Forza Europa (translation: "Forward Europe", FE) is a liberal and

pro-Europeanist Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Politi ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Its leader and president is

Benedetto Della Vedova Benedetto Della Vedova (Sondrio, 3 April 1962) is an Italian people, Italian politician. A keen pro-Europeanism, pro-Europeanist, Della Vedova is currently president of Forza Europa (2017), Forza Europa (FE) and secretary of More Europe (+EU), t ...

, an

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

and long-time

Radical Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics * Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe an ...

politician, who has been

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adop ...

for the Bonino List (1999–2004), candidate for President of Lombardy (2000), president of the

Italian Radicals The Italian Radicals ( it, Radicali Italiani, RI) is a liberal and libertarian political party in Italy. Founded on 14 July 2001 with Daniele Capezzone as their first secretary, the party describes itself as "''liberale'', ''liberista'' nd''li ...

(2001–2003), founder and president of the

Liberal Reformers Liberal Reformers ( it, Riformatori Liberali, RL) was a minor liberal, libertarian and liberist political party in Italy led by Benedetto Della Vedova, a former President of the Italian Radicals. History RL was founded in 2005 by a split from ...

(2005–2009), member of 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 Bourbon ...

for

Forza Italia Forza ItaliaThe name is not usually translated into English: ''forza'' is the second-person singular imperative of ''forzare'', in this case translating to "to compel" or "to press", and so means something like "Forward, Italy", "Come on, Ital ...

(2006–2008),

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 ...

(2008–2011) and

Future and Freedom Future and Freedom ( it, Futuro e Libertà), whose full name was Future and Freedom for Italy (''Futuro e Libertà per l'Italia'', abbreviated to FLI), was a political party in Italy, comprising both liberal and national conservative elements. F ...

(2011–2013), member of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

for Future and Freedom (2013),

Civic Choice Civic Choice ( it, Scelta Civica; SC) was a centrist and liberal political party in Italy founded by Mario Monti. The party was formed in the run-up of the 2013 general election to support the outgoing Prime Minister Monti and continue his polit ...

(2013–2015) and the

Mixed Group The mixed group ( it, Gruppo Misto, GM) is a parliamentary group active in both houses of the Italian Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicame ...

(2015–2018), and undersecretary at the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The enti ...

Renzi Cabinet The Renzi government was the 63rd government of the Italian Republic, in office from February 2014 to December 2016. It was led by Matteo Renzi, secretary and leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD). The government was composed of membe ...

(2014–2016) and Gentiloni Cabinet (2016–2018). The party took part to the 2018 general election within

More Europe More Europe ( it, Più Europa or ''+Europa''; +E or +Eu) is a liberal and pro-Europeanist political party in Italy, part of the centre-left coalition and member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party. Its leaders are Emma ...

(+E).

History

FE was originally launched as a pro

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

campaign during a convention in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

on 11 February 2017. The event saw the participation of leading public figures, including

Mario Monti Mario Monti, (born 19 March 1943) is an Italian economist and academic who served as the Prime Minister of Italy from 2011 to 2013, leading a technocratic government in the wake of the Italian debt crisis. Monti served as a European Commissi ...

Francesco Rutelli Francesco Rutelli (born 14 June 1954) is an Italian journalist and former politician, who is the president of ''Anica'', National Association of Film and Audiovisual Industry, since October 2016. He also chairs the "Centro per un Futuro Sostenib ...

Emma Bonino Emma Bonino (born 9 March 1948) is an Italian politician. A senator for Rome, she served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2014. Previously, she was a Member of the European Parliament and a member of the Chamber of Deputies. She serve ...

(leader of the

, who had recently parted ways from the

Transnational Radical Party The Transnational Radical Party (TRP), whose official name is Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT), is a political association of citizens, members of parliament and members of government of various national and political ...

), Carlo Scognamiglio (leader of The Liberals), as well as some members of the Civics and Innovators (CI) group in the Chamber of Deputies ( Andrea Mazziotti, Gianfranco Librandi and Stefano Dambruoso). The campaign soon became a structured association, with an active role played by Piercamillo Falasca and

Carmelo Palma Carmelo is a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Carmelo Anthony (born 1984), American basketball player * Carmelo Antrone Lee (born 1977), Puerto Rican basketball player * Carmelo Bene (1937-2002), Italian director, actor, phil ...

, who had been part of Della Vedova's inner circle since the years as Radical. In June 2017 Della Vedova introduced FE to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE Party) in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, and, for their part, ALDE leaders had also been trying to unite FE,

(SC), the Radicals and other left-leaning liberals, in order to build the Italian section of the ALDE Party, a goal they have long missed, most notably with the SC-dominated

European Choice European Choice ( it, Scelta Europea, SE) was a pro-European and primarily liberal electoral alliance of political parties in Italy formed to contest the 2014 European election on a platform influenced heavily by the Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt ...

list in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candi ...

(0.7% of the vote). In July 2017 FE organised a convention in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, which was seen as the beginning of its transformation into a full-fledged party. The event was attended by Bonino, Mazziotti, Librandi, Umberto Ranieri and Carlo Calenda ( minister of Economic Development). In November 2017 FE, the Radicals and some CI members launched

(+E), a pro-Europeanist list for the 2018 general election, led by Bonino. +E was part of the centre-left coalition led by

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 b ...

and the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

(PD). The list won 2.6% of the vote in the election, falling short of the 3% threshold, and no FE member was elected neither in single-seat constituencies (Della Vedova missed the election in the constituency of

Prato Prato ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city lies in the north east of Tuscany, at the foot of Monte Retaia, elevation , the last peak in the Calvana chain. With more than 200,000 ...

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

for 1.5% of the vote). In April 2018 FE's first assembly elected Della Vedova president, Mazziotti vice president, Falasca secretary and Palma coordinator of the national board. In July 2018 +E started to organise itself as a full-fledged party. It was decided that a committee, presided by

Gianfranco Spadaccia Gianfranco Spadaccia (28 February 1935 – 24 September 2022) was an Italian journalist and politician. A member of the Radical Party and the Transnational Radical Party, he served in the Chamber of Deputies from 1983 to 1986 and again from 2 to ...

(a long-time Radical), would lead +E until the founding congress, scheduled for January 2019. The newly formed committee appointed Della Vedova as coordinator.

Leadership

*President:

(2018–present) **Vice President: Andrea Mazziotti (2018–present) *Secretary: Piercamillo Falasca (2018–present) *Coordinator of the national board:

(2018–present)

References

External links

Official website
{{Italian political parties Political parties established in 2017 2017 establishments in Italy Liberal parties in Italy Federalist parties in Italy Pro-European political parties in Italy