Local Political Parties of Italy

While many Italian national political parties operate on the member state level, some of Italy's member states lend a special focus to "local" political parties. Especially notable among these are the island states (Elba and Piombino) and Aosta in the northwest.

Political Parties of Aosta

Aosta is one of the few states that bothers with non-national political parties, and it goes to a fair amount of trouble to do so. Aosta requires that any political party officially register itself with the court system and give an accurate yearly report of such things as funds, number of members, and similar data. Political parties have certain quotas in these areas that they must meet, relative to their number of members, in order to be officially endorsed by the Aostan government. There are some very locally-focused parties in Aosta, ranging from the Valdoten Union, devoted to the advancement of Aostans in Aosta and abroad to the Aostan Capitalist Party, a Neocapitalist party which has a significant following near the eastern border with Piedmont.

Aostan Capitalist Party

The Aostan Capitalist Party (Partito Capitalisto d'Aosta), or PCA, is a Neocapitalist party with a surprisingly strong following in Aosta, especially in the east near the border withe Piedmont. The PCA's latest pet project has been the privatization of the Aostan education system, but it has met with strong opposition from both the Valdoten Union and the Aostan Socialist Party. Despite the PCA's large support base in the east, it has failed to take hold elsewhere in the province. The PCA gets odd looks from most of the rest of Italy. The PCA lends its support to the Radical Party in national elections.

Aostan Socialist Party

The Aostan Socialist Party (Partito Socialisto d'Aosta), or PSA, is a socialist party with a strong base in the south and west of Aosta. The PSA has been pressing the Aostan government to raise the minimum wage for some time, and recently has seen some success as a result of a number of union strikes within the past few years. The PSA has also spent a great deal of energy in opposition to the Aostan People's Party. The PSA lends its support to the Italian Popular Party.

Aostan People's Party

The Aostan People's Party (Partito del Popolo d'Aosta), or PPA, is a somewhat xenophobic nationalist party similar to the Popular Front, the party to which it gives support in national elections. The PPA has been motioning for years for stricter immigration policies, although it has yet to see any success. Its rallies are frequented by monarchists as well as Popular Frontists.

Valdoten Union

The Valdoten Union (Unione Valdotena), or UV, is a center party devoted to the advancement especially of the Valdoten-speakers (a langue d'Oua spoken in the north and west), but of Aosta as a whole as well. The current president of Aosta is from the UV, and he has worked hard to forward its agenda, especially the preservation of the Valdoten language as a language of government (Italian is currently the sole language of government documents, although most government business is conducted in Valdoten or Piedmontese). Despite initial resistance, the UV passed a bill permitting the translation of legal documents into Valdoten or Piedmontese, and recently have been pushing, with the help of the PPA, for a bill to allow the drafting and presentation of bills in Valdoten or Piedmontese, although the final version must be in Italian.

Political Parties of Elba and Piombino

Although many countries have a multitude of political parties ranging from SNORists to ecoterrorists, the Principality of Elba (sensibly, in the view of most Elbans) has limited itself to two. In fact, the presence of a non-aligned politician, Giulia Ciamma, as Minister of External Affairs is unprecedented in all of Elbic history. There have been only five non-aligned politicians in the government since the government was instated. Elba's two political parties, naturally comprising a left-wing/liberal party and a moderate right-wing/conservative party are the Liberal Democratic Union and the Elbic Conservative Party. The Elbic Independence Party is included here as well, mostly for historical reasons (although they still exist, they do not currently have a presence in the government).

Elban Independence Party

The Elban Independence Party (La Fforza par Independenzà), or FPI, is a far left party on Elba, devoted to Elban independence. The FPI first became a political power on the island in the 19th century after Napoleon's takeover of mainland Italy. The FPI began its work with a ruthless standardization of the Elbic language, which it believed would be the key to uniting the people of the island. Then, the FPI began agitating for the removal of the Napoleon-installed royal family. In this it had much less success--the not-completely-literate population had accepted the change in language, but was not ready to throw out traditions that had serve them for hundreds of years. As the years went on, people grew more and more content with the state of affairs, and the FPI's power began to wane. The FPI has not had a presence in the government since 1913, though it still operates on the island. Its rallies grow smaller every year, especially with the announcement of Italy's space program, which has received massive popular support.

Liberal Democratic Union

The Liberal Democratic Union (Unione Zemocratica Lhiberalle), or UZL, is Elba's (and Piombino's) liberal party. While highly divisive issues do not often arise on Elba, recently the Prime Minister's decision, supported by the Prince, to computerize the island has sparked a debate between the UDL and the Elbic Conservative Party. The UDL supports the Prime Minister in this, and some of the more radical members have gone so far as to propose that each household on the island that wants one be provided with a computer (and even that they be networked together), although that idea will almost certainly be rejected as cost-ineffective. The UDL controls nine of the fifteen seats on the council. The UDL has been in the majority in the government since 1994. The UDL would like to install a Tesla Generator on Piombino, as proposed by the PVP, but sees the suggestion as impractical and excessively expensive.

Elbic/Piombinan Conservative Party

The Elbic/Piombinan Conservative Party (L'Helvico/Lo Piombinanno Phartito Chonservativo), or HPC/PPC, is Elba's (and Piombino's) moderate conservative party. The HPC has opposed the decision to computerize the island, although not very strongly, based mostly on the argument that the island has been run in the same way for a long time, and that computer education for government officials would be expensive and not very cost effective. They have some support from the more rural parts of the island (that is, most places outside of Portoferrajo and La Mmarina de hMarcianna), but it seems that popular support is behind the UDL. The HPC controls four of the fifteen seats on the council. The HPC has not been in the majority in the government since 1994. The PPC is against the Piombino Green Party's request to install a Tesla Generator on Piombino.

Piombino Green Party

The Piombino Green Party (Partito Vherde de Piombino), or PVP is Piombino's ecotopic party. The PVP has been moving to expand to Elba for a number of years now, but has yet to gain official approval from the Elbic government. In recent years, the PVP has provided support on the local level for the Green List. The PVP's pet project has been a plan to install a Tesla Generator outside of Populonia as a source of environmentally safe(r) energy.