of Arcigay, who joined in November 2009). was criticised by Pisicchio because, in his view, it was endangering the centrist nature of the party. The party has also continued to recruit people on the right, such as Alessandro Cè, a social-conservative former member of Lega Nord. The fact that IdV was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, formerly known as European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR), does not mean that it is a liberal party. Notwithstanding its former European affiliation, the party has rarely been regarded as liberal in Italy due to its "justicialist" and "populist" tendencies; the party's character is that of a "protest party" and it opposes many policies generally supported by liberals. On the left, Di Pietro is described as a right-wing populist by Fausto Bertinotti, as well as by some political commentators. According to Panorama, the reason for these bitter comments by Bertinotti is that Di Pietro is very able to attract votes from the far-left electorate, as well as the right, and this could prevent a resurgence of those parties which were driven out of Parliament in the 2008 general election. During a council meeting in Rome, ELDR President Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck underlined that European Liberals are honored to have IdV as one of its Italian member parties as it exemplifies a political party of integrity and high quality politics. Di Pietro added that "ELDR as the common house of European Liberals is the political home for us in terms of common convictions and a strong support for the cause of political freedoms in Italy". During the 2010 party congress, Di Pietro remarked IdV's liberal identity and denounced what he called "Berlusconi's false liberalism". In May 2012, IdV became the first Italian political party to announce publicly that it would push for marriage equality. Di Pietro said: "Our party has been the first in Italy to follow U.S. president Barack Obama. We invite other Italian parties to support gay marriage. You don't have to be shy, you have to say yes". Popular support The 2001–2010 electoral results in the 10 most populated regions of Italy, plus Abruzzo and Molise (the party's main strongholds), are shown in the table below. Generally speaking, the party is stronger in the South than in the North, where the protest vote is absorbed primarily by Lega Nord. Electoral results Italian Parliament European Parliament Regional