Christian Popular Union

The Christian Popular Union (Italian: Unione Popolare Cristiana, UPC) is a Christian-democratic^[2] political party in Italy.

Christian Popular Union Unione Popolare Cristiana
Leader	Antonio Satta
Secretary	Antonio Gaia[1]
Founded	2009
Split from	Union of Democrats for Europe
Ideology	Christian democracy
Political position	Centre
National affiliation	Centre-left coalition
Chamber of Deputies	0 / 400
Senate	0 / 200
European Parliament	0 / 73
Regional Council of Sardinia	0 / 60
Politics of Italy Political parties Elections

History

The UPC was launched in August 2009 by Antonio Satta, a former Christian Democrat who had been the regional leader of the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR) and, later, of the Sardinian Autonomist Populars.^[3][4] The party was based and had its best electoral results in Sardinia, but had a structure countrywide, consisting primarily of former members of the UDEUR, notably including Gianfranco Saraca, Luca Bagliani, Danilo Bertoli, Sergio Deorsola, and Antonio Potenza (leader of Basilicata's United Populars).^[5][6]

In the 2010 Sardinian provincial elections the party did especially well in northern Sardinia: 10.7% in Sassari^[7] and 6.2% in Olbia-Tempio.^[8] Massimo Mulas, a regional councillor elected with the Union of Sardinians in the 2009 regional election, joined the party during the legislature.^{[citation needed]} In June 2012, through Mulas, the UPC joined the newly formed parliamentary group Sardinia Tomorrow, along with other centrist councillors.^[9][10]

In the 2014 regional election the party won 1.7% of the vote^[11] and one regional councillor, Gaetano Ledda.^[12]

In 2015 the Council of State reassessed the composition of the Regional Council and two more UPC members, Antonio Gaia and Piefranco Zanchetta, gained seats.^[13][14] A month before, however, Ledda had left the party and joined The Base Sardinia.^[15][16]

In the run-up of the 2018 general election the UPC joined the Popular Civic List (CP), a centrist electoral list within the centre-left coalition, comprising mainly Popular Alternative (AP), Italy of Values (IdV), the Centrists for Europe (CpE), Solidary Democracy (DemoS), the Union for Trentino (UpT) and Italy Is Popular (IP).^[17] CP obtained a mere 0.5% and no seats.

In the 2019 regional election the party won 1.5% of the vote and no seats in a joint list with the Italian Socialist Party.

In the 2024 regional election the party was a junior partner of a joint list formed primarily by Action and More Europe.

Leadership

• Secretary: Antonio Satta (2009–2020 ca.)
• President: Gianfranco Saraca (2009–2014)
• Regional secretary (Sardinia): Enrico Piras (2009–2014), Antonio Satta (2014–2020 ca.)