The Union of the Centre (, UdC), whose complete name is "Union of Christian and Centre Democrats" (Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e Democratici di Centro, UDC), is a Christian-democratic political party in Italy. Lorenzo Cesa is the party's current secretary; Pier Ferdinando Casini was for years the most recognisable figure and de facto leader of the party, before eventually distancing from it in 2016. The UdC is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and the Centrist Democrat International (CDI), of which Casini was president from 2004 to 2015. The party was formed as "Union of Christian and Centre Democrats" in December 2002 upon the merger of the Christian Democratic Centre (CCD), the United Christian Democrats (CDU) and European Democracy (DE). In 2008 the party was the driving force behind the "Union of the Centre" (UdC), an alliance comprising, among others, The Rose for Italy of Bruno Tabacci and Savino Pezzotta, the Populars of Ciriaco De Mita and the Liberal Clubs of Ferdinando Adornato. Since then, the party's official name was neglected in favour of the alliance's and, since most of the UdC member parties have joined the UDC too, the UDC and the UdC started to overlap almost completely to the point that they are now indistinguishable. The CCD was an early ally of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia in 1994 and was part of the centre-right Pole/House of Freedoms since its establishment. Consequently, the UDC was consistently part of the centre-right until 2006. Later, it was affiliated neither to the centre-right nor the centre-left at the national level. Despite this, the party continued to take part in several regional, provincial and municipal governments with the old and the new Forza Italia, while forming alliances also with the centre-left Democratic Party in some regions and cities. In the 2013 general election the UdC was part of With Monti for Italy, the coalition formed around Mario Monti's Civic Choice, and obtained a mere 1.8% of the vote, down from 5.6% in 2008 and 6.8% in 2006. In December 2014 the party, which sat in Enrico Letta's government and Matteo Renzi's government (2013–2016), formed Popular Area with Angelino Alfano's New Centre-Right. In December 2016 the UdC left the alliance, did not join Paolo Gentiloni's government and suffered the final split by Casini and his followers. The party has since returned into the centre-right coalition's fold and took part to the 2018