDR, CDU and the Segni Pact merged to form a united party and Mastella was elected secretary. After disagreements between Cossiga and Mastella, the party broke up in February 1999. Most party members rallied behind Mastella and joined his Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR). Those around Cossiga formed the Union for the Republic (UpR), whose leading members ( Angelo Sanza, Giorgio Rebuffa, etc.), entered in FI in 2001. The most notable exception was

who joined the Federation of Italian Liberals, and then

European Democracy European Democracy (, DE) was a minor Christian-democratic, centrist political party in Italy. History European Democracy was founded in 2001 by Sergio D'Antoni (former leader of the Italian Confederation of Workers' Trade Unions), Giulio Andr ...

and the

Pact of Liberal Democrats The Pact of Liberal Democrats (''Patto dei Liberaldemocratici''), also called Segni-Scognamiglio Pact (''Patto Segni-Scognamiglio''), was a Liberalism, liberal and Christian democracy, Christian-democratic List of political parties in Italy, Ita ...

. Buttiglione had previously re-established the CDU, as Segni did with his Pact, while Ferri joined FI. The party had multiple regional branches: Union of Sardinians in Sardinia, Democratic People's Union in Trentino and Democratic Union of Alto Adige in South Tyrol.

Leadership

*Secretary:

(1998–1999) *President: Carlo Scognamiglio Pasini /

(1998–1999) *Honorary President:

Francesco Cossiga Francesco Maurizio Cossiga (; , ; 1928 – 2010)
. was an Italian politician who served as President of ...

(1998–1999)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Democratic Union For The Republic 1998 establishments in Italy Political parties established in 1998 Defunct political parties in Italy Christian democratic parties in Italy Catholic political parties Political parties disestablished in 1999 1999 disestablishments in Italy