| Italy in the Centre | |
| Native Name: | Italia al Centro |
| President: | Giovanni Toti |
| Dissolution: | (de facto) |
| Split: | Coraggio Italia |
| Merged: | Us Moderates |
| Ideology: | Liberal conservatism |
| Position: | Centre[1] to centre-right |
| Colours: | Orange |
| Country: | Italy |
Italy in the Centre (Italian: Italia al Centro, IaC) was a liberal-conservative political party in Italy led by Giovanni Toti.
In August 2019, Giovanni Toti left his former party Forza Italia (FI), and formed Cambiamo! (C!).[2] [3] [4] In May 2021, C! was a founding member of a new joint party named Coraggio Italia (CI), whose main leaders were Toti and Luigi Brugnaro, mayor of Venice.[5]
In less than a year, CI, which had failed to attract substantial support among voters according to opinion polls, experienced an internal crisis. On one side Toti wanted to form an alliance with Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva party,[6] [7] and he launched Italy in the Centre (IaC);[8] [9] on the other side, Brugnaro rejected establishment politics,[10] and he wanted to remain part of the centre-right coalition.[11] In February 2022, CI's sub-group within the Mixed Group, previously named "IDeA–Cambiamo!–Europeanists", was re-named "Italy in the Centre".[12] On 28 April 2022 IaC was officially established.[13]
During a meeting of the national leadership in May 2022, a provisional statute of IaC was approved and regional coordinators and a secretariat were appointed,[14] entirely supplanting Cambiamo!. Also in May, senators Francesco Mollame and Ugo Grassi joined IaC.[15] [16]
In the 2022 Italian local elections, CI and IaC ran separately in most places. CI obtained relevant results only in Veneto, Brugnaro's home-region, most notably 5.2% in Verona and 4.4% in Padua, while IaC won 9.2% in Genoa, 8.5% in La Spezia, 3.7% in Rieti, 5.2% in L'Aquila, and 4.3% in Catanzaro.
In late June 2022, CI and IaC formally split both in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.[17] [18]
In July 2022, there was a party's convention in Rome, featuring as guests, among others, Mariastella Gelmini of Forza Italia, Carlo Calenda of Action and Ettore Rosato of Italia Viva.[19] [20] [21]
In the run-up of the 2022 general election IaC first formed a joint list with Us with Italy (NcI),[22] then it was a founding member of Us Moderates (NM), a broader joint list within the centre-right coalition, along with NcI, CI and the Union of the Centre (UdC).[23]
| Party | Main ideology | Leader | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cambiamo! (C!) | Liberal conservatism | Giovanni Toti | ||
| Identity and Action (IDeA) | Liberal conservatism | Gaetano Quagliariello | ||
| Vinciamo Italia (VI) | Liberal conservatism | Marco Marin | ||
| Party | Main ideology | Leader | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europeanists | Liberalism | Raffaele Fantetti | ||
| Us of the Centre (nDC) | Christian democracy | Clemente Mastella | ||