History
The party emerged as the successor to Christian Democracy (DC) in January 1994. The first secretary of the party was Mino Martinazzoli, replaced by Rocco Buttiglione in June, after that the party was soundly defeated in the 1994 general election by both the centre-right and the centre-left, gaining only the 11.1%, as part of a centrist alliance named Pact for Italy. The PPI was a member of the European People's Party.
In 1995, when Buttiglione's proposal to join the centre-right Pole of Freedoms coalition (composed of Forza Italia, the National Alliance and the Christian Democratic Centre) was rejected by the party's National Council, the outgoing secretary, along with Roberto Formigoni and Gianfranco Rotondi, formed the United Christian Democrats, leaving the PPI in the hands of the leftist factions of the late DC.
For the 1996 general election the party formed a list (the Populars for Prodi) with Democratic Union, the Italian Republican Party and the South Tyrolean People's Party. The list was part of The Olive Tree coalition and won 6.8% of the vote. The PPI was represented in Romano Prodi's first government by three ministers: Beniamino Andreatta was Minister of Defense, Rosy Bindi Minister of Health and Michele Pinto Minister of Agriculture.
In the 1999 European Parliament election the party was damaged by the competition from The Democrats (Dem), a centrist and social-liberal party launched by Romano Prodi: the PPI won only 4.3% of the vote, while The Democrats took the 7.7%.
For the 2001 general election the PPI formed an electoral alliance with The Democrats, the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR) and Lamberto Dini's Italian Renewal (RI). The alliance won 14.5% of vote. In January 2002 the party finally chose to merge into the new centrist party, called Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy, along with The Democrats and Italian Renewal. The PPI was transformed in a think tank: The Populars ("I Popolari"). In October 2007, Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy merged into the Democratic Party, within which The Populars became an internal faction.
Read more about this topic: Italian People's Party (1994)
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