The Network
La Rete |
|
---|---|
Leader | Leoluca Orlando |
Founded | 24 January 1991 21 March 1991 |
Dissolved | 27 February 1999 |
Split from | Christian Democracy |
Merged into | The Democrats |
Ideology |
Christian left Green politics |
Political position | Centre-left |
National affiliation |
Alliance of Progressives (1994–96) The Olive Tree (1996–99) |
European Parliament group | Green Group(1994–99) |
The Network (Italian: La Rete), whose complete name was Movement for Democracy – The Network (Movimento per la Democrazia – La Rete), was a political party in Italy led by Leoluca Orlando.
The party was formed on 24 January 1991 by Leoluca Orlando, mayor of Palermo and member of the Christian Democracy, who had broken with this party in 1991 due to its relations with the Mafia. The party was Catholic-inspired, while including several former members of the Italian Communist Party (Diego Novelli, Alfredo Galasso, etc.), anti-Mafia and anti-corruption. It proposed an end to parliamentary immunity, greater judicial powers to tackle Mafia, and a parliament with fewer lawmakers. Describing itself as a movement rather than a party, the party aimed to be a loose "civic movement" without formal memberships or rigid party structure.
The party succeeded in gaining elected office in Sicily, including five seats in the 1991 regional election (thanks to 7.4% of the vote) and, again, the mayorship of Palermo in 1993. In the 1992 regional election, the party won 1.9% (nationally), 12 deputies and 3 senators, who teamed up with those of the Federation of the Greens.
It later participated in the Alliance of Progressives, which included the Democratic Party of the Left, the Democratic Alliance, the Federation of the Greens, the Communist Refoundation Party, the Italian Socialist Party and the Social Christians. The coalition unsuccessfully contested the 1994 general election against Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalitions, the Pole of Freedoms and the Pole of Good Government, and the party had 1.9% of the vote, 6 deputies and 6 senators.