Historical Left
|
Historical Left
Sinistra Storica |
|
|---|---|
| Historical leaders |
Urbano Rattazzi Agostino Depretis Benedetto Cairoli Francesco Crispi Giovanni Giolitti Vittorio Emanuele Orlando |
| Founded | 1849 |
| Dissolved | 1913 |
| Preceded by | Moderate Party |
| Merged into | Liberal Union |
| Headquarters | Palazzo Montecitorio, Rome |
| Ideology |
Liberalism Progressivism Protectionism |
| Political position |
Left-wing (de jure) Centre (de facto) |
The Historical Left (Italian: Sinistra Storica), officially known as The Left (Italian: La Sinistra), was a liberal and reformist parliamentary group in Italy during the second half of the 19th century. The members of The Left were also known as Democrats. It was founded in 1849 as opposition to the right-wing government of Massimo d'Azeglio; it was not a structured party, but simply an opposition formed both by radical politicians and moderate supporters of the existing constitutional monarchy, with no relevant differences with the ruling Historical Right.
From 1849 to 1876, the Historical Left remained the parliamentary opposition, even during the short cabinets of Leftist Urbano Rattazzi which were supported only by Independent politicians.
In 1876, the Left leader Agostino Depretis was appointed Prime Minister after the tradition of some Rightist MPs who changed sides, forcing Prime Minister Marco Minghetti to resign and lately the coalition won the election with a large majority. The overthrown of Minghetti's government was called "Parliamentary Revolution". However, Depretis immediately began to look for support among Rightists MPs, who readily changed their positions, in a context of widespread corruption. This phenomenon, known in Italian as Trasformismo (roughly translatable in English as "transformism"—in a satirical newspaper, the PM was depicted as a chameleon), effectively removed political differences in Parliament, which was dominated by an undistinguished liberal bloc with a landslide majority until after World War I.
...
Wikipedia