Democratic Union for the Republic


The Democratic Union for the Republic was a short-lived Christian-democratic and centrist political party in Italy.
It was founded in February 1998 by Francesco Cossiga in order to provide a majority in Parliament for the creation of the D'Alema I Cabinet. The party also included Clemente Mastella, Rocco Buttiglione, Mario Segni, Carlo Scognamiglio, Enrico Ferri and Irene Pivetti, along with several other MPs elected for the centre-right. Cossiga'a sim was to facilitate the creation of a centre-left governments without the support of the Communist Refoundation Party. The UDR was initially only a federation of parties, but in June CDR, CDU and the Segni Pact merged to form a united party and Mastella was elected secretary.
After disagreements between Cossiga and Mastella, the party broke up in February 1999. Most party members rallied behind Mastella and joined his Union of Democrats for Europe. Those around Cossiga formed the Union for the Republic, whose leading members, entered in FI in 2001. The most notable exception was Carlo Scognamiglio who joined the Federation of Italian Liberals, and then European Democracy and the Pact of Liberal Democrats. Buttiglione had previously re-established the CDU, as Segni did with his Pact, while Ferri joined FI.

Leadership