The party was launched in November 2013 by splinters from
Civic Choice (SC) led by
Mario Mauro and
Lorenzo Dellai, who wanted to continue supporting
Enrico Letta's
government (in which Mauro served as minister of Defence), but disagreed with SC's perceived liberal outlook. Soon after, the PpI formed joint parliamentary groups, named
For Italy, with the
Union of the Centre (UdC). According to its leaders, the party would soon merge with the UdC into a new "centrist" party. The party was officially founded on 28 January 2014. In the meantime, Mauro was appointed president. In February 2014, Mauro was not confirmed as minister of Defence in
Matteo Renzi's
government, but the PpI joined the government with one deputy minister (
Andrea Olivero at Agriculture) and three undersecretaries. In the
2014 European Parliament election, the party endorsed the
New Centre-Right – Union of the Centre joint list. In July 2014, the PpI suffered the defection of its left-wing faction (composed by the majority of the party's MPs: eight deputies out of twelve and two senators out of eight), led by Dellai, Olivero,
Mario Marazziti,
Mario Giro and
Lucio Romano, who launched
Solidary Democracy (Demo.S). The new party re-affirmed the strategic alliance with Renzi's
Democratic Party and its support for the government, while the PpI considered it just temporary as the party's declared goal was to restructure the centre-right camp instead. By November, the PpI were reduced to two deputies and three senators. On 11 September 2014, the PpI were officially accepted into the
European People's Party (EPP). In November 2014, in an interview to
Il Giornale, Mauro hinted that the party might leave the Renzi Cabinet and explained that its goal was that of dissolving Italy's EPP-member parties (the new
Forza Italia, the
New Centre-Right, the UdC and the PpI) in a joint centre-right party. Consequently, the three PpI senators left For Italy in order to join
Great Autonomies and Freedom, a centre-right miscellaneous group, but the PpI continued to participate in the government with two undersecretaries,
Domenico Rossi (Defense) and
Angela D'Onghia (Education). Eventually, after the
2015 regional elections, which the party contested with its own list only in
Apulia (obtaining a mere 0.4% of the vote), the PpI decided to end their support to the Renzi Cabinet. As a consequence, three MPs left the party: Rossi and D'Onghia in order to continue to be part of the government, and
Tito Di Maggio to join the
Conservatives and Reformists, a group of splinters from the new Forza Italia, led by
Raffaele Fitto. Finally, in January 2016,
Mario Caruso left the party and formed
Popular Civil Italy, leaving senator Mauro as the only remaining member of Parliament of the party. In March 2017, the PpI made an alliance agreement with Forza Italia, therefore Mauro joined that party's group in the Senate. In 2018, the party participated in the
Molise regional election within the
centre-right coalition, gaining 7.1% of vote and two seats. In 2023 Mauro, Dellai and
Giuseppe De Mita founded a new political association,
Popular Base. On 24 September, in a meeting in
Marina di Grosseto, the founders of Popular Base launched their official logo, joining the family of
European People's Party with a video message sent by its Chairman
Manfred Weber, and they announced the next steps leading up to the constituent assembly on 3 February 2024. On 21 February 2025, Popular Base was officially admitted as a member of the EPP, inheriting the PpI membership, with Mauro appointed as international secretary of the party. On 18 September 2025 the PpI were dissolved, as they asked to be removed from the official political party register. == Electoral results ==