Great Autonomies and Freedom

Updated on Nov 03, 2023

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Founded 20 March 2013 Senate 14 / 315		Chamber of Deputies 0 / 630

Great Autonomies and Freedom (Italian: Grandi Autonomie e Libertà, GAL) is a miscellaneous and highly heterogeneous, mainly centre-right, regionalist and Christian-democratic, parliamentary group active in the Italian Senate.

The group was formed in March 2013 by senators elected with The People of Freedom (PdL) and Lega Nord (LN) to counterbalance the For the Autonomies group, a centre-left outfit allied with the Democratic Party (PD).

In the following years, the group changed its scope, as several of its members started to support the Renzi Cabinet, and, almost completely, its composition: the LN members returned to their home group, most PdL and, later, Forza Italia (FI) members switched to other parties and groups (in July 2015, in particular, five senators left to join a fully pro-Renzi group, the Liberal Popular Alliance), and senators of different ideological and electoral backgrounds joined, including, for some time, members of the Federation of the Greens and Italy of Values (IdV), both left-leaning. As a result, after several changes in its composition and naming, as of December 2016, the group's full name is Great Autonomies and Freedom (Great South, Populars for Italy, Moderates, IdeA, Euro-Exit, MPL–Libertas Political Movement, Comeback Italy).

Current composition

As of February 2017, the group's composition is as follows:

three senators (Antonio Caridi, Mario Ferrara, Giovanni Mauro) of FI, two of whom (Ferrara and Mauro) affiliated to Great South (GS);

two senators (Carlo Giovanardi and Gaetano Quagliariello) of Identity and Action (IdeA), both elected with PdL—two more IdeA senators, Andrea Auguello and Luigi Compagna, are affiliated to the group of Conservatives and Reformists (CR) for technical reasons;

one senator (Mario Mauro) of the Populars for Italy (PpI), elected with Civic Choice (SC);

one senator (Michelino Davico) of the Moderates (Mod), elected with the LN and transitated through IdV;

seven non-party independents, including:

Monica Casaletto, Paola De Pin and Bartolomeo Pepe, all three defectors from the Five Star Movement (M5S); Pepe and De Pin transitated through the Greens; Casaletto is now loosely affiliated to Euro-Exit, De Pin to Comeback Italy, and Pepe to the Libertas Political Movement;

Giulio Tremonti and Paolo Naccarato, both elected with the LN (see Labour and Freedom List);

Angela D'Onghia, elected with SC and transitated through the PpI;

Riccardo Villari, elected with FI and, previously, the PD.

References

Great Autonomies and Freedom Wikipedia

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