Radical Party
Partito Radicale |
|
---|---|
Main leaders |
Marco Pannella for more leaders, see list |
Founded | 11 December 1955 |
Dissolved | 1 January 1989 |
Split from | Italian Liberal Party |
Merged into |
Pannella List Rainbow Greens |
Headquarters | via di Torre Argentina 76, Rome |
Newspaper |
Il Mondo Notizie Radicali |
Membership (1958) | 11,645 (max) |
Ideology |
Radicalism Left-libertarianism Social liberalism Anti-clericalism |
Political position | Centre-left |
European affiliation | Coordination of European Green and Radical Parties / European Green Coordination (1979–89) |
International affiliation | none |
European Parliament group |
Technical Group of Independents (1979–84) Non-Inscrits (1984–89) Green Group (1989) |
Colours | Orange (informal) |
The Radical Party (Italian: Partito Radicale, PR) was a political party in Italy. For decades it was a bastion of liberalism and radicalism in Italy and proposed itself as the strongest opposition to the Italian political establishment, seen as corrupt and conservative. Although it never reached high shares of vote and never participated in government, the party had close relations with the other parties of the Italian left, from the Republicans and the Socialists to the Communists and Proletarian Democracy, and opened its ranks also to members of other parties, through "double membership".
The party's longtime leader was Marco Pannella (1936–2016), who served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies (1976–1994) and the European Parliament (1979–2009), and led the party in most of the elections it contested.
In 1989 the PR was transformed into the Transnational Radical Party. During the 1990s the Radicals had formed a succession of electoral lists (notably including the Pannella List and Bonino List), without having a structured party and sometimes dividing themselves between competing lists. The latest incarnation of the party is the Italian Radicals, founded in 2001.
The PR was founded in 1955 by the left-wing of the Italian Liberal Party as the ideal continuation of the historical Radical Party, active from 1877 to 1925, emphasising liberal and secular issues, such as separation of church and state, and the full implementation of the Constitution. Leading members of the new party included Bruno Villabruna, Mario Pannunzio, Ernesto Rossi, Leo Valiani, Guido Calogero, Giovanni Ferrara, Paolo Ungari, Eugenio Scalfari and Marco Pannella.