The
Sardinian Democratic Union was founded in 1998 as Sardinian section of
Democratic Union for the Republic of
Francesco Cossiga, a Sardinian who had been
prime minister and
President of Italy. In the
1999 regional election Floris won 6.2% as candidate for president, while the party won 4.1% and three regional councillors. Subsequently, UDS leader
Mario Floris, a former
Christian Democrat, was
President of the Region from 1999 to 2001. In the
2004 regional election the UDS, which had been re-established taking the current name, won 3.9% of the vote and two regional councillors. After that, the party became a stable regional ally of
The People of Freedom (PdL). In the
2009 regional election, in coalition with the centre-right, the UDS won 3.5% of the vote and got two regional councillors elected (Floris and a member of the
New Italian Socialist Party). In the
2010 provincial elections the party was strongest in the
Province of Cagliari, where it won 3.8% of the vote. Since 2008 the party was for a while the regional section of the
Alliance of the Centre, a small party that was later merged into PdL. In the
2014 regional election the UdS–PN obtained 2.6% of the vote and Floris was once again re-elected to the Council. In the
2019 regional election the UdS–PN obtained 1.1% of the vote and no seats in the Regional Council. ==Leadership==