Popular Progressive Front

Popular Progressive Front Fronte Popolare Progressista
Abbreviation	FPP
Leader	Donatella Rossetti
Founded	1908
Dissolved	1939
Succeeded by	The PA–LU alliance
Ideology	Donatellism Progressivism Radicalism
Political position	Centre-left
Colours	Dark purple

The Popular Progressive Front (Italian: Fronte Popolare Progressista, abbreviated FPP) was a political alliance of parties in Alscia.

Led by Donatella Rossetti, the FPP governed Alscia from its incorporation into the Cacertian Empire to its dissolution by joining the Free Territories. It had a dominant position in Alscian politics, and had an impact on Gylian politics through its precedent-setting nature and embodiment of Donatellism.

History

Background and formation

As a result of the Cacerta-Xevden War, the Cacertian Empire annexed territory in north-eastern Xevden, organising it as the province of Alscia. The advent of Cacertian rule brought liberalisation and previously suppressed freedoms to the Gylian population, allowing a restoration of democracy for the first time since the Colonisation War.

The Cacertian authorities pursued a policy of rapid organisation and creation of responsible government, setting up the Legislative Council and scheduling elections for April 1908. Several leading Gylian parties, dating to the 1848 revolution and Glorious Rebellion, as well as other newer ones, registered for the election.

The election was transformed shortly before campaigning began, when Donatella Rossetti became the leader of the National Unity Party. A previously unknown figure, Donatella quickly established herself as the frontrunner, electrifying the campaign. She negotiated a coalition of the main liberal and left parties, and campaigned vigorously.

The FPP won a majority of first-preference votes in the 1908 election, and 60 out of 70 Council seats.

In government

Throughout the province's lifespan, the FPP enjoyed supermajorities in the Legislative Council, and faced limited opposition. Member parties broadly agreed on a socially liberal and economically interventionist course, with differences being a matter of degree and policy details.

As a grand coalition, the FPP practically achieved the widest appeal among voters. The leftist SP and SDP represented the interests of workers, the PRRA appealed to the reformist middle classes and intelligentsia, while the pragmatic tack of the NUP and NLP attracted the wealthy and Hannaist conservatives. With majorities all but guaranteed by their wide base of support, significant internal competition took place to influence the coalition's overall direction, with the SP and SDP playing the role of a ginger group.

Due to its rapid formation and rise to power, Donatella's personality and charisma served as the glue that held the FPP together. In practice, its parties' functioning was based on an uneasy balance between principle and personality. There remained sufficient consistency in Donatella's thought and action to produce a coherent ideology, refined and completed by the contributions of Risveglio Nazionale.

Historian Herta Schwamen describes the FPP as controlling the "commanding heights" of Alscian public life. It was less dominant at the local level, where the PdL won pluralities, and the SP and SDP were stronger and pursued a municipal socialist course.

Alscia's role as the centre of Gylian intellectual life and dissemination of radical ideologies to Gylians in Xevden contributed to the rise of new political forces, including the PCA, PFA, market anarchists, and others. Nevertheless, Donatella's towering personality and shrewd coalition building remained constant, helping the FPP absorb popular ideas and elements from their competition.

Valentina Potenza, in her capacity as the creator of il palazzo, pushed for the FPP to function like a political machine and to "steal" popular ideas in order to marginalise the opposition.

Legacy

The dissolution of the Cacertian Empire led to a referendum in which Alscians voted to join the Free Territories in 1939. In joining the Free Territories, Alscia ceased to exist, and with it the FPP.

The FPP had a significant impact on Gylian politics. As the first modern political alliance to govern the first Gylian polity to endure since the Colonisation War, it set significant precedents for Gylian politics: left–liberal unity, establishing a muscular liberalism as the foundation of Gylian liberalism, fueling the aggressive modernisation of Alscia, and promoting previously excluded minorities (women, LGBT people, Gylics and non-Gylics) to office, among others. Its policies were instrumental in the realisation of the later Gylian consensus.

Together with Donatella's far-reaching influence on politics and society, the FPP were pioneers of modern political campaigning, and brought many important politicians and public figures to prominence, who would go on to serve in the Free Territories. The experience of the FPP was a practical predecessor to the popular front strategy pursued by the anarchists of the Free Territories, as well as the electoral blocs that would come to characterise Gylian politics — trends that would culminate in the long-lasting PA–LU alliance.

The FPP's experiments with direct democracy and recruitment of notable civic figures to stand for office helped to establish and consolidate the modern traditions of direct democracy and political involvement by non-politicians in Gylian politics.

The strong symbiosis between the FPP's progressive and activist governance and the popular mobilisation of the "hurried province" would also have an enduring influence, being echoed in the Golden Revolution.

Composition

Party			Ideology
	Socialist Party	SP	Socialism
	Social Democratic Party	SDP	Social democracy
	National Unity Party	NUP	National liberalism
	National Liberal Party	NLP	Social liberalism
	People's Radical Reformist Alliance	PRRA	Radicalism

Symbols

The FPP used a dark purple colour, emphasising Donatella's central role in its identity, and the symbol of a wheel held by a pair of hands, symbolising progress. The wheel also resembled Alscia's seal.

Election results

Legislative Council of Alscia

Election	FPV	%	Seats	±	Government
1908	201.532	64,2%	60 / 70	60	Majority
1912	306.405	65,6%	65 / 70	5	Majority
1916	404.938	65,7%	64 / 70	1	Majority
1920	492.420	66,2%	66 / 70	2	Majority
1924	547.172	65,9%	63 / 70	3	Majority
1928	610.636	66,3%	68 / 70	5	Majority
1932	626.880	60,1%	62 / 70	6	Majority
1936	672.858	58,7%	61 / 70	1	Majority

Local elections

The FPP alliance was not in effect in consigli comunali and giunte comunali, although member parties tended to cooperate based on the provincial precedent. The election results are shown for the member parties separately.

Election	SP			SDP			NUP			NLP			PRRA
	FPV	%	Con	FPV	%	Con	FPV	%	Con	FPV	%	Con	FPV	%	Con
1908	32.650	10,2%	37	34.890	10,9%	37	48.014	15,0%	52	37.131	11,6%	41	24.007	7,5%	20
1910	43.100	10,5%	37	43.921	10,7%	37	60.750	14,8%	50	50.078	12,2%	40	31.607	7,7%	25
1912	48.992	10,4%	36	50.876	10,8%	38	68.306	14,5%	51	57.942	12,3%	43	33.917	7,2%	25
1914	55.410	10,1%	35	63.068	11,5%	40	77.903	14,2%	50	63.114	11,5%	42	42.792	7,8%	27
1916	65.948	10,7%	51	64.099	10,4%	50	88.136	14,3%	69	73.344	11,9%	57	46.225	7,5%	36
1918	72.373	10,9%	52	77.021	11,6%	56	93.620	14,1%	68	69.717	10,5%	50	53.782	8,1%	39
1920	82.082	11,2%	62	79.151	10,8%	59	101.870	13,9%	76	68.890	9,4%	52	54.233	7,4%	41
1922	90.214	11,3%	62	83.329	10,4%	57	109.374	13,7%	75	61.473	7,7%	42	60.675	7,6%	42
1924	92.745	11,1%	61	85.225	10,2%	56	111.127	13,3%	73	83.554	10,0%	55	58.488	7,0%	39
1926	100.721	11,5%	75	92.839	10,6%	69	119.114	13,6%	88	76.198	8,7%	56	56.054	6,4%	42
1928	107.759	11,7%	76	101.312	11,0%	72	119.733	13,0%	85	93.023	10,1%	66	61.708	6,7%	44
1930	122.585	12,5%	90	109.836	11,2%	81	118.662	12,1%	87	92.184	9,4%	68	68.648	7,0%	50
1932	129.474	12,4%	89	115.900	11,1%	80	127.386	12,2%	88	82.488	7,9%	57	75.179	7,2%	52
1934	133.310	12,2%	88	124.470	11,4%	82	127.847	11,7%	84	96.158	8,8%	63	75.397	6,9%	50
1936	143.283	12,5%	105	131.821	11,5%	97	130.674	11,4%	96	99.725	8,7%	73	74.507	6,5%	55
1938	143.595	12,1%	102	136.472	11,5%	97	129.353	10,9%	92	110.365	9,3%	78	73.577	6,2%	52