The Free Democrats (''Liberi Democratici'', LD) were the

centrist Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to th ...

faction within 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), a

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 ...

, around

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 ...

, former leader of

Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy ( it, Democrazia è Libertà – La Margherita, DL), commonly known simply as The Daisy (''La Margherita''), was a centrist political party in Italy. The party was formed from the merger of three parties withi ...

, one of the two main parties that merged to form the PD in 2007. The faction was launched by Rutelli in June 2009 during 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 ...

. The group comprised both liberals and

Christian democrats __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social te ...

who wanted the PD to be modelled on the example of the

United States Democratic Party The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. Founded in 1828, it was predominantly built by Martin Van Buren, who assembled a wide cadre of politicians in every state behind war hero An ...

and consider

social democracy Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to prom ...

as obsolete in the 21st century. In fact the followers of Rutelli, the so-called '' Rutelliani'', included both the secular-liberal faction of the late DL (

Paolo Gentiloni Paolo Gentiloni Silveri (; born 22 November 1954) is an Italian politician who has served as European Commissioner for Economy in the von der Leyen Commission since 1 December 2019. He previously served as prime minister of Italy from Decemb ...

Ermete Realacci Ermete Realacci (born 1 May 1955 in Sora) is an Italian politician. Biography In the early 1970s Realacci participated in the Christian Animation Movement (MAC). After finishing his studies at the classical high school, he worked as a publicist ...

and his group of ecologists,

Linda Lanzillotta Linda Lanzillotta (born 7 September 1948) is an Italian politician. She was the minister for regional affairs and local communities between 2006 and 2008. Early life Lanzillotta was born in Cassano all'Ionio in the Province of Cosenza on 7 Septe ...

Gianni Vernetti Gianni Vernetti (born 27 November 1960) is a writer and Italian politician. Early life Gianni Vernetti was born in Torino, Italy. In 1985 he graduated in Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Turin. In 1987 he was awarded a PhD in Urba ...

Roberto Giachetti Roberto Giachetti (born 24 April 1961) is an Italian politician, member of Italia Viva and of the Transnational Radical Party. He has been a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies since 2001. Biography Roberto Giachetti was born in Rome in 1 ...

, etc.), who represented the more free market-oriented wing of the PD, and the socially conservative Teodems ( Paola Binetti,

Luigi Bobba is a fictional character featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario, Nintendo's mas ...

Enzo Carra Enzo Carra (8 August 1943 – 2 February 2023) was an Italian journalist and politician. A member of The Daisy, the Democratic Party, and the Union of the Centre, he served in the Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house ...

Donato Mosella Donato may refer to: People *Donato (surname) As a given name * Donato Bilancia (1951–2020), Italian serial killer * Donato Bramante (1444–1514), Italian architect * Donato da Cascia (fl. c. 1350 – 1370), Italian composer of trecento ma ...

, etc.), who were on the right of the party on moral issues. As told, there was also a group of ecologists from ''

Legambiente Legambiente is an Italian environmentalist association with roots in the anti-nuclear movement that developed in Italy and throughout the Western world in the second half of the '70s. Founded in 1980 as part of the ARCI, it later became a stand-a ...

'', the largest environmentalist association n Italy (Realacci, Roberto Della Seta,

Francesco Ferrante Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name "Francis", is the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include: People with the given name Francesco * Francesco I (disambiguation), sever ...

, etc.). This heterogeneity reflected the political trajectory of Rutelli, who entered politics as a

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 ...

, then joined the Greens and finally became a devout Catholic and politically a centrist. Rutelli thus considered himself as a bridge between liberals and Christian democrats, and his conservative stances on

advance health care directive Advance commonly refers to: *Advance, an offensive push in sports, games, thoughts, military combat, or sexual or romantic pursuits *Advance payment for goods or services * Advance against royalties, a payment to be offset against future royalty pa ...

stem cell research In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...

and

civil union A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

s did not stop him from having a profitable dialogue with secularists and even with his former political godfather

Marco Pannella Marco Pannella (born Giacinto Pannella; 2 May 1930 – 19 May 2016) was an Italian politician, journalist and activist. He was well known in his country for his nonviolence and civil rights' campaigns, like the right to divorce, the right to a ...

, undisputed leader 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 ...

. During

Walter Veltroni Walter Veltroni (; born 3 July 1955) is an Italian writer, film director, journalist, and politician, who served as the first leader of the Democratic Party within the centre-left opposition, until his resignation on 17 February 2009. He serve ...

's leadership of the party, some ''Rutelliani'' (such as Gentiloni and Realacci) seemed to distance from Rutelli, who was taking a more conservative approach. Moreover, some of them even took part to the foundation of other factions, such as

Liberal PD Liberal PD ( it, Liberal PD) is a social-liberal faction within the Democratic Party (PD), a political party in Italy. The aim of the group is to promote liberal ideas within the party and elect liberal candidates. The faction, through the Itali ...

(Gentiloni, Lanzillotta, Vernetti, etc.) and the Democratic Ecologists (Realacci, Della Seta, Ferrante, etc.), also because Rutelli decided not to organize his faction after the 2007 Democratic Party leadership election. However, after Veltroni's departure from party leadership, Rutelli was able to rally again all his followers within the Free Democrats. In the 2009 Democratic Party leadership election the faction supported

Dario Franceschini Dario Franceschini (; born 19 October 1958) is an Italian lawyer, writer, and politician, member of the Democratic Party (PD), of which he briefly became leader in 2009. Franceschini served as Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and To ...

as party leader. In the aftermath of the election, which saw the victory of

Pier Luigi Bersani Pier Luigi Bersani (; born 29 September 1951) is an Italian politician and was Secretary of the Democratic Party (PD), Italy's leading centre-left party, from 2009 to 2013. Bersani was Minister of Industry, Commerce and Craftmanship from 1996 t ...

and a large portion of the faction left the party in order to set up an independent party,

Alliance for Italy Alliance for Italy ( it, Alleanza per l'Italia; ApI) was a centrist political party in Italy. The party, which was described in its manifesto as "democratic, liberal, popular" as opposed both to "right-wing populism" and the "social-democratic l ...

. The faction thus ceased to exist. In September 2010 the former ''Rutelliani'' remained in the PD joined Veltroni's

Democratic Movement A democracy is a political system, or a system of decision-making within an institution or organization or a country, in which all members have an equal share of power. Modern democracies are characterized by two capabilities that differentiate ...

References

{{reflist Democratic Party (Italy) factions