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The Clover (Italian: Il Trifoglio) was a centrist coalition of Italian political parties.

It was launched on 27 October 1999 and led by Francesco Cossiga, who supported the D'Alema I Cabinet since its formation via his Democratic Union for the Republic (UDR). The idea of The Clover was to unify those political forces within the majority which felt marginalised. The coalition was composed of three parties:

• the Italian Democratic Socialists (SDI, social-democratic, leader: Enrico Boselli)
• the Union for the Republic (UpR, Christian-democratic and liberal, leader: Francesco Cossiga)
• the Italian Republican Party (PRI, liberal, leader: Giorgio La Malfa)

The coalition was responsible of bringing down the D'Alema I Cabinet (Massimo D'Alema resigned on 18 December) and decided not to enter into the D'Alema II Cabinet. At that point The Clover had 18 deputies, eight senators and two ministers: Carlo Scognamiglio Pasini (UpR, Defence) and Angelo Piazza (SDI, Public Administration).

On 8 February 2000, after Cossiga had hinted at the possibility of making an alliance with the centre-right Pole of Freedoms, SDI left the coalition, while some of its members, including Claudio Martelli and Bobo Craxi, formed the Socialist League, which replaced SDI as third component of The Clover.

Since then, the coalition was loosened and each party started to take autonomous decisions, but by the 2001 general election all the three groups had joined the centre-right House of Freedoms coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi in different ways: the Socialist League took part to the foundation of the New Italian Socialist Party, PRI signed an electoral pact with Forza Italia and UpR merged into that party.

References

1. Mark Donovan (2002). "The process of alliance formation". In James L. Newell (ed.). The Italian General Election of 2001: Berlusconi's Victory. Manchester University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-7190-6100-4.
2. Mark Gilbert; Gianfranco Pasquino (2000). "Introduction: The Faltering Transition". In Mark Gilbert; Gianfranco Pasquino (eds.). Italian Politics: The Faltering Transition. Berghahn Books. p. 28. ISBN 978-1-57181-840-9.
3. Saulino Felice. "Strappo di Boselli, addio a Cossiga". corriere.it. Retrieved 26 September 2015.

v t e Historical political parties in Italy
Communist	Proletarian Unity Party (1972–1984) Italian Communist Party (1921–1991) Proletarian Democracy (1978–1991) Party of Italian Communists (1998–2014)
Democratic socialist	Italian Revolutionary Socialist Party (1881–1893) Italian Workers' Party (1882–1892) Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (1964–1972) Democratic Party of the Left (1991–1998) Democratic Left (2007–2010) Left Ecology Freedom (2010-2016)
Green	Rainbow Greens (1989–1990) Federation of Green Lists (1986–1990) Federation of the Greens (1990–2021)
Social-democratic and liberal-socialist	Italian Reformist Socialist Party (1912–1926) Unitary Socialist Party (1922–1930) Action Party (1929–1947) Labour Democratic Party (1943–1948) Union of Socialists (1948–1949) Unitary Socialist Party (1949–1951) Unified Socialist Party (1966–1969) Italian Socialist Party (1892–1994) Italian Democratic Socialist Party (1947–1998) Labour Federation (1994–1998) Democrats of the Left (1998–2007) Italian Democratic Socialists (1998–2007) Article One (2017–2023)
Radical and social-liberal	Action Party (1853–1867) Italian Radical Party (1904–1922) Democratic Party (1913–1919) Social Democracy (1922–1926) Republican Democratic Concentration (1946) Radical Party (1955–1989) Democratic Alliance (1993–1997) The Network (1991–1999)
Centrist and centrist liberal	Constitutional Democratic Party (1913–1919) Italian Democratic Liberal Party (1919–1926) Democratic Union for the Republic (1998–1999) Union for the Republic Italian Renewal (1996–2002) The Democrats (1999–2002) Segni Pact (1993–2003) Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (2002–2007) Civic Choice (2013–2019) Liberal Popular Alliance (2015–2018)
Regionalist and federalist	Movement for the Independence of Sicily (1943–1951) Federalists and Liberal Democrats (1994–1996) Federalist Italian League (1995–1996) Great South (2011–2013)
Christian-democratic	Italian Catholic Electoral Union (1906–1919) Conservative Catholics (1913–1919) Italian People's Party (1919–1926) Christian Democracy (1943–1994) Italian People's Party (1994–2002) Christian Democrats for the Republic (1998) Christian Democratic Centre (1994–2002) United Christian Democrats (1995–2002) European Democracy (2001–2002) Christian Democracy for Autonomies (2005–2009) Union of Democrats for Europe (1999–2013)
Conservative-liberal	Liberal Union (1913–1922) Italian Liberal Party (1922–1994) National Democratic Alliance (1953–1954) Union of the Centre
Liberal-conservative	Economic Party (1919–1924) Forza Italia (1994–2009) The People of Freedom (2009–2013) Future and Freedom (2010–2014) New Centre-Right (2013–2017) Conservatives and Reformists (2015–2017) Direction Italy (2017–2019) Cambiamo! (2019–2022)
National-conservative	Common Man's Front (1946–1949) Monarchist National Party (1946–1959) People's Monarchist Party (1954–1959) Italian Democratic Party of Monarchist Unity (1959–1972) National Democracy (1977–1979) National Alliance (1995–2009)
Nationalist	Italian Nationalist Association (1910–1923) Combatants' Party (1919–1923) National Fascist Party (1921–1943) Republican Fascist Party (1943–1945) Italian Social Movement (1946–1995)
List of political parties in Italy 19th-century Italian political groups Early 20th-century Italian political parties 1950s–1990s Italian political parties Current Italian political parties

• 1999 establishments in Italy
• Defunct political party alliances in Italy