Italian Liberal Party
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The Italian Liberal Party (Italian: Partito Liberale Italiano, PLI) is an Italian liberal party.
History
Early years
The party was founded in 1943 by Benedetto Croce, a prominent intellectual and MP whose international recognition allowed him to remain a free man during fascism, despite being an anti-fascist himself. Various groups had claimed the label "Liberal" before, but had never organized themselves as a party.After the end of World War II, the liberal Enrico De Nicola became "temporary chief of state" (not President of the Republic, as the general elections had not yet been held) and another one, Luigi Einaudi, first President of Italy. The first electoral result of the PLI (as Blocco Nazionale, with "Uomo Qualunque") was 3.8% at the 1948 elections, which was somewhat below expectations.
Giovanni Malagodi
Under Giovanni Malagodi the party moved further to the right in economic and reactionary sense. In particular the party opposed the new Centre-Left Coalition. This caused the exit of some young liberals (among whom Eugenio Scalfari, who would later found the newspaper La Repubblica), and Marco Pannella that founded the Radical party (today Radicali Italiani).Malagodi managed initially to draw some votes from the Italian Social Movement, attracting their hostility, and managing to substantially increase the party's support to a historical record of 7,0% in 1963; however, he was later forced to resign when the party was defeated with a humiliating 1.3% in the 1976 elections.
The Eighties
After Valerio Zanone took over, the party moved to the centre. In the 1980s the PLI entered in the government coalition with the Christian Democracy (DC), the Socialist party (PSI), and the smaller Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI) and the Italian Republican Party (PRI); the coalition was dubbed for a long time pentapartito, or "five-parties".In the Eighties the party was also leaded by Renato Altissimo and Alfredo Biondi, then a minister of the first Berlusconi Government.
Corruption Scandals and Aftermath
With the uncovering of the corruption system nicknamed Tangentopoli by the Mani Pulite investigation, many government parties experienced a rapid loss of their support. In the first months, the Liberal party seemed immune to investigation. However, as the investigations further unraveled, PLI turned out to be part of the corruption scheme.A liberal, minister of Public Health Francesco De Lorenzo, was one of the most loathed politicians in Italy for his corruption, that involved stealing funds from the sick, and allowing commercialisation of medicines based on bribes. De Lorenzo later pretended to have a nervous breakdown to be released from jail, appearing in court dirty and unshaved; a short time after he was granted parole on medical grounds, he was photographed shaved, clean and smiling at a restaurant (ironically named The two thieves). It was later found he had used his brief time out of jail to burn a large quantity of documents that could have been used as evidence against him in court.
The party was disbanded in 1994. Most members migrated to Forza Italia or other parties in the House of Freedoms, but some entered the centre coalition and later joined the centre-left one.
Re-foundation of the party
In 2004 the party was refounded by Stefano De Luca (the new national secretary), Renato Altissimo and Carla Martino (sister of Antonio, minister of Defence, and new president of the party.External link
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