The Sardinian Action Party (, , PSd'Az or PSdA) is a
Sardinian nationalist,
regionalist and
separatist
Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...
political party in Sardinia founded by Sardinian anti-fascist intellectual
Emilio Lussu
Emilio Lussu (4 December 1890 – 5 March 1975) was a Sardinian people, Sardinian and Italian writer, anti-fascist intellectual, military officer, Italian resistance movement, partisan, and politician. He is also the author of the novel ''One Yea ...
. While being traditionally part of the Sardinian centre-left, the party has also sided with the
centre-right coalition
The centre-right coalition () is a political alliance of political parties in Italy active under several forms and names since 1994, when Silvio Berlusconi entered politics and formed the party. It has mostly competed with the centre-left c ...
and, more recently, with the
League.
The PSd'Az is one of the oldest
stateless nation
A stateless nation is an ethnicity, ethnic group or nation that does not possess its own sovereign state.''Dictionary Of Public Administration'', U.C. Mandal, Sarup & Sons 2007, 505 p. Use of the term implies that such ethnic groups have the rig ...
alist parties active in Europe that promotes autonomy towards the ideal of independence. As such, the party was a founding member of the
European Free Alliance
The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political party that consists of various regionalist, separatist and minority political parties in Europe. Member parties advocate either for full political independence and sovereignty, or some ...
in 1984,
but was expelled in 2020 because of its alliance with the League.
Christian Solinas, who has led the party since 2015, was elected senator in the
2018 general election and
President of Sardinia in the
2019 regional election, the first Sardist to do so since
Mario Melis in 1984–1989, leading a centre-right coalition.
History
The party was founded in April 1921. However, it was soon banned under fascism. The party was re-organized after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
by
Emilio Lussu
Emilio Lussu (4 December 1890 – 5 March 1975) was a Sardinian people, Sardinian and Italian writer, anti-fascist intellectual, military officer, Italian resistance movement, partisan, and politician. He is also the author of the novel ''One Yea ...
, secretary for
Southern Italy
Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions.
The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or cultu ...
of the
Action Party during the war, and other
veteran
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in an job, occupation or Craft, field.
A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in the military, armed forces.
A topic o ...
s from the
Sassari brigade
Sassari ( ; ; ; ) is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 120,497 inhabitants as of 2025, and a functional urban area of about 260,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, it contains ...
and anti-fascists,
a social-democratic group of the
Italian resistance movement
The Italian Resistance ( ), or simply ''La'' , consisted of all the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic during the Second World War in Italy ...
. Lussu left the party in 1948 to found the short-lived
Sardinian Socialist Action Party
The Sardinian Socialist Action Party (, PSd'AzS) was a regionalist social-democratic political party active in Sardinia.
History
The party was founded in 1948 by a split from the Sardinian Action Party led by Emilio Lussu, former member of the "S ...
(PSd'AzS), which joined 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 1949, along with many other PSd'Az members.
Consequently, the PSd'Az started to cooperate with
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 ...
and was quite a stable until the 1980s.
The PSd'Az and the PSd'AzS won 10.5% and 6.6% respectively in the first
regional election in 1949.
After a decline in term of votes in the 1960s and 1970s, the party re-gained strength in the 1980s (13.8% in
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
and 12.4% in
1989
1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...
). Following these results, Sardist
Mario Melis was
President of Sardinia between 1984 and 1989 at the head of a five-party coalition composed also by the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...
, the Italian Socialist Party, the
Italian Democratic Socialist Party and 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 ...
. This was the highest point in party history: the PSd'Az was represented 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 ...
from 1983 to 1994, and Melis was a
MEP for the
Rainbow Group from 1989 to 1994.
The party was affiliated to
The Olive Tree during the
1996 general election.
However, the party congress rejected a continuation of the alliance ahead the
2001 general election.
In the
2004 Sardinian regional election, the PSd'Az won 3.9% of the vote and 2 regional councillors.
In the
2006 general election, leader
Giacomo Sanna, due to an electoral pact named
Pact for the Autonomies, was a candidate of the
Northern League (LN) for 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 el ...
in
Lombardy
The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...
, but failed to get elected.
The party ran by itself in the
2008 general election, winning a mere 1.5% in the Region.
In the
2009 regional election, the PSd'Az joined the
centre-right coalition
The centre-right coalition () is a political alliance of political parties in Italy active under several forms and names since 1994, when Silvio Berlusconi entered politics and formed the party. It has mostly competed with the centre-left c ...
, provoking the split of the party's left that formed the
Red Moors.
Cappellacci won and the PSd'Az won 4.3% of the vote (having its strongholds in the traditionally left-wing
Provinces of Nuoro and
Carbonia-Iglesias, where it gained 7.5 and 7.1%, respectively) and four regional councillors plus one (Giacomo Sanna) elected in Cappellacci's regional list. The Red Moors won 2.5% and one councillor. In the
2010 provincial elections the party was strongest in
Nuoro
Nuoro ( ; ) is a city and (municipality) in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of Mount Ortobene. It is the capital of the province of Nuoro. With a population of 36,347 (2011), it is the sixth-largest city in Sardinia. Its ...
(12.8%),
Sassari
Sassari ( ; ; ; ) is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 120,497 inhabitants as of 2025, and a functional urban area of about 260,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, it contains ...
(6.9%),
Olbia-Tempio (6.7%) and
Cagliari
Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...
(6.4%).
In 2013, the PSd'Az broke with Cappellacci and the centre-right, but re-joined the coalition in time for the
2014 regional election. In the election, Cappellacci was defeated and the PSd'Az won 4.7% of the vote and two regional councillors.
In the run-up of the
2018 general election, the party formed once again an electoral pact with the Northern League, which presented itself as "League" all around the country. The alliance managed to get 10.8% of the vote and
Christian Solinas, leader of the PSd'Az, was elected to the Senate, while
Guido De Martini, a local activist of the League, was elected to the Chamber. This marked the return of the PSd'Az to the Italian Parliament after 22 years. In August 2018, the party was suspended from the
European Free Alliance
The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political party that consists of various regionalist, separatist and minority political parties in Europe. Member parties advocate either for full political independence and sovereignty, or some ...
because of its alliance with the League.
In the
2019 regional election, Solinas was elected
President of Sardinia with 47.8% of the vote, while the PSd'Az won 9.9%.
In the
2024 regional election, Solinas did not stand for re-election and the centre-right lost the election, with the PSd'Az reduced to 5.4% and three regional councillors. After the election, Solinas was re-elected as its leader during a congress. As a result, two regional councillors out of three left the party. In September, all three PSd'Az elects joined
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 ...
.
Popular support
The party has failed to regain the electoral support it enjoyed upon its foundation (e.g. 36% of the popular vote in
1921 general election).
[Hepburn, E. (2009)]
Explaining Failure: the Highs and Lows of Sardinian Nationalism
, Regional & Federal Studies, 19(4/5)
The party has been mostly marginal in the Sardinan political scene since the
post-war
A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...
period and this marginalisation has increased with the Italian establishment of a bipolar political system in the 1990s.
The electoral results of the PSd'Az in regional and Chamber of Deputies elections in Sardinia since 1946 are shown in the chart below. For 1953 only the regional election's result is shown. In the general elections of 1972, 1976, 1979 and 2006 the party did not run lists for the Chamber of Deputies.
Election results
Regional Council of Sardinia
Italian Parliament
European Parliament
Leadership
*Secretary:
Camillo Bellieni (1921–1922),
Paolo Pili (1922),
Luigi Oggiano (1922–1923),
Salvatore Sale (1923–1925),
Ugo Pais (1925–1926),
Luigi Battista Puggioni (1926–1945),
Giovanni Battista Melis (1945–1948),
Piero Soggiu (1948–1951),
Giovanni Battista Melis (1951–1953),
Pietro Mastino (1953–1957),
Giovanni Battista Melis (1957–1974),
Michele Columbu (1974–1979),
Carlo Sanna (1979–1990),
Efisio Pilleri (1990–1991),
Giorgio Ladu (1991–1992),
Italo Ortu (1992–1994),
Giancarlo Acciaro (1994),
Cecilia Contu (1994–1995),
Lorenzo Palermo (1995–1997),
Antonio Delitala (1997–1999),
Giacomo Sanna (2000–2006),
Efisio Trincas (2006–2009),
Giovanni Colli (2009–2014),
Giovanni Columbu (2015),
Christian Solinas (2015–present)
*President: unknown (1921–unknown),
Franco Meloni (unknown–2000),
Lorenzo Palermo (2000–2004),
Silvano Cadoni (2004–2006),
Giacomo Sanna (2006–2015),
Giovanni Columbu (2015–2017),
Antonio Moro
Anthonis Mor, also known as Anthonis Mor van Dashorst and Antonio Moro (c. 1517 – 1577), was a Netherlandish Portrait painting, portrait painter, much in demand by the courts of Europe. He has also been referred to as Antoon, Anthonius, Anthoni ...
(2018–present)
Symbols
Partito Sardo d'Azione logo.png, Official logo
Sardinian Action Party.png, Electoral logo
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Political parties in Sardinia
Social democratic parties in Italy
Political parties established in 1921
European Free Alliance
Sardinian nationalist parties
Radical parties in Italy
1921 establishments in Italy
Political parties of minorities in Italy