Secretary Gianfranco Rotondi Founded 25 June 2005 Merged into The People of Freedom | Deputy Secretary Mauro Cutrufo Dissolved 27 March 2009 | |
Split from Union of Christian and Centre Democrats | ||
Christian Democracy for the Autonomies (Italian: Democrazia Cristiana per le Autonomie, DCA) was a minor Christian-democratic political party in Italy.
Contents
History
DCA was founded on 25 October 2004 by a split from the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) led by Gianfranco Rotondi, who wanted closer ties with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and who criticized the political line of the then leader of UDC Marco Follini. The party became part of the House of Freedoms coalition following its foundation.
The party was part in the 2006 general election on a joint-list with the New Italian Socialist Party. The list gained 0.7% of the votes and, despite not having passed the 2% threshold, it still elected four deputies since it was the party which received more votes under the 2% in its coalition. Two of these deputies were members of DCA, while two more candidates were elected on the list of Forza Italia. Gianfranco Rotondi was too elected Senator on the list of Forza Italia, along with his colleague and deputy Mario Cutrufo.
DCA was part of The People of Freedom (PdL) list for the 2008 general election. On 3 April 2008, during a meeting in Milan, the party announced an alliance within the new party with the Liberal Populars of Carlo Giovanardi. After the election, in which the party got three deputies and one senator elected, Gianfranco Rotondi joined the Berlusconi IV Cabinet as Minister without portfolio.
In 2009 the party was eventually merged into the PdL and its members launched a network of circles named after the party's newspaper, La Discussione, led by Giampiero Catone. In October 2012, the balance of accounts of the People of Freedom showed that Christian Democracy for Autonomies had received €96,000 of financial support from PdL.