Italian Radicals - Definition and Overview

Italian Radicals (Radicali Italiani) is an Italian political group that describes itself as a liberal, liberist and libertarian political movement; it was founded on 14 july 2001, and ever since 2001 the secretary of the group has been Mr Daniele Capezzone. It should however be remembered that this group is not related to the Italian Liberal Party, the House of Freedom or any other political movement that recalls in its name freedom, liberist economy or liberty tout-court.

Radicali Italiani is affiliated to the Radical Party (Partito Radicale), also known as the Transnational Radical Party. Unlike the Radical Party proper, a Non Governmental Organization woking at UN level, which by statute is not participating in national political competitions, all affiliated groups may take part in elections. Though Radicali Italiani is not participating in elections at present, Italian radical figures did so in recent years, running under the name Lista Bonino (Bonino List), a party named after prominent radical leader Ms Emma Bonino.

Lista Bonino supports the political activities of the leader, whose career started in Partito Radicale, of which she has been a major leader for many years. The members of the Lista Bonino in the European Parliament are members of the Alliance of Liberal and Democrats for Europe.

Between 1992 and 1999 the name chosen by Italy's radicali to take part in the elections had been Lista Pannella, after the name of another prominent Italian radical politician, Mr Marco Pannella.

Over the years dissenting groups have emerged from Italy's radical area, and have been taking different stands than those of Marco Pannella's Radicali on a variety of issues. Notable under this respect were Giuseppe Rippa's Movimento Federativo Radicale (Federal Radical Movement), and in the 90's Fabrizio Cianci's Radicali di Sinistra (Radicals Of The Left).

See also

• List of political parties in Italy
• Liberalism and radicalism in Italy

External links

• Official web site of the Transnational Radical Party (http://www.radicalparty.org)
• Official web site of Radicali Italiani (http://www.radicali.it)
• Official web site of Radicali di Sinistra (http://www.radicalidisinistra.it)
• Official web site of Movimento Federativo Radicale (http://www.quaderniradicali.it)
• A huge list of Italian radical sites (http://www.quaderniradicali.it/siti.htm)