The Italian Radicals (, RI) is a liberal and libertarian political party in Italy. Founded on 14 July 2001 with Daniele Capezzone as their first secretary, the party describes itself as "liberale, liberista [and] libertario", where liberale refers to political liberalism, liberista is an Italian term for economic liberalism, and libertario denotes a form of cultural liberalism concerning moral and social issues. According to its constitution, the party "as such and with its symbol does not take part in elections". The party draws inspiration form 19th-century classical radicalism and the Radical Party. From 2001 to 2017, the party intended to be the Italian section of the Transnational Radical Party (TRP) as the continuation of the Radical Party founded in 1955 by the left wing of the Italian Liberal Party and re-launched in the 1960s by Marco Pannella. As the Radical Party had become a transnational non-governmental organization working mainly at the United Nations-level which by statute could not participate in national elections, its Italian members organised themselves into the Pannella List between 1992 and 1999 and the Bonino List until 2001, when they established the RI. In 2017, the TRP broke with the RI. Quaderni Radicali and Notizie Radicali are the party's newspapers. Radio Radicale is the official radio station of the party; in December 2008, it was awarded by Italia Oggi as the "best specialized radio broadcaster". The RI are a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, along with its former associate party More Europe, and was previously a full member of the Liberal International. History Background The Radical Party was long a left-libertarian movement in Italy, often proposing itself as the most extreme opposition to the Italian political establishment. When Silvio Berlusconi entered the political arena in 1994, the Radicals, who were then organised mostly into the Pannella List and were attracted by Berlusconi's proposed economic liberalism, supported him, albeit critically and without becoming directly involved in his centre-right first government (1994–1995), in the hope of a "liberal revolution" as opposed to the conservative and statist political establishment represented by traditional parties. The relationship between the Radicals and Berlusconi, whose allies included socially conservative groups at odds with the Radicals' cultural liberalism, soon ended. In the 1999 European Parliament election, the Bonino List obtained 8.7% of the vote and seven MEPs, including Emma Bonino, Marco Pannella, Marco Cappato and Benedetto Della Vedova. However,