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 | |
| 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, masterminding the fusion of two parties into the People's Radical Reformist Alliance in the process, 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, while the social and intellectual ferment of the province also gave rise to the Alscian school of economics, which provided further foundations for FPP strength.
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 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.
Legacy
Cacerta's withdrawal from Alscia, when the Liberation War had started, 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
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.
Election results
Legislative Council of Alscia
| Election | FPV | % | Seats | ± | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1908 | 141.073 | 64,2% | 60 / 70
|
 60
|
Majority |
| 1912 | 214.484 | 65,6% | 65 / 70
|
5
|
Majority |
| 1916 | 283.456 | 65,7% | 64 / 70
|
 1
|
Majority |
| 1920 | 344.694 | 66,2% | 66 / 70
|
2
|
Majority |
| 1924 | 383.020 | 65,9% | 63 / 70
|
3
|
Majority |
| 1928 | 428.090 | 66,4% | 68 / 70
|
5
|
Majority |
| 1932 | 438.816 | 60,1% | 62 / 70
|
6
|
Majority |
| 1936 | 471.001 | 58,7% | 61 / 70
|
1
|
Majority |
