The party has been led by Stefano Bandecchi since 2022, but has failed to gain any national or regional representation, though it is still active at the local levels.[8]
On 18 March 2017 the NCD was dissolved into Popular Alternative (AP).[10] Alfano's aim was to build a centre-right alliance with FI, while being at odds with Lega Nord (LN) and the Brothers of Italy (FdI), deemed "populist".[11] Alfano also proposed a primary election to select the centre-right candidate for Prime Minister.[12]
Since its foundation AP was abandoned by five deputies (four re-joining FI, one joining the PD) and four senators (one joining FI, another the FdI and two the Federation of Freedom, FdL), while two deputies switched from the Liberal Popular Alliance (ALA).[16][17] One of the deputies who left the party was Enrico Costa, who also resigned as minister of Regional Affairs from Paolo Gentiloni's government[18][19][20] and aimed at forming a "liberal centre" with FI.[21]
In the run-up of the 2018 general election AP, which was soundly defeated in the 2017 Sicilian regional election, was divided in three camps: those who wanted an alliance with the PD (Lorenzin and Cicchitto), those who proposed to run as a stand-alone list (Lupi) and those who were keen on returning with the centre-right coalition (Formigoni). The decision by the party's national board was postponed several times.[22][23][24][25] In the meantime, Alfano announced that he would not stand in the election.[26][27]
On 12 December 2017 AP's national board approved a consent settlement, under which the two parliamentary groups would continue to be active in order to prepare the electoral participation of the two main factions: the one led by Lorenzin and Cicchitto (backed by Alfano) with the centre-left (under the "Popular Alternative" name), the one led by Lupi and Formigoni with the centre-right (reviving the "New Centre-Right" banner).[28][29] A few days later Gentile replaced Lupi as coordinator.[30]
On 29 December AP formed the Popular Civic List (CP), a centrist electoral list within the centre-left coalition, along with Italy of Values (IdV), the Centrists for Europe (CpE), Solidary Democracy (DemoS), the Union for Trentino (UpT), Italy Is Popular (IP) and minor parties/groups, and Lorenzin was chosen as leader.[39][40][41] Contextually, Gentile stepped down from coordinator and announced his return to FI, while continuing to serve as undersecretary in Gentiloni's government.[42]
2018 general election and decline
CP obtained a mere 0.5%, but the rump of AP, led by Lorenzin, had two elects to the Chamber from single-seat constituencies: Lorenzin herself and Gabriele Toccafondi. NcI scored a little better with 1.3% of the vote and a handful of former AP members, notably including Lupi, were elected in single-seat constituencies.
In September 2018 Alfano stepped down from AP presidency and was replaced by Paolo Alli.
In September 2019 Lorenzin joined the PD,[49][50] while Toccafondi was a founding member of Renzi's Italia Viva party, thus leaving the party with no representatives in Parliament.[51][52]
In June 2022 entrepreneur Stefano Bandecchi was appointed coordinator of the party, a post previously held by Lorenzin.[53] In the 2023 Italian local elections Bandecchi was elected mayor of Terni, by beating the FdI candidate in all centre-right run-off.[54] In the following years, Bandecchi became quite notorious on national stage, due to his controversial and populist statements.
The party's ideology is that of the NCD, as the former is the perfect continuation of the latter. Despite being home to some social democrats (Reformism and Freedom, We Reformers), the party was mainly a Christian-democratic party with a social-conservative streak. According to Corriere della Sera, differently from FI, NCD's stances on the "so-called ethical issues" (abortion, LGBT rights, etc.) were "closer to those of the European traditionalist right" and "thus not very compatible with those of the EPP's parties in big countries such as (Germany)".[57] However, the party voted in favor of civil unions, whereas most FI members voted against it.[58] The NCD was also criticised by some Catholic associations for not opposing enough the teaching of gender studies in schools.[59] In addition, the NCD, as part of centre-left governments, proved more progressive than FI on the management of illegal immigration, which was negatively evaluated by Berlusconi's party.[60] Precisely for these and other reasons, several NCD politicians left the party to either form Identity and Action (IdeA) led by Gaetano Quagliariello or re-joined FI (e.g. Nunzia De Girolamo, Renato Schifani and Massimiliano Salini),[61] in both cases re-aligning with the FI-led centre-right coalition.[62] Some of the formerly NCD-affiliated factions or think tanks are now affiliated to AP:
^Nicolas Bonnet (2015). "Silvo's Party". In Agnès Alexandre-Collier; François Vergniolle De Chantal (eds.). Leadership and Uncertainty Management in Politics: Leaders, Followers and Constraints in Western Democracies. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 105–106. ISBN978-1-137-43924-6.