Abstract
Political parties with Christian-inspired ideologies found each other in the early 1920s. They had begun to establish themselves as various European countries gradually became democratic over the 19th century; others came later, not until after the First World War.1 A more or less formal trans-European co-operation started in 1925.
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References
See inter alia Jean-Marie Mayeur, Des Partis catholiques à la démocratic chrétienne, Paris 1980;
Michael P. Fogarty, Christian Democracy in Western Europe, 1820–1953, London 1957;
see for Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands the relevant extracts in: Winfried Becker/Rudolf Morsey (eds) Christliche Demokratie in Europa. Grundlagen und Entwicklungen seit dem 19. Jahrhundert, Cologne/Vienna 1988.
On Sturzo’s contacts and his efforts to spread the idea of the ‘Internazionale Popolare’, and also in particular on the founding and activities of the SIPDIC, see the description of Alwin Hanschmidt, with its numerous sources and references, ‘Eine christlich-demokratische “Internationale” zwischen den Weltkriegen. Das Secrétariat International des Partis Démocratiques d’Inspiration Chrétienne à Paris”, in: Winfried Becker/Rudof Morsey, pp. 158–188, and also Roberto Papini, L’Internationale Democrate-Chretienne. La coopération entre les partis démocrates-chrétiens de 1925 à 1986, Paris 1988, see p. 31 et seq.; cf. especially Robert Papini’s work, II corraggio della democrazia. Luigi Sturzo e l’Internazionale Popolare tra le due guerre (Manuscript of 1995), which is very informative about the whole period dealt with in this chapter, on Don Sturzo’s philosophy, and the development of co-operation between Christian Democrats in Europe.
Raymond Laurent, general secretary of the PDP, quoted by Hanschmidt, p. 168.
Ibid. p. 169 et seq.
Parties from Luxembourg (Right party), Hungary (Christian-Social Economic party) and the Netherlands (Roman Catholic State party), joined later. See list of SIPDIC member parties in Hanschimdt, p. 187 et seq., which also indicates that, apart from the parties mentioned above there were also relations with kindred political figures and groups in Spain, Jugoslavia, and Rumania.
Alwin Hanschmidt, p. 172.
On the role, orientation, and contribution of the PDP, see Jean Claude Delbriel, ‘Les démocrates d’inspiration chrétienne et les problèmes Européens dans l’entre-deux-guerres’, in: Serge Berstein/Jean-Marie Mayeur/Pierre Milza, Le MRP et la construction Européenne, Brussels 1993, pp. 15–39.
For list of SIPDIC conferences/congresses and information about delegations taking part see Alwin Hanschmidt p. 186 et seq.; cf. Roberto Papini’s account p. 35 et seq.
Alwin Hanschmidt, p. 179.
Ibid. p. 180: SI = SIPDIC; ‘une force.…’ = a force helping to build peace and international co-operation.
Roberto Papini, p. 36.
Alwin Hanschmidt, p. 184.
Quoted by Roberto Papini, p. 36.
Text in: Zur Geschichte der christlich-demokratischen Bewegung in Europa, vol. 4 of EPP series ‘Geistige und historische Grundlagen christlich-demokratischer Politik’, Melle 1990, p. 128 et seq. The proposal to create a Common European Market was raised in 1923 — and variants repeated — by Konrad Adenauer (Oberbürgermeister of Cologne from 1917, and from 1921 president of the Prussian State Council).
See Alwin Hanschmidt, p. 184 et seq.; also Roberto Papini, p. 44 et seq.
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© 1998 Thomas Jansen
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Jansen, T. (1998). The International Secretariat of Democratic Parties Inspired by Christianity, 1925–1939. In: The European People’s Party. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333995297_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333995297_3
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