The party was started as a federation of regional parties on the example of the Northern League:
Lombardy Lombardy (
Lombardia Lombardia) of
Daniele Roscia,
Future Veneto (
Veneto Futuro) of
Giuseppe Ceccato,
Piedmontese Federalist Movement (
Movimento Federalista Piemontese) of
Domenico Comino,
Federalist Movement Emilia (
Movimento Federalista Emilia) of
Giorgio Cavitelli,
Julian Front (
Fronte Giuliano) of
Giorgio Marchesich,
Future Liguria (
Liguria Futura) of
Roberto Avogadro and
Tuscan Homelands (
Patrie Toscane) of
Norberto Catalani. Future Veneto eventually merged with the
Liga Veneta Repubblica to form
Veneti d'Europa and ceased to exist, while the Julian Front soon re-gained much of its independence. Initially the party had five members in the
Chamber of Deputies (Domenico Comino,
Mario Lucio Barral,
Franca Gambato,
Daniele Roscia and
Stefano Signorini) and six in the
Senate (Vito Gnutti,
Roberto Avogadro,
Giuseppe Ceccato,
Luciano Lago,
Luciano Lorenzi and
Donato Manfroi). Later, in the Senate, a parliamentarian joined (
Walter Bianco) and prior to the
2001 general election the Autonomists formed a group with some members of
European Democracy (
Giovanni Polidoro,
Ortensio Zecchino and
Giulio Andreotti), which had split from the
Italian People's Party. When the Northern League formed an alliance with Forza Italia and the other parties of the
House of Freedoms, ApE lost its reason of existence. At that time ApE was almost disbanded and most of its members joined the
Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC). What remains of the party took part only to local electoral contexts, often under the banner of other larger parties, such as the
Italy of Values in
Milan. At the national level the party generally supported
The Union, the centre-left coalition led by
Romano Prodi. ==References==