Federation of the Greens
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| Federation of the Greens Federazione dei Verdi |
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|---|---|
 Italian National Party |
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| Leader | A. Pecoraro Scanio |
| Founded | November 16, 1986 |
| Headquarters | Via Salandra, 6 00187 Rome |
| Coalition | The Union |
| Political ideology | Ecology, Pacifism, Anti-globalization |
| Membership | 31,000 (2004, [1]) |
| Official newspaper | Notizie Verdi |
| Website | www.verdi.it |
| See also | Politics of Italy |
| Part of the Politics series on Green politics |
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| Topics |
| Organizations |
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Global Greens · Africa · Americas · Asia-Pacific · Europe |
| Principles |
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Four Pillars |
| Issues |
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The Federation of the Greens (Federazione dei Verdi, or just Verdi) is an Italian green and eco-socialist party. Its leader is Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, minister for the Environment from April 2006 in Romano Prodi's centre-left government.
The Greens are strong in cities and urban areas (Milan, Venice, Rome, Naples, etc.), in mountain regions as Trentino-South Tyrol and Aosta Valley, and in the South as in Basilicata and Campania, where they have controlled the leadership of the Province of Naples since 1995. They also gain momentum where NIMBY movements grow up against the construction of highways and landfills.
[edit] History
The first official Italian Green symbol and political style was directly inspired by the Northern European environmentalist movements. The Green Lists, led by Gianni Mattioli, then made their debut at the 1987 general election when they gained 2.6% of the votes.
At the 1989 European Parliament Election two were the competing Green parties: the Green Lists and the Rainbow Greens, close to the Radical Party and featuring some Radical politicians (Alexander Langer, Adelaide Aglietta and Francesco Rutelli). In 1990 the two movements joined forces to form the Federation of Greens.
The new formed party entered in alliance with the Democratic Party of the Left in 1993 and was a founding component of the Olive Tree coalition in 1996. After the 1996 general election, the Greens were part of the centre-left governments with Edo Ronchi, minister for the Environment (1996-2000), and then with Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, minister of Agriculture (2000-01).
In the 2001 general election it formed a group called Il Girasole (Sunflower) with the Italian Democratic Socialists. The combination scored 2.2% and so did not surpass the 4% treshold. Anyway the Greens elected 7 deputies and 10 senators in first-past-the-post districts, as part of the Olive Tree coalition.
After the disbanding of the alliance with the Socialists, a much moderate outfit, the party shifted far to the left, prompting the exit from it of important members as Edo Ronchi, Gianni Mattioli, Luigi Manconi, Massimo Scalia and Franco Corleone (Francesco Rutelli and Carlo Ripa di Meana had yet abandoned the party, respectively in 1997 and in 1999). From then the Greens are self-considered part of the Italian "radical left", alongside with the Party of Italian Communists and the Communist Refoundation Party.
In the 2004 European Parliamentary Election the Greens stood as a separate list, gaining 2.5% of the national vote and electing 2 MEPs.
In the 9 April/10 April 2006 general election, the party was part of the winning The Union (L'Unione) and scored 2.1%, winning 15 out of 630 seats in the Italian Chamber of Deputies. An alliance of Greens, Communists and Consumers scored 4.2% in the elections for the Italian Senate, electing 11 out of 315 senators, 5 of them Greens. Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio was inaugurated minister of the Environment, while Paolo Cento, national coordinator of the party and member of the no global faction within it, became under-secretary for Economy and Finances.
During the party congress held from 10 November to 12 November 2006, the party reinforced the political line traced by Pecoraro Scanio, supported by his number two Cento. The Greens decided to re-open the doors to people as Mattioli and Scalia anyway, while setting the growth of the party as their mid-term goal, possibly as far as reaching 5-6% of the votes. This will mean making the party more open and less sectarian, an alternative both to the centre-left parties (Democracy is Freedom and Democrats of the Left) and to the old-fashioned communist parties.
The attempt of re-uniting the Italian Greens failed already in January 2007, when Gianni Mattioli, Massimo Scalia and Franco Corleone finally left the party, saying that it was drifting to the far left, and announced their intention to participate to the foundation of the Democratic Party and to constitute an ecologist faction within it, alongside Luigi Manconi, Edo Ronchi, Lino De Benetti and Stefano Semenzato (now members of DS) and Ermete Realacci, Gianni Vernetti, Franco Piro, Francesco Ferrante and Carla Rocchi (former Greens now members of DL, as also Francesco Rutelli and Paolo Gentiloni are).
[edit] Leaders
Party sopkesman/president:
- Gianni Mattioli (1986-89)
- Sauro Turroni (1989-91)
- Lino De Benetti (1991-93)
- Carlo Ripa di Meana (1993-96)
- Luigi Manconi (1996-99)
- Grazia Francescato (1999-2001)
- Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio (2001-present)
