The Liberal Popular Alliance emerged in July 2015 from a split from
Forza Italia (FI), led by
Denis Verdini, who wanted to support the reforms put forward by the
Renzi Cabinet, and was joined by senators coming from different centre-right groups, including
Great Autonomies and Freedom (GAL),
Conservatives and Reformists (CoR) and
New Centre-Right (NCD).
Lucio Barani, who until then was the secretary of the
New Italian Socialist Party (NPSI), was elected president of the senatorial group. "Autonomies" was possibly added to "Liberal Popular Alliance" because of the presence of two senators of the
Movement for the Autonomies–
Party of Sicilians (MpA–PdS) in the group. Other than Barani, who continued to be a member of the NPSI, and the two MpA senators, the group included non-party independents. Between September and October 2015, four senators and seven deputies left FI and joined Verdini; the deputies formed a joint sub-group with the
Associative Movement Italians Abroad (MAIE) named "Liberal Popular Alliance – Autonomies – MAIE. Between December and January 2016, the party was joined by five more senators, Also in January, three ALA members were elected deputy chairpersons of three Senate committees. A twentieth senator and an eight deputy joined in May. In April 2016 the presence of two senators of the MpA, who had broken ties with FI while joining the ALA as direct members, was marked by a new name of the group in the Senate: "Liberal Popular Alliance – Autonomies (
Movement for the Autonomies)". In
Naples, the largest city in which the party was present, the ALA obtained a mere 1.4% of the vote. Between July and December 2016, the party formed joint groups with
Civic Choice (SC), which were renamed "ALA – Civic Choice for the Liberal and Popular Constituent Assembly", The ALA, SC, Pera and Urbani campaigned heavily for the "Yes" in the
2016 constitutional referendum, which resulted in a defeat for the "Yes" camp and the subsequent resignation of Renzi. The ALA did not join and support the new
government led by
Paolo Gentiloni. In February 2017 two senators left and joined
Union of the Centre (UDC), in April one deputy joined
Popular Alternative (AP), successor of the NCD, in June two senators re-joined FI, and in July another deputy joined AP. In November the party was further reduced to 4 deputies and 12 senators as the two deputies associated with
Cantiere Popolare (CP) and the two senators of the MpA left (the CP and the MpA had participated together in the
2017 Sicilian regional election). In January 2018 the party formed an alliance with the
Italian Republican Party (PRI), of which Verdini had been a member until 1994. Under the ALA–PRI alliance, ALA's senatorial group was renamed "Liberal Popular Alliance – Italian Republican Party". In the
2018 general election the list, which actually included only Republican candidates, obtained a mere 0.1% of the vote. Verdini himself did not vote for the list, but voted FI for the Chamber and the PD for the Senate. The party has since become inactive. ==Electoral results==