Pentapartito

Pentaparty Pentapartito
Leaders	Giulio Andreotti, Bettino Craxi, Arnaldo Forlani
Founded	1981
Dissolved	1991
Preceded by	Historic Compromise
Headquarters	Rome
Ideology	Centrism Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre (DC, PRI) Centre-left (PSI, PSDI) Centre-right (PLI)
Politics of Italy Political parties Elections

The Pentapartito (from Italian Penta, five, and partito, party), commonly shortened to CAF (from the initials of Craxi, Andreotti and Forlani) refers to the coalition government of five Italian political parties that formed between June 1981 and April 1991. The coalition comprised the Christian Democracy (DC) party and four secular parties: the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI), Italian Liberal Party (PLI) and Italian Republican Party (PRI).

The Pentapartito began in 1981 at a meeting of the Congress of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) when the Christian Democrat Arnaldo Forlani and Socialist Secretary Bettino Craxi signed an agreement with the "blessing" of Giulio Andreotti. As the agreement was signed in a trailer, it was called the "pact of the camper." The pact was also called "CAF" for the initials of the signers, Craxi-Andreotti-Forlani. With this agreement, the DC party recognized the equal dignity of the so-called "secular parties" of the majority (i.e., the Socialists, Social Democrats, Liberals and Republicans) and also guaranteed an alternation of government (in fact, Giovanni Spadolini of the PRI and Bettino Craxi of the PSI became the first non-Christian Democrats to hold the Presidency of the Council). With the birth of the Pentapartito, the possibility of the growth of the majority toward the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was finally dismissed. The Christian Democrats remained the leaders of the coalition, and managed several times to prevent representatives of the secular parties from becoming President of the Council (Ciriaco De Mita was opposed, for example, by a continuous veto against Craxi).

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