Peasants' Party of Italy

Peasants' Party of Italy
Partito dei Contadini d'Italia
LeaderAlessandro Scotti,
Giacomo Boeris,
Giovanni Cerruti
Founded1920
Dissolved1963
Merged intoItalian Republican Party
NewspaperLa Voce del Contadino
IdeologyAgrarianism
Regionalism
Political positionCentre

The Peasants' Party of Italy (Italian: Partito dei Contadini d'Italia) was a small political party in Italy founded in 1920 by Urbano Prunotto and Giacomo Scotti.[1]

History

Starting from left-wing agrarian and Christian leftist ideas, the party moved onto an independent ideological position, with the sole goal to defend the small farmers against major landowners. Its symbol was several ears of corn between two bunches of grapes, and its newspaper was called La Voce del Contadino ('The Peasant's Voice'). The party, founded in Piedmont, was never able to rise on a national plan, being limited to the Po Valley.

The party participated in the 1924 general election, where it elected 4 deputies, before being forcibly disbanded by the National Fascist Party government. After the war, the party was re-built by Alessandro Scotti,[2] who was elected the party's sole deputy in 1946 general election,[3] and 1948 general elections. However, the Christian Democracy had strongly taken the representation of the agrarian interests,[4] and the party was consequently marginalised. It survived on the local level, but eventually disbanded and in 1963 merged with the Italian Republican Party.

Election results

Chamber of Deputies

Election Votes % Seats +/− Leader
1924 73,569 (11th) 1.03
4 / 535
 – Urbano Prunotto
Giacomo Scotti
1929 banned –
0 / 400
 Decrease 4 –
1934 banned –
0 / 400
 – –
1946 102,393 (10th) 0.44
1 / 556
 Increase 1 Alessandro Scotti
1948 95,914 (9th) 0.37
1 / 574
 – Alessandro Scotti
1953 into PNM –
1 / 590
 – Alessandro Scotti
1958 into MC –
0 / 596
 Decrease 1 Giacomo Boeris

Senate

Election Votes % Seats +/− Leader
1948 65,986 (10th) 0.29
0 / 237
 – Alessandro Scotti
1953 into PNM –
0 / 237
 – Alessandro Scotti
1958 into MC –
0 / 246
 – Giacomo Boeris

References

  1. ^ Una storia delle lotte rurali nelle campagne piemontesi: il Partito dei Contadini
  2. ^ Chiesa e mondo operaio: Torino 1943-1948
  3. ^ Ram Mudambi; Pietro Navarra; Giuseppe Sobbrio (2001). "A history of the Italian political system – 1913 to the present". In Ram Mudambi; Pietro Navarra; Giuseppe Sobbrio (eds.). Rules, Choice and Strategy: The Political Economy of Italian Electoral Reform. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-78195-082-1.
  4. ^ PRUNOTTO Urbano Benigno