(SC). The election was a huge defeat for the UdC, which obtained a mere 1.8% of the vote, eight deputies and two senators. After the election, the party joined Enrico Letta's government with Gianpiero D'Alia as minister of Public Administration (2013–2014) and Matteo Renzi's government with Gianluca Galletti as minister of the Environment (2014–2016). In February 2014, during the party's fourth congress, Cesa was narrowly re-elected secretary over D'Alia, who was then elected president. The UdC ran in the 2014 European Parliament election on a joint list with the New Centre-Right (NCD), a mainly Christian-democratic outfit emerged from a split from the PdL in its final days. The list obtained 4.4% of the vote and three MEPs, two for the NCD and one for the UdC. In December 2014 the alliance with the NCD was strengthened with the formation of the Popular Area (AP) joint parliamentary groups. Re-foundation In 2016 Casini did not renew his membership to the party, which was thus deprived of its most recognisable leader. Additionally, while still being part of the government and AP, the UdC chose not to support the "yes" in the 2016 constitutional referendum and to distance from the NCD, rejecting any notion of a joint party. In the run-up of the referendum the party was also abandoned by president D'Alia. After the referendum, which saw a huge defeat of the "yes" side, the UdC left AP altogether, but, other than Casini and D'Alia, the party lost another deputy and, more important, minister Galletti. Antonio De Poli replaced D'Alia as president. In 2017 the UdC was joined by three senators from other parties. The party's new course was marked also by the return of Follini. For the 2017 Sicilian regional election the UdC re-joined the centre-right at the regional level. The decision led some leading former UdC members in Sicily to return into the party's fold, but was criticised by the party's deputy secretary Giuseppe De Mita, his uncle Ciriaco and Follini, who would jointly launch Italy is Popular, lead it into the Popular Civic List and join the centre-left coalition. In the run-up of the 2018 general election the UdC officially re-joined the centre-right coalition also at the national level, aiming at teaming up with other Christian-democratic parties, notably including the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR), as well as the Italian Liberal Party (PLI) and Energies for Italy (EpI). Thus, the