Forza Italia's rebuilders In November 2013,
The People of Freedom, the centre-right party led by
Silvio Berlusconi, was transformed into the
new Forza Italia (FI), a reference to the
original Forza Italia established in 1994. Among the strongest supporters of the return to FI, in contrast to the "hawks", as well as self-proclaimed "loyalists", was
Raffaele Fitto, who played a leading role. At the
2014 European Parliament election, Fitto was FI's most voted candidate and was elected to the
European Parliament in the
South. Fitto, the strongest backer of Berlusconi's leadership in late 2013, became his main internal challenger by mid 2014. After months of bickering with Berlusconi over the "
Nazareno pact" with
Matteo Renzi, leader of the
Democratic Party and
Prime Minister of Italy, Fitto launched his own faction, named "Rebuilders", in February 2015. Fitto's allies included Capezzone,
Maurizio Bianconi,
Rocco Palese,
Saverio Romano,
Cinzia Bonfrisco,
Augusto Minzolini, and most Apulian MPs.
Split from Forza Italia In the run-up of the
2015 regional elections Berlusconi and Fitto did not find an agreement on the composition of the slates in
Apulia, where the party's two wings fielded two opposing candidates for president. At the
2015 Apulian regional election a list named after Fitto ("Beyond with Fitto") won 9.3% of the vote and its candidate for president,
Francesco Schittulli (
Schittulli Political Movement), won 18.3% of the president's vote (won by
Michele Emiliano, a
Democrat), compared to 10.8% for FI and 14.4% for FI's official candidate and former member of the
Brothers of Italy (FdI),
Adriana Poli Bortone. Two weeks before the regional elections, Fitto left the
European People's Party Group in the European Parliament in order to join the
European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). He also left FI altogether and launched the Conservatives and Reformists (CoR) party. At its launch, the CoR included nine
deputies (eight sitting with FI and one with the FdI), as well as twelve
senators (ten from FI and two from
Great Autonomies and Freedom, GAL), organised in an official group; two senators later defected to the
Liberal Popular Alliance (ALA), but the remaining ten senators were enough to keep the senatorial group alive. In early July the CoR were joined by an additional MEP,
Remo Sernagiotto, who had defected from FI and the EPP to ECR. The CoR were established as a full-fledged political party on 16 July 2015.
European and Italian alliances In November the CoR joined the
Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR), CR's deputies and senators may soon join forces with
Gaetano Quagliariello's
Identity and Action (split from the
New Centre-Right), an earlier FI's spin-off, and
Flavio Tosi's
Act! (split from
Lega Nord); such an alliance could boast more than 20 deputies and 15 senators. In January 2016 another CoR senator switched to ALA, leaving the party with only nine senators. Being ten the minimum required number to form a group in the Senate, the party risked losing that privilege, but
Luigi Compagna, a senator from Quagliariello's
Identity and Action (IdeA) and the
Great Autonomies and Freedom group, joined the CoR group in order to keep it alive, in a move that might be a prelude for a broader alliance between the two parties. In May history repeated itself: after one more senator had switched to ALA, another IdeA senator,
Andrea Augello, joined forces with the CoR group in order to keep it alive. In the
2016 local elections the CoR ran its lists especially in Apulia: the party won 6.2% in
Brindisi and had its candidate for mayor (
Angela Carluccio) elected in the run-off, 7.2% in
Fasano, 5.6% in
Gallipoli, 13.2% in
Nardò, 11.6% in
Ruvo di Puglia, and 7.2% in
San Giovanni Rotondo.
Dissolution into Direction Italy In December 2016,
Cinzia Bonfrisco left the party and joined the
Italian Liberal Party (PLI), giving it representation in the Senate. In January 2017, Fitto launched a new party, named
Direction Italy (DI), including the CoR and other minor parties. After the dissolution of the CoR group for lack of members, in May the seven senators of CR–DI joined the GAL group in May 2017, a group composed primarily of minor centre-right parties, while the CoR sub-group in the Chamber maintained its name for some time. ==Leadership==