The Italian Liberal Right (, DLI) or, simply, Liberal Right, is a minor conservative-liberal

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 ...

History

The party was founded in 1994 by members of the

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

of the

Italian Liberal Party The Italian Liberal Party (, PLI) was a liberal political party in Italy. The PLI, which was heir to the liberal currents of both the Historical Right and the Historical Left, was a minor party after World War II, but also a frequent junio ...

(PLI). Leading members included Gabriele Pagliuzzi,

Giuseppe Basini Giuseppe Basini (10 February 1947 – 9 May 2025) was an Italian politician. A member of the National Alliance, the Italian Liberal Party, and the Lega Nord, he served in the Senate of the Republic from 1996 to 2001 and the Chamber of Deputies ...

Luciano Magnalbò Luciano is an Italian, Spanish and Portuguese given name and surname. It is derived from Latin ''Lucianus'', patronymic of ''Lucius'' ("Light"). The French form is ''Lucien'', while the Basque form is '' Luken''. Single name *Luciano (rapper ...

and Saverio Porcari Lidestri. The DLI soon allied itself with the

National Alliance National Alliance may refer to: Electoral alliances *National Alliance (Egypt) (2015) * National Alliance (Ireland) (2024 onwards) * National Alliance (Pakistan) (2002-2004) *Nation Alliance (Turkey) (2018-2023) Political parties and organizations ...

(AN), of which it became the liberal faction. In the

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

and 2001 general elections, some members of DLI, including Pagliuzzi, Basini and Magnalbò were elected in the

Italian Parliament The Italian Parliament () is the national parliament of the Italy, Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861), the Parliament of the Kingd ...

for AN. In 2001 Pagliuzzi and Basini left AN, due to their exclusion from party lists for the general election, and re-established DLI, renaming it the Liberal Right – Liberals for Italy (''Destra Liberale – Liberali per l'Italia'', DL-LpI). Basini left the DL-LpI in 2004 in order to join the re-established

Stefano De Luca Stefano De Luca (born 7 April 1942 in Paceco, Sicily) is an Italian politician and lawyer. Biography De Luca was member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1983 to 1994 for the Italian Liberal Party. He also served as Undersecretary at the Ministry ...

, while Pagliuzzi remained in charge of party leadership. Magnalbò was a senator for AN until 2006 and then joined the new PLI in 2007 too. By 2007 DL-LpI had become a tiny liberal

political action committee In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The l ...

Eugenio Riccio Eugenio is an Italian and Spanish masculine given name deriving from the Greek 'Eugene'. The name is Eugénio in Portuguese and Eugênio in Brazilian Portuguese. The name's translated literal meaning is well born, or of noble status. Similar deri ...

(former member of the

Italian Social Movement The Italian Social Movement (, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national conservatism. In 1972, the Itali ...

and later of AN) joined Pagliuzzi in a convention on the future of the party. The most likely options were either a merger with

The Right Right-wing politics is the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position b ...

or with

The People of Freedom The People of Freedom (, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL launched by Silvio Berlusconi as an electoral list, including and National Alliance, on 27 February for the 2008 Italian general election. The list was later t ...

(PdL). Lately in 2007, the party was re-named Italian Liberal Right, its original name. In 2011 Pagliuzzi led his group into the PdL. In 2019 Basini,

Anna Cinzia Bonfrisco Anna Cinzia Bonfrisco (born 12 October 1962 in Riva del Garda) is an Italian politician. In the 2006 general election she was elected senator on the Forza Italia list. She was re-elected in the 2008 and 2013 general elections. On 3 June 201 ...

and

Arturo Diaconale Arturo is a Spanish and Italian variant of the name Arthur. People *Arturo Alessandri (1868–1950), Chilean politician and president *Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born 1985), American-born Salvadoran footballer *Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born ...

re-launched DLI as an internal faction and/or associate party of Lega.

Ideology

DLI is a conservative-liberal party expousing a vigorous

patriotism Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to one's country or state. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one's homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, politic ...

and a strong support for

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 ...

. These two elements put together can lead to classification the party's ideology as

national liberalism National liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal policies and issues with elements of nationalism. Historically, national liberalism has also been used in the same meaning as conservative liberalism (right-liberalism). A se ...

. As heirs of the right-wing liberal tradition of Italy, DLI members were keen on supporting

national identity National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity ...

and

centralism Centralisation or centralization (American English) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning, decision-making, and framing strategies and policies, become concentrated within a particular ...

, thus they strongly opposed any form of

federalism Federalism is a mode of government that combines a general level of government (a central or federal government) with a regional level of sub-unit governments (e.g., provinces, State (sub-national), states, Canton (administrative division), ca ...

and proposed the abolition of the

Regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

, including those with special statute, and the

Provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

in Italy. In the latest political program, possibly due to the alliance with the federalist Lega, these proposals are not included.

Leadership

*President:

(1994–2004), Gabriele Pagliuzzi (2004–2011), Cinzia Bonfrisco (2019–present) **Honorary President:

(2019–present) **President of the National Council: Gabriele Pagliuzzi (2019–present) *Secretary: Gabriele Pagliuzzi (1994–2004), Michele Gelardi (2019–present)

History

Ideology

Leadership

Election results

European Parliament

References

External links

See also