Moderate Party (Italy)

Moderate Party Partito Moderato
Leaders	Vincenzo Gioberti, Massimo d'Azeglio, Cesare Balbo, Camillo Benso di Cavour
Founded	1848
Dissolved	1861
Succeeded by	Historical Right, Historical Left
Headquarters	Turin, Kingdom of Piedmont
Ideology	Italian nationalism Liberal nationalism Modernization Federalism (minority)
Politics of Italy Political parties Elections

The Moderate Party (Italian: Partito Moderato), collectively called Moderates (Italian: Moderati), was an Italian political group, active during the Risorgimento. It was expression of the city bourgeoisie and the rural nobility.

History

Until his formally foundation, the moderates were a little group of Sardinia intellectuals and politician with reformist and nationalist ideas, like Vincenzo Gioberti, actives during the 1830s-1840s,^[1] during the reformist time of the King Charles Albert, that was blocked by the reactionary forces. The moderates fought against the rival Italian National Association (ANI) of Giuseppe Mazzini for the methods of unified Italy: the Moderates called an Independence War, whereas the Mazzini's supportes called a popular revolution. After the failure of the Italian Revolutions of 1848, supported by the Sardinia and attempted by Mazzinians and republicans, and the Statuto Albertino (Albertine Statute) was intrducted. During this time, several liberal politician of other Italian states joined in to the moderates' group: in the Papal States the prominent members were Terenzio della Rovere and Pellegrino Rossi, the last murdered by a republican plot in 1848; in the Southern Italy the moderates were headed by the brother Bertrando and Silvio Spaventa.

From its foundation, the Moderate Party wasn't cohesive, because its members were of different political ideologies: there were conservative like Massimo d'Azeglio, clerical like Vincenzo Gioberti, liberal like Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour and progressive like Urbano Rattazzi. However, the Moderate Party supported the Italian nationalism and the Risorgimento, but also reformist and law and order policies,^[1] different by the republican and radical Action Party, heir of the ANI. After the Gioberti's death in 1852, the new moderates' leaders became D'Azeglio. If under Gioberti, the Moderate Party was characterized by clerical and federalist goals, while D'Azeglio supported a mainstream liberalism, free market, centralization and the House of Savoy's claim to the Italian throne. In the same time, in the Subalpine Parliament, Cavour made an agreement with the Rattazzi's left-wing. This deal was called "Il Connubio" ("The Marriage"). D'Azeglio failed his try to impeded the deal, and his leadership ended. Cavour and Rattazzi isolated the extremists in the Parliament, and created a common program based on liberal and equal ideas.

When the Kingdom of Italy was founded in 1861, the moderates ended. From his factions were born the two main Italian parliamentary group of the 20th century: the Historical Right and the Historical Left.

References

1. "Partito Moderato". Encilopedia Treccani.

See also

• Liberalism and radicalism in Italy