Federation of the Greens

Early years

The first official Italian Green symbol and political style was directly inspired by the northern European environmentalist movements. The Green Lists, led by Gianni Mattioli and Alexander Langer, made their debut at the 1987 general election, when they gained 2.6% of the national vote.

At the 1989 European Parliament election there were two competing Green parties: the Green Lists and the Rainbow Greens, formed mainly by Radicals, including Adele Faccio, Adelaide Aglietta, Marco Taradash and Francesco Rutelli. In 1990 the two parties joined forces to form the Federation of Greens.

Centre-left coalitions

The new party entered in alliance with the Democratic Party of the Left in 1993 (within the Alliance of Progressives) and Francesco Rutelli, who was among its leading members, was elected mayor of Rome.

The Greens were a founding component of The Olive Tree coalition in 1995. Following the 1996 general election, they were part of the centre-left governments led by Romano Prodi, Massimo D'Alema and Giuliano Amato. Edo Ronchi was minister of the Environment (1996–2000) and Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio minister of Agriculture (2000–2001). During those years, the party lost two of its leading members: Francesco Rutelli, who had been just re-elected mayor of Rome, in 1997 and Carlo Ripa di Meana in 1999.

In the 2001 general election the Greens formed a joint list with the Italian Democratic Socialists: The Sunflower. The combination scored 2.2%, thus failing to surpass the 4% threshold. The Greens elected 7 deputies and 10 senators in single-member constituencies, as part of The Olive Tree coalition.

Shift to the far left

After the end of the alliance with the Democratic Socialists, a relatively centrist party, the Greens shifted far to the left, prompting the exit of leading members as Edo Ronchi, Gianni Mattioli, Luigi Manconi, Massimo Scalia and Franco Corleone. Since that point the Greens considered themselves as part of the Italian "radical left", along with the Party of Italian Communists and the Communist Refoundation Party.

In the 2004 European Parliamentary Election the Greens stood as a separate list, gaining 2.5% of the national vote and electing 2 MEPs. In the 2006 general election, the party was part of the winning The Union and scored 2.1%, winning 15 out of 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. An alliance of Greens, Communists and Consumers polled 4.2% in the election for the Senate, electing 11 out of 315 senators, 5 of them Greens. Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio was inaugurated Minister of the Environment, while Paolo Cento, national coordinator of the party and leader of the no global faction within it, became Under-Secretary for Economy and Finance.

In November 2006 Pecoraro Scanio's political line was confirmed in a party congress, but the Greens also tried to re-open the doors to all former members. The attempt of re-uniting the Italian Greens failed as soon as in January 2007, when Mattioli, Scalia and Corleone finally left the party, citing that it was drifting too much the far-left, and announced their intention to participate to the foundation of the Democratic Party (PD). Within the PD, they joined the Democratic Ecologists' faction, which already included many former Greens (Manconi, Ronchi, Lino De Benetti, Stefano Semenzato, Ermete Realacci, Gianni Vernetti, Franco Piro, Francesco Ferrante, Carla Rocchi, etc.). As a result, Legambiente, the largest ecologist association of Italy, showed more support for the PD than the Greens themselves.

Out of Parliament

In the run-up of the 2008 general election, the Greens participated in the foundation of The Left – The Rainbow with the Communist Refoundation Party, the Party of Italian Communists and Democratic Left. The coalition obtained just 3.1% of the vote and the Greens were excluded from Parliament.

In July 2008 Grazia Francescato was elected party leader, replacing Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, with the support of 300 delegates in the national congress of the party. Francescato, who represented the party establishment and was supported by the left-wing of Paolo Cento, defeated two other candidates representing the modernizers within the party, Marco Boato (111 votes) and Fabio Roggiolani (63 votes). Even if those who proposed an alliance with the Democratic Party (notably Boato, leader of the Greens in Trentino) were defeated, the party seemed to be headed to cut its ties with the far left.

For the 2009 election the Greens formed a joint list with the Movement for the Left, the Socialist Party, Democratic Left and Unite the Left. The list was named Left and Freedom (SL) and was launched on 16 March 2009. The list received just 3.1% of the national vote and failed to return any MEPs. After the election, it was decided to transform SL into a permanent federation and Francescato wanted the Greens to join it. Although this line seemed to be approved by the majority of the party, during a congress in October 2009 the party rejected the proposal by narrowly electing Angelo Bonelli, candidate of the liberal faction led by Boato, instead of Francescato's candidate, Loredana De Petris. After his election, which marked the end of the dominance of the internal left wing over the party, Bonelli announced that the party will pursue an independent course from SL, and will try to coalesce a new "ecologist constituent assembly" on the model of the French Europe Écologie. However, Francescato, De Petris and Cento continued to support SL as Ecologists for Left Ecology Freedom and finally left the Greens.

New coalitions

In September 2010 the Greens launched a Ecologist Constituent Assembly. In Bonelli's view the new political force would take inspiration both from the French Verts and the German Grünen and would be open to the contribution of movements and associations, notably including Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement. Other than the Greens, participants of the new political force included, among others, Massimo Scalia (a former leading Green), Bruno Mellano (president of the Italian Radicals), movie maker Mario Monicelli, writer Dacia Maraini, geologist Mario Tozzi and comedian Giobbe Covatta.

In November 2011 the Ecologists and Civic Networks (Ecologisti e Reti Civiche, ERC) coalition was officially launched.

In 2012 Bonelli stood as candidate for Mayor of Taranto, garnering 11.9% of the vote.

In the 2013 general election the Greens were part of the Civil Revolution coalition, which obtained a mere 2.2% of the vote and no seats. In May the ERC was disbanded and in November, during a party congress, Luana Zanella was elected to serve as co-spokesperson along with Bonelli.

The Greens contested the 2014 European Election with Green Italy, a green party established in 2013 and led by Monica Frassoni and Fabio Granata, within the joint list Green Italy – European Greens. The electoral list received 0.91% of the vote and did not return any MEPs.

In January 2015 senator Bartolomeo Pepe, a former member of the Five Star Movement (M5S), joined the party, giving it parliamentary representation after seven years. In June another former senator of the M5S, Paola De Pin, joined the Greens and sat with senator Pepe within the Great Autonomies and Freedom group. Both Pepe and De Pin would soon leave the party. Another former M5S senator, Cristina De Pietro, would join the Greens in November 2016.

In November 2015, during a party congress, Covatta was elected spokersperson, succeeding to co-spokerspersons Bonelli and Zanella.

Popular support

In their history the Greens were never able to reach the electoral success of many green parties all around Europe. They have a stable share of vote around 2% and experienced a slight decline in the last decade. Their characterization as party of the far left did not help them in Northern Italy, where they had their best results at the beginning (for instance 7.1% in the 1990 Venetian regional election).

The Greens are stronger in cities and urban areas (Milan, Venice, Rome, Naples, etc.), in northern mountain regions, such as Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol (especially in South Tyrol, where they are organised in the local Greens, a broader left-wing party) and Aosta Valley (where the local section, the Alternative Greens, were merged into Autonomy Liberty Participation Ecology in 2010), and in some southern regions, such as Basilicata and Campania.

Italian Parliament

° In list with The Left – The Rainbow.
°° In list with Civil Revolution.

° In list with The Left – The Rainbow.
°° In list with Civil Revolution.

European Parliament

° In list with Left and Freedom.

Leadership