South Tyrolean People's Party - Ideology and Factions

Ideology and Factions

The ideology of the SVP, which is a typical example of catch-all party, ranges from Christian democracy, due to the deep Catholic tradition of the province, to social democracy, due to the virtual absence of a true social-democratic rival party. However, between 1946 and 1994, the SVP entered in alliance only with the Christian Democracy and its smaller allies. In German-speaking valleys the SVP has almost no opposition, apart from the The Libertarians, South Tyrolean Freedom and Union for South Tyrol on the right and the Greens on the left.

In the years the SVP suffered many splits reflecting the diverse composition of the party (Tyrolean Homeland Party, Social Progressive Party of South Tyrol and Social Democratic Party of South Tyrol) and many SVP leading members left the party in order to join other parties, notably including Alfons Benedikter, a right-winger who launched Union for South Tyrol in 1989, Christian Waldner, a conservative liberal who launched The Libertarians in 1992, Sepp Kusstatscher, a leftist who joined the Greens in 1999, and finally Roland Atz, a right-winger who switched to Lega Nord Südtirol in 2008. The Party of Independents/Freedom Party of South Tyrol, the South Tyrolean Homeland Federation, the Union for South Tyrol and The Libertarians can thus be all considered splits of the SVP.

Within the party it is possible to identify several internal factions. The most important ones are the "Economy" (Wirtschaft) faction, which represents small business, and the "Labour" (Arbeitnehmer) faction, which reprents workers and is the political arm of the Union of South Tyrolean Independent Trade Unions (ASGB). The Wirtschaft faction, which is the party's largest, includes also the "Agriculture" (Landwirtschaft) faction, which represents the interests of farmers and which has in Luis Durnwalder its leading representative.

The Wirtschaft faction, whose leader is Gerhard Brandstätter, includes Helga Thaler Ausserhofer, a conservative, Manfred Pinzger and Karl Zeller, while the Arbeitnehmer, led by Reinhold Perkmann and, since 2009, by Rosmarie Pamer include Oskar Peterlini, the most lef-wing member SVP member in the Italian Parliament, Hans Georg Widmann and Sabine Kasslatter. Also the leader of ASGB, Georg Pardeller, is a provincial deputy. Siegfried Brugger and Elmar Pichler Rolle, who led the party in recent years, are mostly centrist figures who work for preserving party unity.

The factional divisions between party members were reflected also on the vote of confidence on Berlusconi IV Cabinet: Pinzger and Thaler Ausserhofer abstained, while Brugger, Zeller and Peterlini voted against. This kind of divisions continued during the legislature, with senators, excluding Peterlini, supporting some of the government's policies and deputies often opposing the same measures.

In order to prevent the break-up of the party along right-left lines, Perkmann, leader of the Arbeitnhemer, proposed a "federal reform" of the party in order to preserve its catch-all nature and simultaneously give more autonomy to its internal factions, which have now an official status in party organization. The result was a mild reform of the party and the election to the party leadership of a ticket composed by a member of the Arbeitnehmer, Richard Theiner, and a leading member of the Wirtschaft faction, Thomas Widmann, plus Martha Stocker and, lately, Paola Bioc Gasser.

The Junge Generation (Young Generation, JG) is the youth movement of the party, including all members at the age of 14 to 30.