Democratic Union (Italy)

For the party founded in 2007, see Democratic Union for Consumers.

The Democratic Union (Italian: Unione Democratica, UD) was a small social-liberal political party in Italy.

Democratic Union Unione Democratica
President	Antonio Maccanico
Founded	26 February 1996[1]
Dissolved	27 February 1999
Preceded by	Democratic Alliance
Merged into	The Democrats
Ideology	Social liberalism
Political position	Centre-left
National affiliation	The Olive Tree (1996–99) Populars for Prodi (1996)
Politics of Italy Political parties Elections

It was founded in February 1996^[2] by Antonio Maccanico, along with Willer Bordon and Giorgio Benvenuto (both members of Democratic Alliance), Valerio Zanone (a former leader of the Italian Liberal Party) and Giorgio La Malfa (leader of the Italian Republican Party).^[3] The party was a minor member of The Olive Tree,^[4] and formed the Populars for Prodi list with the Italian People's Party for the 1996 general election, electing five deputies and one senator.

The party was part of the Prodi I Cabinet,^[5][6] with Maccanico becoming minister for Communications, and later the D'Alema I Cabinet, D'Alema II Cabinet and Amato II Cabinet with Maccanico minister of Institutional Reforms.

In 1999 the party joined Romano Prodi's new party, The Democrats.