Secretary Carlo Marzi Founded 25 November 2001 | President Maurizio Martin Preceded by Autonomists | |
Headquarters Via Monte Pasubio, 40
11100 Aosta Ideology Regionalism
Christian democracy
Federalism | ||
Edelweiss (Italian: Stella Alpina, SA) is a regionalist, Christian-democratic and federalist Italian political party active in Aosta Valley, Italy. Its long-time leaders are Rudi Marguerettaz and Maurizio Martin.
Contents
Early years
SA was founded in 2001 by the merger of the Autonomists and the Autonomist Federation. The Autonomists were basically the Valdostan section of the Italian People's Party, one of the successors of Christian Democracy, while the Autonomist Federation was formed by former Progressive Democratic Autonomists, along with former Socialists and Republicans.
In the 2003 regional election, SA scored 19.8% and got elected seven regional councillors. In the 2003–2008 term, the party controlled five seats in the Regional Council. Of the five regional councillors, four were former members of Christian Democracy and one was a former Republican. In 2004 the Autonomist Federation re-gained its independence from SA.
From 2001 to 2006 SA was represented in the Chamber of Deputies by Ivo Collé, elected on the Aosta Valley coalition (VdA) ticket, formed also by the Valdostan Union (UV) and the Autonomist Federation (FA). In the 2006 general election SA's Marco Viérin ran for the Chamber, but the VdA was soundly defeated by the centre-left Autonomy Liberty Democracy (ALD) list.
The regionalist coalition
In the 2008 regional election SA, which included four candidates of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) in its list, won 11.4% of the vote and four regional councillors (out of 35), while the three-party regionalist coalition won 62.0% and a large majority, composed of 22 regional councillors. No candidate of UDC was elected.
In the 2013 general election Rudi Marguerettaz, secretary of SA since 2001, was elected to the Chamber. Soon after the election, Marguerettaz chose to team up with Lega Nord (LN) and became vice president of the "Lega Nord and Autonomies" parliamentary group. Consequently, Marguerettaz stepped down from secretary and the party was led by a provisional executive. In March 2015 Marguerettaz would break ranks with LN and join the "Linguistic Minorities" sub-group within the Mixed Group, formed by the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP) and the Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party (PATT).
For the 2013 regional election the party confirmed its alliance with the UV and SA, and formed a joint list with Lega Nord Valle d'Aosta. In an election in which the UV lost a quarter of its votes and FA its entire representation in the Regional Council, SA increased its share of vote to 12.2% and its number of regional councillors to five. Thanks to SA's result, the regionalist coalition retained its absolute majority in the Council. In July 2015 the regional government, led by UV's Augusto Rollandin, was enlarged to the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and in June 2016 by the Progressive Valdostan Union (UVP).
Recent events
In May 2016 Carlo Marzi was elected secretary of the party, three years after Marguerettaz's resignation from the post.
In March 2017 SA left the government and, along with the UVP, Autonomy Liberty Participation Ecology (ALPE) and For Our Valley (PNV), prepared an alternative cabinet without the UV: under the new coalition agreement, the President would be Pierluigi Marquis of SA. This led two regional councillors, Mauro Baccega and André Lanièce, to quit the party and launch Autonomist Popular Edelweiss (SAPA).