Scajoliani refers to the faction around

Claudio Scajola Claudio Scajola (; born 15 January 1948) is an Italian politician who is the mayor of Imperia since 2018 and the president of the province of Imperia since 2021. Career Scajola was born in Imperia. A long-time member of Christian Democracy, he ...

, a leading member of

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), a

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 ...

. The group wielded particular influence within Forza Italia (FI), the main precursor of PdL. Scajola and his allies proposed a stronger party organization, differently from another major group, the '' Dellutriani'', named after senator

Marcello Dell'Utri Marcello Dell'Utri (born 11 September 1941) is a former Italian politician. He is best known for being a senior advisor to former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, of whom he became a secretary in his early 20s and since the 1970s had worked for ...

. After the defeat in the 1996 general election,

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...

appointed Scajola national coordinator of the party. During the subsequent five years in charge of party organization (1996–2001), Scajola built FI as a modern mass party and prepared it for the huge electoral victories of 1999–2001 (

European Parliament election Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until 2019, 751 ...

, regional elections and

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

). After having left active politics for a while in 2010, Scajola soon started to re-organize his faction, whose leading members included Massimo Berruti, Paolo Russo, Maria Teresa Armosino, Ignazio Abrignani, Michele Scandroglio,

Salvatore Cicu Salvatore may refer to: * Salvatore (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * "Salvatore", a song by Lana Del Rey, on her 2015 album ''Honeymoon'' * Salvatore (band), a Norwegian instrume ...

, Sandro Biasotti, Roberto Cassinelli, Raffaele Lauro, Paolo Tancredi and Giustina Destro. Most of them were former

Christian Democrats 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 ...

, while others shared with Scajola the regional upbringing, hailing from

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with ...

, Scajola's power base, or neighbouring

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

. In November 2010 the Christopher Columbus Foundation (FCL) was formed by Scajola in order to help the PdL discover again the original spirit of FI. The association was joined by ''Scajoliani'' and also by

Antonio Martino Antonio Martino (22 December 1942 – 5 March 2022) was an Italian politician. A founding member of Forza Italia, he served as the minister of foreign affairs in 1994 and minister of defense from 2001 to 2006. Life and career Born in Messina ...

, a former Liberal who was number two of FI in 1994 and minister of Foreign Affairs in Berlusconi's first government, as well as other liberals, such as Gregorio Fontana, and leading Christian democrats of the party, including

Mario Baccini Mario Baccini (born 14 December 1957 in Rome) is an Italian politics, politician, former member of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats and promoter of the White Rose (Italy), White Rose, incumbent mayor of Fiumicino since May 2023. Bio ...

and Osvaldo Napoli.

References

External links

Christopher Columbus Foundation
{{People of Freedom factions The People of Freedom factions Forza Italia factions