Force of the South

Force of the South
Forza del Sud
SecretaryGianfranco Micciché
Founded30 October 2010
Dissolved5 September 2011
Split fromThe People of Freedom
Succeeded byGreat South
IdeologyRegionalism
Federalism
Christian democracy
Conservatism
Website
http://www.forzadelsud.it/

Force of the South (Italian: Forza del Sud, FdS) was a liberal-conservative political party in Italy based in Sicily.

In September 2010, after years of weighting, Gianfranco Micciché, long-time leader of Forza Italia and, later, The People of Freedom (PdL) in Sicily and Under-Secretary in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet, announced his exit from the PdL and his intention to launch a "Sicilian people's party", which would have then merged with other southern "people's parties" to form the "Party of the South".[1] In October 2010 Force of the South was launched.[2][3] Only five out of 16 regional deputies of the PdL–Sicily, the faction of the PdL led by Micciché, followed their leader into the new party.[4]

The party was officially launched during a convention in Palermo on 30 October 2010, which was attended also by Stefania Prestigiacomo, who, although very supportive of Micciché, chose to stay in the PdL. In that occasion Micciché announced that some 25 deputies and senators were ready to join FdS.[5] Finally only ten have managed to do so: they include seven deputies (Giuseppe Fallica, Ugo Grimaldi, Maurizio Iapicca, Gianfranco Micciché, Antonino Minardo, Francesco Stagno D'Alcontres and Giacomo Terranova) and three senators (Roberto Centaro, Mario Ferrara and Salvo Fleres), all elected in Sicily.[6][7][8]

FdS soon broadened its scope throughout the South. In May 2011 the party had promising results in Naples (5.2%[9]) and Reggio Calabria (4.7%[10]), while in October it gained 6.5% of the vote in a regional election in Molise.[11]

On 14 July 2011 FdS launched, along with We the South and I the South, the Federation of the South, later Great South, a coalition which aimed at becoming the party of the South.[12][13] In January 2012 FdS formed a sub-group in the Mixed Group of the Chamber of Deputies, which included the seven FdS deputies and two new entries (Aurelio Misiti, a former member of Italy of Values who was appointed chairman, and Gerardo Soglia, from the PdL), but not the three deputies of NS.[7][14][15]

In October 2012, the balance of accounts of the People of Freedom showed that the Force of the South had received €300,000 of financial support from PdL.[16]

  1. ^ "Micciché: me ne vado dal Pdl "La Russa? volgare e fascista" - Corriere della Sera". Corriere.it. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
  2. ^ "L'auspicio di Miccichè: "Voglio fare come la Lega" - Live Sicilia". Livesicilia.it. 2008-10-17. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
  3. ^ "Forza Sud: Micciche', voglio condizionare Governo come fa la Lega | Palermo la Repubblica.it". Palermo.repubblica.it. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
  4. ^ "Assemblea Regionale Siciliana - Gruppi Parlamentari" (in Italian). Ars.sicilia.it. 2014-06-27. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
  5. ^ "Foulard arancioni, nasce Forza del Sud Micciché al premier: cambi o saremo contro". Archiviostorico.corriere.it. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
  6. ^ [1] Archived November 2, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ a b "Deputati e Organi Parlamentari - Composizione gruppi Parlamentari". Camera.it. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
  8. ^ [2] Archived August 10, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ "Comune di NAPOLI (NAPOLI) - Elezioni Comunali del 15 - 16 maggio 2011 - Ministero dell'Interno". Archived from the original on 2011-05-18. Retrieved 2011-05-31.
  10. ^ "Comune di REGGIO DI CALABRIA (REGGIO CALABRIA) - Elezioni Comunali del 15 - 16 maggio 2011 - Ministero dell'Interno". Archived from the original on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
  11. ^ "Scrutinio Regione MOLISE - Elezioni Regionali del 16 e 17 ottobre 2011 - Ministero dell'Interno". Archived from the original on 2011-12-21. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
  12. ^ "Nasce il partito per il Sud". Archiviostorico.corriere.it. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
  13. ^ "Nasce la federazione per il Sud, in campo Micciché, Poli Bortone e Iannacone | Il Sud". Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2011-07-25.
  14. ^ "BariSera". Archived from the original on 2012-07-20. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
  15. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-06-10. Retrieved 2019-12-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. ^ Cuzzocrea, Annalisa (31 October 2012), "Spuntano i fondi ai transfughi così il partito ha finanziato Scilipoti", La Repubblica