title: Eaton Corporation

text: The electrical sector's products include circuit breakers, switchgear, busway, UPS systems, power distribution units, panel boards, load centers, motor controls, meters, sensors, relays and inverters. The main markets for the Electrical Americas and Electrical Rest of World segments are industrial, institutional, government, utility, commercial, residential, information technology and original equipment manufacturer customers.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: For the aerospace industry, Eaton manufactures and markets a line of systems and components for hydraulic, fuel, motion control, pneumatic systems and engines.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: The Vehicle Group comprises the company's truck and automotive segments, including the Roadranger division providing:


title: Eaton Corporation

text: The truck segment is involved in the design, manufacture and marketing of powertrain systems and other components for commercial vehicle markets. Key products include manual and automated transmissions, clutches, drive-line components, and hybrid power.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: Eaton's automotive segment produces products such as superchargers, engine valves, valve train components, cylinder heads, locking and limited-slip differentials, heavy-duty drive-line components, fuel, emissions, and safety controls, transmission and engine controls, spoilers, exterior moldings, plastic components, and fluid connectors.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: eMobility sector combines elements of Eaton's electrical and vehicle businesses to deliver electric vehicle solutions to passenger car, commercial vehicle and off-highway OEMs.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: Eaton Electrical purchased the Westinghouse Distribution and Controls Business Unit in 1994 which was one of Eaton's largest acquisitions. The acquisition included all of the Westinghouse electrical distribution and control product business and also included stipulations that the Westinghouse name cannot be used by anyone else on these types of products for years. Today, Eaton Electrical manufactures electrical distribution and control products branded "Eaton" or "Cutler-Hammer", which can replace Westinghouse products in commercial and industrial applications.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: In 2003, Eaton's Electrical Distribution and Control business (formerly known as Cutler-Hammer) acquired the electrical division of Delta plc. This acquisition brought Delta's brands Holec, MEM, Tabula, Bill and Elek under the Eaton nameplate with the previous Westinghouse divisions and gave the company manufacturing facilities to meet IEC standards, one of the steps to become a global company and developing a worldwide standard.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: Soon after this acquisition, Eaton entered a joint venture with Caterpillar Inc. and purchased 51% of I & S operations, now known as Intelligent Switchgear Organization, LLC. This was followed in 2004 by the acquisition of Powerware. The Powerware brand is known for the design and production of medium to large Uninterruptible Power System (UPS) devices. After several years of co-branding UPS products "Eaton|Powerware" the company is switching to the single brand Eaton for all UPS products including; BladeUPS, 9355, 9390, 9395, and 9E.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: In 2006, Eaton entered the data center power distribution market. Initial products were internally developed PDU's and RPP's under the Powerware brand and included the PowerXpert metering system. A Powerware brand Static Transfer Switch was added to the portfolio through a brand-label relationship with Cyberex. To complete the power distribution portfolio Eaton released a line of rack power distribution products under its Powerware brand called ePDU. It acquired Aphel Technologies Ltd., a manufacturer of power distribution product for data centers based in Coventry, UK. Shortly after, it added Pulizzi Engineering Inc., a manufacturer of mission critical power distribution based in Santa Ana, California. In late 2007, it acquired the MGE Office Protection Systems division of Schneider Electric, as a result of Schneider's acquisition of APC. A Taiwanese manufacturer, Phoenixtec, was also acquired giving the company the highest share in the Chinese single-phase UPS market.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: On 21 May 2012, Eaton announced that they had agreed to purchase Ireland-based Cooper Industries in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $11.46 billion. The new company is called Eaton Corporation plc and is incorporated in Ireland. Then-Chairman and CEO of Eaton Alexander Cutler headed the new corporation. Cooper shareholders received $39.15 in cash and 0.77479 of a share in the newly created company for each Cooper share held. This is worth $72 per share based on Eaton's closing share price of $42.40 on 18 May 2012, and is 29% above Cooper's closing stock price. Eaton Corporation plc completed its acquisition of Cooper Industries on 30 Nov 2012. The $13 billion acquisition of Cooper (US$5.4B Sales revenue -2011), became the largest in Eaton's (US$16B Sales Revenue-2011) 101-year history.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: On 17 Mar 2021, Eaton completed the acquisition of Tripp Lite for $1.65 billion. President and COO of Electrical Sector, Eaton Uday Yadav said “The acquisition of Tripp Lite will enhance the breadth of our edge computing and distributed IT product portfolio and expand our single-phase UPS business.” The acquisition will further Eaton's access to the consumer market in which Tripp Lite has a strong position.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: Eaton's hydraulics business, manufacturing systems and components for the agriculture, construction, mining, forestry, utility, material handling, machine tools, molding, power generation, primary metals, and oil and gas markets, was acquired by Danfoss in August 2021 for $3.3 billion.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: From 1920s-1964 Eaton was based on East 140th Street in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1964, the company moved its headquarters into the new Erieview Tower where it remained until 1983. In that year, Eaton Corporation moved into a 28-story Cleveland office tower which was renamed for it. Eaton relocated to its new 580,000 square foot facility, named Eaton Center, in Beachwood, Ohio in early 2013. They reincorporated, as a means of reducing their U.S. corporate tax burden, in Ireland as part of the Cooper merger involved establishing a registered head office in Dublin, Ireland but operational headquarters remain in Beachwood.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: Heath Monesmith president and chief operating officer, electrical sector. Paulo Ruiz named president and chief operating officer, industrial sector.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: In 1995, Eaton Corp had to pay $1.25M in restitution to a former employee who had been subject to racial harassment. Incidents included food being thrown on his desk, food being thrown through the roof of his car, use of the N-word, and the presence of neo-nazi flyers at Eaton Corp. The employee developed psychological problems and slipped into homelessness shortly after being fired.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: In 2020, an employee sued Eaton Corp for retaliation and facilitating a climate of racial harassment. After a profane outburst from a fellow worker, the plaintiff was assigned to work and train under a supervisor who abused him psychologically. The supervisor made frequent use of the N-word, made reference to slavery and lynching, and claimed his job was to get rid of black workers. The employee informed management of his hostile work environment, but management responded by disciplining the plaintiff himself.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: Back when Eaton Corp was struggling with bankruptcy, various employees on long-term benefits suddenly found themselves terminated. Eaton had failed to insure the plan that the employees had nonetheless paid for. This led to numerous suits against Eaton.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: In 2012, the acquisition of Cooper Industries made it possible for Eaton Corp to become an Irish company, which would sharply lower its corporate tax rate. The move was later denounced by both President Obama and President Donald Trump.


title: Eaton Corporation

text: In 2004, Eaton Corp sued Triumph Group for trade secrets theft, but when it was discovered that the company’s lawyers were paying former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters to improperly influence then-Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter, the defendants countersued. In 2014, Eaton Corp paid $135M to Triumph Group and $13M to six former employees to settle the long-running legal dispute. Judge Bobby DeLaughter was sentenced to 18 months in prison.


title: Basilicata

text: Basilicata (, , ), also known by its ancient name Lucania (, , ), is an administrative region in Southern Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south. It has two coastlines: a 30-km stretch on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania and Calabria, and a longer coastline along the Gulf of Taranto between Calabria and Apulia. The region can be thought of as the "instep" of Italy, with Calabria functioning as the "toe" and Apulia the "heel".


title: Basilicata

text: The region covers about . In 2010 the population was slightly under 600,000. The regional capital is Potenza. The region is divided into two provinces: Potenza and Matera.


title: Basilicata

text: Its inhabitants are generally known as "Lucanians" (), although this ethnonym should properly refer to ancient Lucania's populations; and, to a lesser extent, as "Basilicatesi" or "Basilischi".


title: Basilicata

text: The name probably derives from ""basilikos"" (), which refers to the "basileus", the Byzantine emperor, who ruled the region for 200 years, from 536/552 to 571/590 and from 879 to 1059. Others argue that the name may refer to the Basilica of Acerenza, which held judicial power in the Middle Ages.


title: Basilicata

text: During the Greek and Roman Ages, Basilicata was known as Lucania. This was possibly derived from ""leukos"" (Greek: λευκός), meaning "white", from ""lykos"" (Greek: λύκος), meaning "wolf", or from Latin ""lūcus"", meaning "sacred wood".


title: Basilicata

text: Basilicata covers an extensive part of the southern Apennine Mountains, between the Ofanto river in the north and the Pollino massif in the south. It is bordered on the east by a large part of the Bradano river depression, which is traversed by numerous streams and declines to the southeastern coastal plains on the Ionian Sea. The region also has a short coastline to the southwest on the Tyrrhenian Sea side of the peninsula.


title: Basilicata

text: Basilicata is the most mountainous region in the south of Italy, with 47% of its area of covered by mountains. Of the remaining area, 45% is hilly, and 8% is made up of plains. Notable mountains and ranges include the Pollino massif, the Dolomiti lucane, Monte Vulture, Monte Alpi, Monte Carmine, Monti Li Foj and Toppa Pizzuta.


title: Basilicata

text: Geological features of the region include the volcanic formations of Monte Vulture, and the seismic faults in the Melfi and Potenza areas in the north, and around Pollino in the south. Much of the region was devastated in the 1857 Basilicata earthquake. More recently, the 1980 Irpinia earthquake destroyed many towns in the northwest of the region.


title: Basilicata

text: The mountainous terrain combined with weak rock and soil types makes landslides prevalent. The lithological structure of the substratum and its chaotic tectonic deformation predispose the slope to landslides, and this problem is compounded by the lack of forested land. In common with many another Mediterranean region, Basilicata was once rich in forests, but they were largely felled and made barren during the time of Roman rule.


title: Basilicata

text: The variable climate is influenced by three coastlines (Adriatic, Ionian and Tyrrhenian) and the complexity of the region's physical features. In general, the climate is continental in the mountains and Mediterranean along the coasts.


title: Basilicata

text: The first traces of human presence in Basilicata date to the late Paleolithic, with findings of "Homo erectus". Late Cenozoic fossils, found at Venosa and other locations, include elephants, rhinoceros and species now extinct such as a saber-toothed cat of the genus "Machairodus". Examples of rock art from the Mesolithic have been discovered near Filiano. From the fifth millennium, people stopped living in caves and built settlements of huts up to the rivers leading to the interior (Tolve, Tricarico, Aliano, Melfi, Metaponto). In this period, anatomically modern humans lived by cultivating cereals and animal husbandry (Bovinae and Caprinae). Chalcolithic sites include the grottoes of Latronico and the funerary findings of the Cervaro grotto near Lagonegro.


title: Basilicata

text: The first known stable market center of the Apennine culture on the sea, consisting of huts on the promontory of , near to Maratea, dates to the Bronze Age.


title: Basilicata

text: The first indigenous Iron Age communities lived in large villages in plateaus located at the borders of the plains and the rivers, in places fitting their breeding and agricultural activities. Such settlements include that of Anglona, located between the fertile valleys of Agri and Sinni, of Siris and, on the coast of the Ionian Sea, of Incoronata-San Teodoro. The first presence of Greek colonists, coming from the Greek islands and Anatolia, date from the late eighth century BC.


title: Basilicata

text: There are virtually no traces of survival of the 11th–8th century BC archaeological sites of the settlements (aside from a necropolis at Castelluccio on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea): this was perhaps caused by the increasing presence of Greek colonies, which changed the balance of the trades.


title: Basilicata

text: In ancient historical times the region was originally known as Lucania, named for the Lucani, an Oscan-speaking population from central Italy. Their name might be derived from Greek "leukos" meaning "white", "lykos" ("gray wolf"), or Latin "lucus" ("sacred grove"). Or more probably Lucania, as much as the Lucius forename ("praenomen") derives from the Latin word "Lux" (gen. "lucis"), meaning "light" (<PIE "*leuk-" "brightness", Latin verb "lucere" "to shine"), and is a cognate of name Lucas. Another etymology proposed is a derivation from Etruscan "Lauchum" (or "Lauchme") meaning "king", which however was transferred into Latin as "Lucumo".


title: Basilicata

text: Starting from the late eighth century BC, the Greeks established a settlement first at Siris, founded by fugitives from Colophon. Then with the foundation of Metaponto from Achaean colonists, they started the conquest of the whole Ionian coast. There were also indigenous Oenotrian foundations on the coast, which exploited the nearby presence of Greek settlements, such as Velia and Pyxous, for their maritime trades.


title: Basilicata

text: The first contacts between the Lucanians and the Romans date from the latter half of the fourth century BC. After the conquest of Taranto in 272, Roman rule was extended to the whole region: the Appian Way reached Brindisi and the colonies of Potentia (modern Potenza) and Grumentum were founded.


title: Basilicata

text: After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, Basilicata fell to Germanic rule, which ended in the mid-6th century when the Byzantines reconquered it from the Ostrogoths between 536 and 552 during the apocalyptic Byzantine-Gothic war under the leadership of Byzantine generals Belisarius and Narses. The region, deeply Christianized since as early as the 5th century, became part of the Lombard Duchy of Benevento founded by the invading Lombards between 571 and 590.


title: Basilicata

text: In the following centuries, Saracen raids led part of the population to move from the plain and coastal settlements to more protected centers located on hills. The towns of Tricarico and Tursi were under Muslim rule for a short period: later the "Saracen" population would be expelled. The region was conquered once more for Byzantium from the Saracens and the Lombards in the late 9th century, with the campaigns of Nikephoros Phokas the Elder and his successors, and became part of the theme of Longobardia. In 968 the "theme" of Lucania was established, with the capital at Tursikon (Tursi).


title: Basilicata

text: In the 11th century, Basilicata, together with the rest of much of southern Italy, was conquered by the Normans. Melfi became the first capital of the County of Apulia (later County of Apulia and Calabria) in 1043, where Robert Guiscard was named "Duke" by Pope Nicholas II. Inherited by the Hohenstaufen, Frederick II reorganized the administrative structure of his predecessors and the Justiciarate of Basilicata, whose borders coincided almost entirely with the actual region, was created. In Melfi, the Emperor promulgated the "Liber Augustalis" (commonly known as "Constitutions of Melfi"), code of laws for the Kingdom of Sicily. The Swabians were ousted in the 13th century by the Capetian House of Anjou. Since then, Basilicata began to lose importance and was marked by an irreversible socio-political decline.


title: Basilicata

text: In 1485, Basilicata was the seat of plotters against King Ferdinand I of Naples, the so-called "conspiracy of the Barons", which included the Sanseverino of Tricarico, the Caracciolo of Melfi, the Gesualdo of Caggiano, the of Altamura and Venosa and other anti-Aragonese families. Later, Charles V stripped most of the barons of their lands, replacing them with the Carafa, Revertera, Pignatelli and Colonna among others. After the formation of the Neapolitan Republic (1647), Basilicata also rebelled, but the revolt was suppressed. In 1663 a new province was created in Basilicata with its capital in Matera.


title: Basilicata

text: The region came under the dominion of the House of Bourbon in 1735. Basilicata autonomously declared its annexation to the Kingdom of Italy on August 18, 1860, with the Potenza insurrection. It was during this period that the State confiscated and sold off vast tracts of Basilicata's territory formerly owned by the Catholic Church. As the new owners were a handful of wealthy aristocratic families, the average citizen did not see any immediate economic and social improvements after unification, and poverty continued unabated.


title: Basilicata

text: This gave rise to the phenomenon of brigandage, which actually turned into a civil war in the form of a guerrilla fighting, whereby the Bourbon in exile and the Church encouraged the peasants to rise up against the Kingdom of Italy. This strong opposition movement continued for many years. The revolt in Basilicata was led by Carmine Crocco was the most important chief in the region and the most impressive band leader in southern Italy.


title: Basilicata

text: It was only really after World War II that things slowly began to improve thanks to land reform. In 1952, the inhabitants of the Sassi di Matera were rehoused by the State, but many of Basilicata's population had emigrated or were in the process of emigrating, which led to a demographic crisis from which it is still recovering.


title: Basilicata

text: Although Basilicata has never had a large population, there have nevertheless been quite considerable fluctuations in the demographic pattern of the region. In 1881, there were 539,258 inhabitants but by 1911 the population had decreased by 11% to 485,911, mainly as a result of emigration overseas. There was a slow increase in the population until World War II, after which there was a resurgence of emigration to other countries in Europe, which continued until 1971 and the start of another period of steady increase until 1993 (611,000 inhabitants). However, in recent years the population has decreased as a result of a new wave of migration, both towards northern Italy and to other countries in Europe, and a reduction in the birth rate.


title: Basilicata

text: The population density is very low compared to that of Italy as a whole: 59.1 inhabitants per km compared to 200.4 nationwide in 2010. There is not a great difference between the population densities of the provinces of Matera and Potenza.


title: Basilicata

text: Religion, particularly Roman Catholicism stills maintains a solid role in the culture and everyday lives of people in Basilicata. Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT) in 2018 found that 24.9% of the population went weekly to church, synagogue, mosque, temple or other place of worship, with the share of practicing believers higher in Basilicata (27.9%)


title: Basilicata

text: Cultivation consists mainly of sowables (especially wheat), which represent 46% of the total land. Potatoes and maize are produced in the mountain areas. Olives and wine production is relatively small with about under cultivation. The terrain is mountainous and hilly with poor transportation routes that hinders harvesting. Most oils are sold unbranded and only 3% is exported. The main olive cultivars are Ogliarola del Vulture, Ogliarola del Bradano, Majatica di Ferrandina and Farasana with only Ogliarola del Vulture having the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). Other varieties are the Arnasca, Ascolana, Augellina, Cellina, Frantoio, Leccino, Majatica, Nostrale, Ogliarola (Ogliarola Barese), Palmarola or Fasolina, Rapolese di Lavello, and Sargano (Sargano di Fermo and Sargano di San Benedetto).


title: Basilicata

text: Among industrial activities, the manufacturing sector contributes to the gross value added of the secondary sector with 64% of the total, while the building sector contributes 24%. Within the services sector, the main activities in terms of gross value added are business activities, distributive trade, education and public administration. In the last few years, new productive sectors have developed: manufacturing, automotive, and especially oil extraction. In 2009, Eni employed 230 people in this area (of whom over 50% were from Basilicata), and about 1,800 were employed in activities directly generated by Eni's operations, distributed in 80 companies of which over 50% were from Basilicata. The region produced about , meeting 11 percent of Italy's domestic oil demand.


title: Basilicata

text: FIAT plant in Melfi has 7,200 employees and manufactured 229,848 Jeep Renegade, Jeep Compass and Fiat 500X in 2020.


title: Basilicata

text: The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 12.6 billion euros in 2018, accounting for 0.7% of Italy's economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 22,200 euros or 74% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 95% of the EU average.


title: Basilicata

text: Difficult accessibility and lack of extended promotion make Basilicata one of the most remote and least visited regions of Italy. However, tourism is slowly growing since the early 2000s. Matera, once dubbed "national disgrace" by prime minister Alcide De Gasperi who urged to take strict development measures due to its extreme poverty, is now Basilicata's main attraction and has gained fame worldwide for its historical center, the Sassi, designated in 1993 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2019, Matera was designated as the European Capital of Culture.


title: Basilicata

text: Seaside tourism is mainly concentrated in Maratea, nicknamed "The Pearl of Tyrrhenian Sea", but also the Ionian coast (Policoro, Pisticci, Bernalda, Nova Siri) is fairly developed. Naturalistic attractions include Pollino, that hosts the largest national park in Italy, Dolomiti lucane and Vulture. "The New York Times" ranked Basilicata third in its list of "52 Places to Go in 2018", describing it as "Italy's best-kept secret".


title: Basilicata

text: Basilicata has a variety of archeological sites containing traces of Prehistoric, Greek, Roman and Jewish heritage:


title: Basilicata

text: Basilicata hosts a series of religious structures. The Abbey of Santissima Trinità, Venosa, is one of the most representative, which includes marks of Roman, early Christian, Romanesque, Lombard and Norman origin. It was chosen by Robert Guiscard as the Hauteville family's burial (and he himself will be later buried there too). Other relevant religious buildings are:


title: Basilicata

text: Of many castles that existed in the region, mostly isolated towers and ruins have survived. The Melfi castle is perhaps the most iconic, where important events from the Middle Age took place, such as the five councils between the Normans and the Catholic Church and the constitutions of Melfi promulgated by Frederick II. The Malconsiglio castle, Miglionico, hosted the conspiracy of the Barons against Ferrante of Aragon.


title: Basilicata

text: Basilicata has many small and picturesque villages, seven of them have been selected by the association "I Borghi più belli d'Italia" (). However, they have to face depopulation problems, while others such as Craco and Campomaggiore saw their old sites abandoned due to natural disasters. Nonetheless, filmmakers, writers and musicians have contributed to give a boost to the rebirth of Craco, making it one of the most popular ghost towns in the world.


title: Basilicata

text: Cave paintings were found in the Tuppo dei Sassi site (or Ranaldi shelter, after its discoverer Francesco Ranaldi, archaeologist and museum director), a prehistoric site in the Filiano territory, considered the oldest artistic trace in Basilicata.


title: Basilicata

text: During the Greek colonisation era, artists like the Pisticci Painter and the Amykos Painter operated in the area of Metaponto around the 5th century BC. Metaponto is one of the largest and earliest Greek centres of vase painting in Italy; the Lucanian vase painting began around 430 BC, with the works of the Pisticci Painter. In the Armento area the Kritonios Crown and the Armento Rider were found, now exposed in Munich and London respectively.


title: Basilicata

text: The Jewish catacombs of Venosa are cited among the most significant signs of the Jewish presence in southern Italy. Around the 7th century, basilian monks settled in Basilicata, leaving a high concentration of rupestrian churches (155 ascertained today), in Matera, Pollino and the Agri and Sinni Valleys. Frescoes from the Angevin period can be found in the Abbey of the Santissima Trinità of Venosa, the Rupestrian churches of S. Mary of the Valley in Matera, S. Antuono in Oppido Lucano, S. Lucia in Rapolla and S. Margherita in Melfi.


title: Basilicata

text: The stone Nativity scene by Altobello Persio (1534) in the Matera Cathedral is an early example of Renaissance art in the region. Later Basilicata saw the imported and imitated art phenomenon with artists such as Giovanni Bellini and Cima da Conegliano, and Flemish painting by Dirck Hendricksz, Guglielmo Borremans, Aert Mijtens among the others. Local painters such as Giovanni De Gregorio, Andrea Miglionico and Carlo Sellitto had a Neapolitan school background. An alleged portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, dating back to the 1500s, was discovered in 2008, today exhibited in the Museo delle Antiche genti di Lucania, Vaglio.


title: Basilicata

text: Some artists from the 19th century include Vincenzo Marinelli, Giacomo Di Chirico and Michele Tedesco. Several contemporary artists gained fame outside Italy, among them are worth to mention Marino Di Teana, Eugenio Santoro and Joseph Stella, sometimes cited as the first futurist painter in America. During his exile under the fascist regime, Carlo Levi, a painting passionate, left many works, today exposed in Matera.


title: Basilicata

text: Although Basilicata hosted classical composers such as Carlo Gesualdo and Egidio Romualdo Duni, the region is primarily identified in popular music, which reflects the humble living conditions of its inhabitants. The "arpa viggianese" (commonly known as "arpicedda") is a typical harp from Viggiano of average size, with a thin and light structure that makes it easier to carry; it was the distinctive instrument of street musicians from the Val d'Agri area in the past centuries, who wandered around the world and many of whom were admitted to symphony orchestras. Today, Viggiano is remembered as the "City of Harp and Music". Other traditional instruments are cupa cupa, zampogna and ciaramella.


title: Basilicata

text: During the emigration wave of the late 19th century, some composers gained recognition in North America: Leonardo De Lorenzo, flautist of several American philharmonic orchestras and professor at the Eastman School of Music, regarded as one of the most eminent flute pedagogues of the 1900s; Carlo Curti, who helped to popularize the mandolin in the United States and Mexico, and founder of the "Orquestra Típica Mexicana", considered the "predecessor of the Mariachi bands." Comedy duo Lyons and Yosco became popular for their million-selling ragtime piece "Spaghetti Rag".


title: Basilicata

text: Modern pop artists such as Mango and Arisa achieved great success in the Italian music scene. Since the mid-1990s, Basilicata hosts the Agglutination Metal Festival, one of the most long-lived heavy metal events in Europe.


title: Basilicata

text: Since the post–World War II era, Basilicata has become a set for many national and international film productions. Matera is the most coveted film location, especially for biblical-themed movies, being often compared with the ancient Jerusalem. Other locations include the ghost town of Craco, Melfi and Maratea. The region hosted, among the others, the filming of "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" (1964), "Christ Stopped at Eboli" (1979), "I'm Not Scared" (2003), "The Passion of the Christ" (2004), "The Omen" (2006), "Quantum of Solace" (2008), "Wonder Woman" (2017), "No Time to Die" (2021).


title: Basilicata

text: Some film directors are from Basilicata, most notably Robert G. Vignola, a prominent figure of the silent era, Pasquale Festa Campanile, associated with the "commedia all'italiana" genre, and Ruggero Deodato, known for his horror films such as the controversial "Cannibal Holocaust".


title: Basilicata

text: The local cuisine is mostly based on pork and sheep meat, legumes, cereals, vegetables and tubers. It is commonly referred to as "cucina povera" (peasant food), deeply anchored in peasant traditions. Bread crumb is considered a poor-man's cheese substitute, sprinkled over pasta dishes and used as a seasoning for meat and vegetables. Horseradish is often used as a spice and condiment, which is referred to as "poor man's truffle". The peperone crusco (PAT) is a specialty of the regional cuisine, sometimes labeled as "the red gold of Basilicata". It is the dried form of the peperone di Senise (PGI), one of the most popular Italian pepper varieties. Traditional recipes include pasta dishes like "pasta con i peperoni cruschi" and "tumact me tulez", and main courses such as "rafanata", "acquasale". "Pastizz" and "falagone" are common street foods.


title: Basilicata

text: Basilicata is best known for the Lucanica di Picerno (PGI) pork sausage that derives from lucanica, an ancient recipe originated before the Roman empire. Pane di Matera (PGI) is a type of bread recognizable for its intense flavour and conical shape, as well as long preservation. Other principal products are cheeses like pecorino di Filiano (PDO), canestrato di Moliterno (PGI), padraccio (PAT) and treccia dura (PAT); vegetables like melanzana rossa di Rotonda (PDO); and legumes like fagiolo di Sarconi (PGI) and fagiolo bianco di Rotonda (PDO). The region is also known for its naturally sparkling mineral water that springs from the streams of Mount Vulture. Alcoholic beverages include Aglianico del Vulture, considered one of Italy's top red wines, and Amaro Lucano liqueur.


title: Diminishing returns

text: In economics, diminishing returns are the decrease in marginal (incremental) output of a production process as the amount of a single factor of production is incrementally increased, holding all other factors of production equal (ceteris paribus). The law of diminishing returns (also known as the law of diminishing marginal productivity) states that in productive processes, increasing a factor of production by one unit, while holding all other production factors constant, will at some point return a lower unit of output per incremental unit of input. The law of diminishing returns does not cause a decrease in overall production capabilities, rather it defines a point on a production curve whereby producing an additional unit of output will result in a loss and is known as negative returns. Under diminishing returns, output remains positive, however productivity and efficiency decrease.


title: Diminishing returns

text: The modern understanding of the law adds the dimension of holding other outputs equal, since a given process is understood to be able to produce co-products. An example would be a factory increasing its saleable product, but also increasing its CO production, for the same input increase. The law of diminishing returns is a fundamental principle of both micro and macro economics and it plays a central role in production theory.


title: Diminishing returns

text: The concept of diminishing returns can be explained by considering other theories such as the concept of exponential growth. It is commonly understood that growth will not continue to rise exponentially, rather it is subject to different forms of constraints such as limited availability of resources and capitalisation which can cause economic stagnation. This example of production holds true to this common understanding as production is subject to the four factors of production which are land, labour, capital and enterprise. These factors have the ability to influence economic growth and can eventually limit or inhibit continuous exponential growth. Therefore, as a result of these constraints the production process will eventually reach a point of maximum yield on the production curve and this is where marginal output will stagnate and move towards zero. However it should also be considered that innovation in the form of technological advances or managerial progress can minimise or eliminate diminishing returns to restore productivity and efficiency, and to generate profit.


title: Diminishing returns

text: This idea can be understood outside of economics theory, for example, population. The population size on Earth is growing rapidly, but this will not continue forever (exponentially). Constraints such as resources will see the population growth stagnate at some point and begin to decline. Similarly, it will begin to decline towards zero, but not actually become a negative value. The same idea as in the diminishing rate of return inevitable to the production process.


title: Diminishing returns

text: The concept of diminishing returns can be traced back to the concerns of early economists such as Johann Heinrich von Thünen, Jacques Turgot, Adam Smith, James Steuart, Thomas Robert Malthus, and David Ricardo. However, classical economists such as Malthus and Ricardo attributed the successive diminishment of output to the decreasing quality of the inputs whereas Neoclassical economists assume that each "unit" of labor is identical. Diminishing returns are due to the disruption of the entire production process as additional units of labor are added to a fixed amount of capital. The law of diminishing returns remains an important consideration in areas of production such as farming and agriculture.


title: Diminishing returns

text: Proposed on the cusp of the First Industrial Revolution, it was motivated with single outputs in mind. In recent years, economists since the 1970s have sought to redefine the theory to make it more appropriate and relevant in modern economic societies. Specifically, it looks at what assumptions can be made regarding number of inputs, quality, substitution and complementary products, and output co-production, quantity and quality.


title: Diminishing returns

text: The origin of the law of diminishing returns was developed primarily within the agricultural industry. In the early 19th century, David Ricardo as well as other English economists previously mentioned, adopted this law as the result of the lived experience in England after the war. It was developed by observing the relationship between prices of wheat and corn and the quality of the land which yielded the harvests. The observation was that at a certain point, that the quality of the land kept increasing, but so did the cost of produce etc. Therefore, each additional unit of labour on agricultural fields, actually provided a diminishing or marginally decreasing return.


title: Diminishing returns

text: A common example of diminishing returns is choosing to hire more people on a factory floor to alter current manufacturing and production capabilities. Given that the capital on the floor (e.g. manufacturing machines, pre-existing technology, warehouses) is held constant, increasing from one employee to two employees is, theoretically, going to more than double production possibilities and this is called increasing returns.


title: Diminishing returns

text: If we now employ 50 people, at some point, increasing the number of employees by two percent (from 50 to 51 employees) would increase output by two percent and this is called constant returns.


title: Diminishing returns

text: However, if we look further along the production curve to, for example 100 employees, floor space is likely getting crowded, there are too many people operating the machines and in the building, and workers are getting in each other's way. Increasing the number of employees by two percent (from 100 to 102 employees) would increase output by less than two percent and this is called "diminishing returns."


title: Diminishing returns

text: After achieving the point of maximum output, if we employ additional workers, this will give us negative returns.


title: Diminishing returns

text: Through each of these examples, the floor space and capital of the factor remained constant, i.e., these inputs were held constant. However, by only increasing the number of people, eventually the productivity and efficiency of the process moved from increasing returns to diminishing returns.


title: Diminishing returns

text: To understand this concept thoroughly, acknowledge the importance of marginal output or marginal returns. Returns eventually diminish because economists measure productivity with regard to additional units (marginal). Additional inputs significantly impact efficiency or returns more in the initial stages. The point in the process before returns begin to diminish is considered the optimal level. Being able to recognize this point is beneficial, as other variables in the production function can be altered rather than continually increasing labor.


title: Diminishing returns

text: Further, examine something such as the Human Development Index, which would presumably continue to rise so long as GDP per capita (in Purchasing Power Parity terms) was increasing. This would be a rational assumption because GDP per capita is a function of HDI. However, even GDP per capita will reach a point where it has a diminishing rate of return on HDI. Just think, in a low income family, an average increase of income will likely make a huge impact on the wellbeing of the family. Parents could provide abundantly more food and healthcare essentials for their family. That is a significantly increasing rate of return. But, if you gave the same increase to a wealthy family, the impact it would have on their life would be minor. Therefore, the rate of return provided by that average increase in income is diminishing.


title: Bōsōzoku

text: first started as groups of returning World War II veterans. The disobedient subculture originated in the 1950's when the young kamikaze pilots came back from World War II. Many veterans faced difficulty readjusting to society after the war, and some turned to custom car making and gang-like activities on city streets to gain an adrenaline fix. These early took inspiration from American greaser culture and imported Western films; became known for its many similarities to old American biker culture. Many younger individuals began to see this style of life as very appealing, especially marginalized individuals looking for change. Eventually, these youngsters took over the identity, becoming the foundation for the modern .


title: Bōsōzoku

text: The 1970s were when the term of first truly began to emerge. This was a period of time characterized by actual riots between police and many of these youth groups. The term was not actually created by these biker groups, but was eventually widely adopted and used by these various groups. In the 1980s and 1990s, would often embark on massed rides, in which up to 100 bikers would cruise together slowly en masse down an expressway or major highway. The motorcyclists would run toll booths without stopping and would ignore police attempts to detain them. New Year's Eve was a popular occasion for the massed rides. The bikers would sometimes smash the cars and threaten or beat up any motorists or bystanders who got in the way or expressed disapproval of the bikers' behavior. Participation in the gangs peaked at 42,510 members in 1982. This made the prevailing form of youth delinquency within Japan.


title: Bōsōzoku

text: Numbers slowly began to decline following the 1980s peak. It is reported that, by the 1990s there were around 28,000 sprinkled throughout the country. In 2004, the Japanese government passed a revised road traffic law which gave the police more power to arrest bikers riding recklessly in groups. With increased arrests and prosecutions, participation rapidly went into decline. As of 2010, police reported that the new trend among was to ride together in much smaller groups and to ride scooters instead of heavily modified motorcycles. Aichi prefecture was reported to have the highest number of riders, followed by Tokyo, Osaka, Ibaraki and Fukuoka. By 2015, there were only a reported 6,771 active throughout Japan. In 2013, the National Police Agency re-classified biker gangs as "pseudo-yakuza" organizations.


title: Bōsōzoku

text: are usually between the ages of 16 and 20 years old. They are known for their style that heavily mimics greaser culture within the United States. This includes a pompadour style haircut, uniforms, which were often modified and embroidered jumpsuits, inspired by those worn by manual laborers during the WWII era, baggy pants and military boots. were often embroidered with various slogans and large, intricate designs. They were seen as a status symbol to many, symbolizing both their pride in themselves and their strength. They were often worn open in the front, with bandage wrappings around their waist. They would also often be accompanied by rounded sunglasses and sashes.


title: Bōsōzoku

text: The word is also applied to motorcycle subculture with an interest in motorcycle customizing, often illegal, and making noise by removing the mufflers on their vehicles so that more noise is produced. These groups sometimes ride without motorcycle helmets (which in Japan is illegal), also engage in dangerous or reckless driving, such as weaving in traffic, and running red lights. Another activity is speeding in city streets, not usually for street racing but more for thrills. With many bikes involved, the leading one is driven by the leader, who is responsible for the event and is not allowed to be overtaken. Japanese police call them (police code or ) and occasionally dispatch police vehicles to trail the groups of bikes for the reason of preventing possible incidents, which may include: riding very slowly through suburbs at speeds of , creating a loud disturbance while waving imperial Japanese flags, and starting fights that may include weapons (such as wooden swords, metal pipes, baseball bats and Molotov cocktails).


title: Bōsōzoku

text: are known to modify their motorcycles in peculiar and showy ways, which are called . The general style of bike modification appears to combine elements of an American chopper bike and a British café racer. Examples of modifications that are taken from these styles are raised handle bars like those on a chopper or over-sized fairings like those found on café racers (though usually fit them much higher on the bike than their original position, and angled upwards at the front).


title: Bōsōzoku

text: A typical customized bike starts off by taking an average 250-400cc Japanese road bike, adding a exhaust system (multiple tube header), squeezing the handlebars inwards (known as , from the verb , "to squeeze"), and adding a 3 or 4-trumpet horn- or , respectively.


title: Bōsōzoku

text: Loud paint schemes on the fenders or the gas tanks with motifs such as flames or kamikaze-style "rising sun" designs are also quite common. The bikes will often be adorned with stickers and/or flags depicting the gang's symbol or logo.


title: Bōsōzoku

text: There are also marked regional differences in motorcycle modifications. For example, Ibaraki are known to modify their motorcycles in an extensively colorful, flashy way. They will often have three or four oversized fairings in a tower-like way in and an abundance of lights.


title: Bōsōzoku

text: In America the term "Bosozoku" is also applied to cars that have undergone extreme modification. The term generally only applies to Japanese manufactured vehicles, and is somewhat interchangeable with the term "Kaido Racer". Broadly, "Bosozoku" refers to the concept of Japanese vehicle modification, whereas "Kaido Racer" refers specifically to car modification.


title: Bōsōzoku

text: In general, the Japanese government sees as highly organized groups, affiliated under several national federations. They are known to be surprisingly well organized, despite generally only having a handful of members above the age of twenty. They also generally have clear cut rules, uniforms, symbols, and other marks of organization. Certain groups even have membership fees and set punishments. These groups also make up a large proportion of Japanese criminal activity, being involved in vandalism, road traffic violations, and other criminal activity.


title: Bōsōzoku

text: Their lives of crime generally do not end after they turn twenty though. It is estimated that around 25% of are above the age of twenty. Alongside that, they have been shown to have ties to various yakuza organizations. In fact, some numbers predict that as many as one-third of yakuza recruits come from one of a few . However, as these groups become less common, their ties to the yakuza become less apparent, as they begin recruiting from other marginalized groups, such as the Japanese or Zainichi ethnic Koreans.


title: Anti-fascism

text: Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were opposed by many countries forming the Allies of World War II and dozens of resistance movements worldwide. Anti-fascism has been an element of movements across the political spectrum and holding many different political positions such as anarchism, communism, pacifism, republicanism, social democracy, socialism and syndicalism as well as centrist, conservative, liberal and nationalist viewpoints.


title: Anti-fascism

text: Fascism, a far-right ultra-nationalistic ideology best known for its use by the Italian Fascists and the Nazis, became prominent beginning in the 1910s while organization against fascism began around 1920. Fascism became the state ideology of Italy in 1922 and of Germany in 1933, spurring a large increase in anti-fascist action, including German resistance to Nazism and the Italian resistance movement. Anti-fascism was a major aspect of the Spanish Civil War, which foreshadowed World War II.


title: Anti-fascism

text: Prior to World War II, the West had not taken seriously the threat of fascism, and anti-fascism was sometimes associated with communism. However, the outbreak of World War II greatly changed Western perceptions, and fascism was seen as an existential threat by not only the Communist Soviet Union but also by the liberal-democratic United States and United Kingdom. The Axis Powers of World War II were generally fascist, and the fight against them was characterized in anti-fascist terms. Resistance during World War II to fascism occurred in every occupied country, and came from across the ideological spectrum. The defeat of the Axis powers generally ended fascism as a state ideology.


title: Anti-fascism

text: After World War II, the anti-fascist movement continued to be active in places where organized fascism continued or re-emerged. There was a resurgence of antifa in Germany in the 1980s, as a response to the invasion of the punk scene by neo-Nazis. This influenced the antifa movement in the United States in the late 1980s and 1990s, which was similarly carried by punks. In the 21st century, this greatly increased in prominence as a response to the resurgence of the radical right, especially after the election of Donald Trump.


title: Anti-fascism

text: With the development and spread of Italian Fascism, i.e. the original fascism, the National Fascist Party's ideology was met with increasingly militant opposition by Italian communists and socialists. Organizations such as "Arditi del Popolo" and the Italian Anarchist Union emerged between 1919 and 1921, to combat the nationalist and fascist surge of the post-World War I period.


title: Anti-fascism

text: In the words of historian Eric Hobsbawm, as fascism developed and spread, a "nationalism of the left" developed in those nations threatened by Italian irredentism (e.g. in the Balkans, and Albania in particular). After the outbreak of World War II, the Albanian and Yugoslav resistances were instrumental in antifascist action and underground resistance. This combination of irreconcilable nationalisms and leftist partisans constitute the earliest roots of European anti-fascism. Less militant forms of anti-fascism arose later. During the 1930s in Britain, "Christians – especially the Church of England – provided both a language of opposition to fascism and inspired anti-fascist action".


title: Anti-fascism

text: Michael Seidman argues that traditionally anti-fascism was seen as the purview of the political left but that in recent years this has been questioned. Seidman identifies two types of anti-fascism, namely revolutionary and counterrevolutionary:


title: Anti-fascism

text: Seidman argues that despite the differences between these two strands of anti-fascism, there were similarities. They would both come to regard violent expansion as intrinsic to the fascist project. They both rejected any claim that the Versailles Treaty was responsible for the rise of Nazism and instead viewed fascist dynamism as the cause of conflict. Unlike fascism, these two types of anti-fascism did not promise a quick victory but an extended struggle against a powerful enemy. During World War II, both anti-fascisms responded to fascist aggression by creating a cult of heroism which relegated victims to a secondary position. However, after the war, conflict arose between the revolutionary and counterrevolutionary anti-fascisms; the victory of the Western Allies allowed them to restore the old regimes of liberal democracy in Western Europe, while Soviet victory in Eastern Europe allowed for the establishment of new revolutionary anti-fascist regimes there.


title: Anti-fascism

text: Anti-fascist movements emerged first in Italy during the rise of Benito Mussolini, but they soon spread to other European countries and then globally. In the early period, Communist, socialist, anarchist and Christian workers and intellectuals were involved. Until 1928, the period of the United front, there was significant collaboration between the Communists and non-Communist anti-fascists.


title: Anti-fascism

text: In 1928, the Comintern instituted its ultra-left Third Period policies, ending co-operation with other left groups, and denouncing social democrats as "social fascists". From 1934 until the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Communists pursued a Popular Front approach, of building broad-based coalitions with liberal and even conservative anti-fascists. As fascism consolidated its power, and especially during World War II, anti-fascism largely took the form of partisan or resistance movements.


title: Anti-fascism

text: In Italy, Mussolini's Fascist regime used the term "anti-fascist" to describe its opponents. Mussolini's secret police was officially known as the Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism. During the 1920s in the Kingdom of Italy, anti-fascists, many of them from the labor movement, fought against the violent Blackshirts and against the rise of the fascist leader Benito Mussolini. After the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) signed a pacification pact with Mussolini and his Fasces of Combat on 3 August 1921, and trade unions adopted a legalist and pacified strategy, members of the workers' movement who disagreed with this strategy formed "Arditi del Popolo".


title: Anti-fascism

text: The Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGL) and the PSI refused to officially recognize the anti-fascist militia and maintained a non-violent, legalist strategy, while the Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I) ordered its members to quit the organization. The PCd'I organized some militant groups, but their actions were relatively minor. The Italian anarchist Severino Di Giovanni, who exiled himself to Argentina following the 1922 March on Rome, organized several bombings against the Italian fascist community. The Italian liberal anti-fascist Benedetto Croce wrote his "Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals", which was published in 1925. Other notable Italian liberal anti-fascists around that time were Piero Gobetti and Carlo Rosselli.


title: Anti-fascism

text: Concentrazione Antifascista Italiana (Italian Anti-Fascist Concentration), officially known as Concentrazione d'Azione Antifascista (Anti-Fascist Action Concentration), was an Italian coalition of Anti-Fascist groups which existed from 1927 to 1934. Founded in Nérac, France, by expatriate Italians, the CAI was an alliance of non-communist anti-fascist forces (republican, socialist, nationalist) trying to promote and to coordinate expatriate actions to fight fascism in Italy; they published a propaganda paper entitled "La Libertà".


title: Anti-fascism

text: Between 1920 and 1943, several anti-fascist movements were active among the Slovenes and Croats in the territories annexed to Italy after World War I, known as the Julian March. The most influential was the militant insurgent organization TIGR, which carried out numerous sabotages, as well as attacks on representatives of the Fascist Party and the military. Most of the underground structure of the organization was discovered and dismantled by the Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism (OVRA) in 1940 and 1941, and after June 1941 most of its former activists joined the Slovene Partisans.


title: Anti-fascism

text: During World War II, many members of the Italian resistance left their homes and went to live in the mountains, fighting against Italian fascists and German Nazi soldiers during the Italian Civil War. Many cities in Italy, including Turin, Naples and Milan, were freed by anti-fascist uprisings.


title: Anti-fascism

text: The anti-fascist resistance emerged within the Slovene minority in Italy (1920–1947), whom the Fascists meant to deprive of their culture, language and ethnicity. The 1920 burning of the National Hall in Trieste, the Slovene center in the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic Trieste by the Blackshirts, was praised by Benito Mussolini (yet to become Il Duce) as a "masterpiece of the Triestine fascism" (). The use of Slovene in public places, including churches, was forbidden, not only in multi-ethnic areas, but also in the areas where the population was exclusively Slovene. Children, if they spoke Slovene, were punished by Italian teachers who were brought by the Fascist State from Southern Italy. Slovene teachers, writers, and clergy were sent to the other side of Italy.


title: Anti-fascism

text: The first anti-fascist organization, called TIGR, was formed by Slovenes and Croats in 1927 in order to fight Fascist violence. Its guerrilla fight continued into the late 1920s and 1930s. By the mid-1930s, 70,000 Slovenes had fled Italy, mostly to Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia) and South America.


title: Anti-fascism

text: The Slovene anti-fascist resistance in Yugoslavia during World War II was led by Liberation Front of the Slovenian People. The Province of Ljubljana, occupied by Italian Fascists, saw the deportation of 25,000 people, representing 7.5% of the total population, filling up the Rab concentration camp and Gonars concentration camp as well as other Italian concentration camps.


title: Anti-fascism

text: The specific term anti-fascism was primarily used by the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which held the view that it was the only anti-fascist party in Germany. The KPD formed several explicitly anti-fascist groups such as "Roter Frontkämpferbund" (formed in 1924 and banned by the Social Democrats in 1929) and "Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus" (a "de facto" successor to the latter). At its height, "Roter Frontkämpferbund" had over 100,000 members. In 1932, the KPD established the Antifaschistische Aktion as a "red united front under the leadership of the only anti-fascist party, the KPD". Under the leadership of the committed Stalinist Ernst Thälmann, the KPD primarily viewed fascism as the final stage of capitalism rather than as a specific movement or group, and therefore applied the term broadly to its opponents, and in the name of anti-fascism the KPD focused in large part on attacking its main adversary, the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Germany, whom they referred to as social fascists and regarded as the "main pillar of the dictatorship of Capital."


title: Anti-fascism

text: The movement of Nazism, which grew ever more influential in the last years of the Weimar Republic, was opposed for different ideological reasons by a wide variety of groups, including groups which also opposed each other, such as social democrats, centrists, conservatives and communists. The SPD and centrists formed "Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold" in 1924 to defend liberal democracy against both the Nazi Party and the KPD, and their affiliated organizations. Later, mainly SPD members formed the Iron Front which opposed the same groups.


title: Anti-fascism

text: The name and logo of "Antifaschistische Aktion" remain influential. Its two-flag logo, designed by and , is still widely used as a symbol of militant anti-fascists in Germany and globally, as is the Iron Front's Three Arrows logo.


title: Anti-fascism

text: The historian Eric Hobsbawm wrote: "The Spanish civil war was both at the centre and on the margin of the era of anti-fascism. It was central, since it was immediately seen as a European war between fascism and anti-fascism, almost as the first battle in the coming world war, some of the characteristic aspects of which – for example, air raids against civilian populations – it anticipated."


title: Anti-fascism

text: In Spain, there were histories of popular uprisings in the late 19th century through to the 1930s against the deep-seated military dictatorships. of General Prim and the Primo de la Rivieras These movements further coalesced into large-scale anti-fascist movements in the 1930s, many in the Basque Country, before and during the Spanish Civil War. The republican government and army, the Antifascist Worker and Peasant Militias (MAOC) linked to the Communist Party (PCE), the International Brigades, the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), Spanish anarchist militias, such as the Iron Column and the autonomous governments of Catalonia and the Basque Country, fought the rise of Francisco Franco with military force.


title: Anti-fascism

text: The Friends of Durruti, associated with the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI), were a particularly militant group. Thousands of people from many countries went to Spain in support of the anti-fascist cause, joining units such as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the British Battalion, the Dabrowski Battalion, the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, the Naftali Botwin Company and the Thälmann Battalion, including Winston Churchill's nephew, Esmond Romilly. Notable anti-fascists who worked internationally against Franco included: George Orwell (who fought in the POUM militia and wrote "Homage to Catalonia" about his experience), Ernest Hemingway (a supporter of the International Brigades who wrote "For Whom the Bell Tolls" about his experience), and the radical journalist Martha Gellhorn.


title: Anti-fascism

text: The Spanish anarchist guerrilla Francesc Sabaté Llopart fought against Franco's regime until the 1960s, from a base in France. The Spanish Maquis, linked to the PCE, also fought the Franco regime long after the Spanish Civil war had ended.


title: Anti-fascism

text: In the 1920s and 1930s in the French Third Republic, anti-fascists confronted aggressive far-right groups such as the Action Française movement in France, which dominated the Latin Quarter students' neighborhood. After fascism triumphed via invasion, the French Resistance () or, more accurately, resistance movements fought against the Nazi German occupation and against the collaborationist Vichy régime. Resistance cells were small groups of armed men and women (called the "maquis" in rural areas), who, in addition to their guerrilla warfare activities, were also publishers of underground newspapers and magazines such as "Arbeiter und Soldat" ("Worker and Soldier") during World War Two, providers of first-hand intelligence information, and maintainers of escape networks.


title: Anti-fascism

text: The rise of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) in the 1930s was challenged by the Communist Party of Great Britain, socialists in the Labour Party and Independent Labour Party, anarchists, Irish Catholic dockmen and working class Jews in London's East End. A high point in the struggle was the Battle of Cable Street, when thousands of eastenders and others turned out to stop the BUF from marching. Initially, the national Communist Party leadership wanted a mass demonstration at Hyde Park in solidarity with Republican Spain, instead of a mobilization against the BUF, but local party activists argued against this. Activists rallied support with the slogan "They shall not pass," adopted from Republican Spain.


title: Anti-fascism

text: There were debates within the anti-fascist movement over tactics. While many East End ex-servicemen participated in violence against fascists, Communist Party leader Phil Piratin denounced these tactics and instead called for large demonstrations. In addition to the militant anti-fascist movement, there was a smaller current of liberal anti-fascism in Britain; Sir Ernest Barker, for example, was a notable English liberal anti-fascist in the 1930s.


title: Anti-fascism

text: Anti-fascist Italian expatriates in the United States founded the Mazzini Society in Northampton, Massachusetts in September 1939 to work toward ending Fascist rule in Italy. As political refugees from Mussolini's regime, they disagreed among themselves whether to ally with Communists and anarchists or to exclude them. The Mazzini Society joined with other anti-Fascist Italian expatriates in the Americas at a conference in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1942. They unsuccessfully promoted one of their members, Carlo Sforza, to become the post-Fascist leader of a republican Italy. The Mazzini Society dispersed after the overthrow of Mussolini as most of its members returned to Italy.


title: Anti-fascism

text: During the Second Red Scare which occurred in the United States in the years that immediately followed the end of World War II, the term "premature anti-fascist" came into currency and it was used to describe Americans who had strongly agitated or worked against fascism, such as Americans who had fought for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, before fascism was seen as a proximate and existential threat to the United States (which only occurred generally after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and only occurred universally after the attack on Pearl Harbor). The implication was that such persons were either Communists or Communist sympathizers whose loyalty to the United States was suspect. However, the historians John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr have written that no documentary evidence has been found of the US government referring to American members of the International Brigades as "premature antifascists": the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Office of Strategic Services, and United States Army records used terms such as "Communist", "Red", "subversive", and "radical" instead. Indeed, Haynes and Klehr indicate that they have found many examples of members of the XV International Brigade and their supporters referring to themselves sardonically as "premature antifascists".


title: Anti-fascism

text: The Anti-Fascist Organisation (AFO) was a resistance movement which advocated the independence of Burma and fought against the Japanese occupation of Burma during World War II. It was the forerunner of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League. The AFO was formed during a meeting which was held in Pegu in August 1944, the meeting was held by the leaders of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), the Burma National Army (BNA) led by General Aung San, and the People's Revolutionary Party (PRP), later renamed the Burma Socialist Party. Whilst in Insein prison in July 1941, CPB leaders Thakin Than Tun and Thakin Soe had co-authored the "Insein Manifesto", which, against the prevailing opinion in the Burmese nationalist movement led by the "Dobama Asiayone", identified world fascism as the main enemy in the coming war and called for temporary cooperation with the British in a broad allied coalition that included the Soviet Union. Soe had already gone underground to organise resistance against the Japanese occupation, and Than Tun as Minister of Land and Agriculture was able to pass on Japanese intelligence to Soe, while other Communist leaders Thakin Thein Pe and Thakin Tin Shwe made contact with the exiled colonial government in Simla, India. Aung San was War Minister in the puppet administration which was set up on 1 August 1943 and included the Socialist leaders Thakin Nu and Thakin Mya. During a meeting which was held between 1 and 3 March 1945, the AFO was reorganized as a multi-party front which was named the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League.


title: Anti-fascism

text: The Anti-Fascist Bloc was an organization of Polish Jews formed in the March 1942 in the Warsaw Ghetto. It was created after an alliance between leftist-Zionist, communist and socialist Jewish parties was agreed upon. The initiators of the bloc were Mordechai Anielewicz, Józef Lewartowski (Aron Finkelstein) from the Polish Workers' Party, Josef Kaplan from Hashomer Hatzair, Szachno Sagan from Poale Zion-Left, Jozef Sak as a representative of socialist-Zionists and Izaak Cukierman with his wife Cywia Lubetkin from Dror. The Jewish Bund did not join the bloc though they were represented at its first conference by Abraham Blum and Maurycy Orzech.


title: Anti-fascism

text: The anti-fascist movements which emerged during the period of classical fascism, both liberal and militant, continued to operate after the defeat of the Axis powers in response to the resilience and mutation of fascism both in Europe and elsewhere. In Germany, as Nazi rule crumbled in 1944, veterans of the 1930s anti-fascist struggles formed "Antifaschistische Ausschüsse", "Antifaschistische Kommittees", or "Antifaschistische Aktion" groups, all typically abbreviated to "antifa". The socialist government of East Germany built the Berlin Wall in 1961, and the Eastern Bloc referred to it officially as the "Anti-fascist Protection Rampart". Resistance to fascists dictatorships in Spain and Portugal continued, including the activities of the Spanish Maquis and others, leading up to the Spanish transition to democracy and the Carnation Revolution, respectively, as well as to similar dictatorships in Chile and elsewhere. Other notable anti-fascist mobilisations in the first decades of the post-war period include the 43 Group in Britain.


title: Anti-fascism

text: With the start of the Cold War between the former World War II allies of the United States and the Soviet Union, the concept of totalitarianism became prominent in Western anti-communist political discourse as a tool to convert pre-war anti-fascism into post-war anti-communism.


title: Anti-fascism

text: Modern antifa politics can be traced to opposition to the infiltration of Britain's punk scene by white power skinheads in the 1970s and 1980s, and the emergence of neo-Nazism in Germany following the fall of the Berlin Wall. In Germany, young leftists, including anarchists and punk fans, renewed the practice of street-level anti-fascism. Columnist Peter Beinart writes that "in the late '80s, left-wing punk fans in the United States began following suit, though they initially called their groups Anti-Racist Action (ARA) on the theory that Americans would be more familiar with fighting racism than they would be with fighting fascism".


title: Anti-fascism

text: The contemporary antifa movement in Germany comprises different anti-fascist groups which usually use the abbreviation antifa and regard the historical "Antifaschistische Aktion" (Antifa) of the early 1930s as an inspiration, drawing on the historic group for its aesthetics and some of its tactics, in addition to the name. Many new antifa groups formed from the late 1980s onward. According to Loren Balhorn, contemporary antifa in Germany "has no practical historical connection to the movement from which it takes its name but is instead a product of West Germany's squatter scene and autonomist movement in the 1980s".


title: Anti-fascism

text: One of the biggest antifascist campaigns in Germany in recent years was the ultimately successful effort to block the annual Nazi-rallies in the east German city of Dresden in Saxony which had grown into "Europe's biggest gathering of Nazis". Unlike the original Antifa which had links to the Communist Party of Germany and which was concerned with industrial working-class politics, the late 1980s and early 1990s, autonomists were independent anti-authoritarian libertarian Marxists and anarcho-communists not associated with any particular party. The publication "Antifaschistisches Infoblatt", in operation since 1987, sought to expose radical nationalists publicly.


title: Anti-fascism

text: German government institutions such as the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Agency for Civic Education describe the contemporary antifa movement as part of the extreme left and as partially violent. Antifa groups are monitored by the federal office in the context of its legal mandate to combat extremism. The federal office states that the underlying goal of the antifa movement is "the struggle against the liberal democratic basic order" and capitalism. In the 1980s, the movement was accused by German authorities of engaging in terrorist acts of violence.


title: Anti-fascism

text: In Greece anti-fascism is a popular part of leftist and anarchist culture, September 2013 anti-fascist hip-hop artist Pavlos 'Killah P' Fyssas was accosted and attacked with bats and knives by a large group of Golden Dawn affiliated people leaving Pavlos to be pronounced dead at the hospital. The attack lead international protests and riots, the retaliatory shooting of three Golden Dawn members outside of their Neo Irakleio as well as condemnations against the party by politicians and other public figures, including Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. This episode led to Golden Dawn to being criminally investigated, with the result in sixty-eight members of Golden Dawn being declared part of a criminal organization whilst fifteen out of the seventeen members accused in Pavlos's murder were convicted, "Effectively banning" the party.


title: Anti-fascism

text: Today's Italian constitution is the result of the work of the Constituent Assembly, which was formed by the representatives of all the anti-fascist forces that contributed to the defeat of Nazi and Fascist forces during the Italian Civil War.


title: Anti-fascism

text: Liberation Day is a national holiday in Italy that commemorates the victory of the Italian resistance movement against Nazi Germany and the Italian Social Republic, puppet state of the Nazis and rump state of the fascists, in the Italian Civil War, a civil war in Italy fought during World War II, which takes place on 25 April. The date was chosen by convention, as it was the day of the year 1945 when the National Liberation Committee of Upper Italy (CLNAI) officially proclaimed the insurgency in a radio announcement, propounding the seizure of power by the CLNAI and proclaiming the death sentence for all fascist leaders (including Benito Mussolini, who was shot three days later).


title: Anti-fascism

text: "Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia" (ANPI; "National Association of Italian Partisans") is an association founded by participants of the Italian resistance against the Italian Fascist regime and the subsequent Nazi occupation during World War II. ANPI was founded in Rome in 1944 while the war continued in northern Italy. It was constituted as a charitable foundation on 5 April 1945. It persists due to the activity of its antifascist members. ANPI's objectives are the maintenance of the historical role of the partisan war by means of research and the collection of personal stories. Its goals are a continued defense against historical revisionism and the ideal and ethical support of the high values of freedom and democracy expressed in the 1948 constitution, in which the ideals of the Italian resistance were collected. Since 2008, every two years ANPI organizes its national festival. During the event, meetings, debates, and musical concerts that focus on antifascism, peace, and democracy are organized.


title: Anti-fascism

text: "Bella ciao" (; "Goodbye beautiful") is an Italian folk song modified and adopted as an anthem of the Italian resistance movement by the partisans who opposed nazism and fascism, and fought against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany, who were allied with the fascist and collaborationist Italian Social Republic between 1943 and 1945 during the Italian Civil War. Versions of this Italian anti-fascist song continue to be sung worldwide as a hymn of freedom and resistance. As an internationally known hymn of freedom, it was intoned at many historic and revolutionary events. The song originally aligned itself with Italian partisans fighting against Nazi German occupation troops, but has since become to merely stand for the inherent rights of all people to be liberated from tyranny.


title: Anti-fascism

text: Dartmouth College historian Mark Bray, author of "", credits the ARA as the precursor of modern antifa groups in the United States. In the late 1980s and 1990s, ARA activists toured with popular punk rock and skinhead bands in order to prevent Klansmen, neo-Nazis and other assorted white supremacists from recruiting. Their motto was "We go where they go" by which they meant that they would confront far-right activists in concerts and actively remove their materials from public places. In 2002, the ARA disrupted a speech in Pennsylvania by Matthew F. Hale, the head of the white supremacist group World Church of the Creator, resulting in a fight and twenty-five arrests. In 2007, Rose City Antifa, likely the first group to utilize the name antifa, was formed in Portland, Oregon. Other antifa groups in the United States have other genealogies. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, a group called the Baldies was formed in 1987 with the intent to fight neo-Nazi groups directly. In 2013, the "most radical" chapters of the ARA formed the Torch Antifa Network which has chapters throughout the United States. Other antifa groups are a part of different associations such as NYC Antifa or operate independently.


title: Anti-fascism

text: Modern antifa in the United States is a highly decentralized movement. Antifa political activists are anti-racists who engage in protest tactics, seeking to combat fascists and racists such as neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other far-right extremists. This may involve digital activism, harassment, physical violence, and property damage against those whom they identify as belonging to the far-right. Much antifa activity is nonviolent, involving poster and flyer campaigns, delivering speeches, marching in protest, and community organizing on behalf of anti-racist and anti-white nationalist causes.


title: Anti-fascism

text: A June 2020 study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies of 893 terrorism incidents in the United States since 1994 found one attack staged by an anti-fascist that led to a fatality (the 2019 Tacoma attack, in which the attacker, who identified as an anti-fascist, was killed by police), while attacks by white supremacists or other right-wing extremists resulted in 329 deaths. Since the study was published, one homicide has been connected to anti-fascism. A DHS draft report from August 2020 similarly did not include "antifa" as a considerable threat, while noting white supremacists as the top domestic terror threat.


title: Anti-fascism

text: There have been multiple efforts to discredit antifa groups via hoaxes on social media, many of them false flag attacks originating from alt-right and 4chan users posing as antifa backers on Twitter. Some hoaxes have been picked up and reported as fact by right-leaning media. During the George Floyd protests in May and June 2020, the Trump administration blamed antifa for orchestrating the mass protests. Analysis of federal arrests did not find links to antifa. There had been repeated calls by the Trump administration to designate antifa as a terrorist organization, a move that academics, legal experts and others argued would both exceed the authority of the presidency and violate the First Amendment.


title: Anti-fascism

text: Some post-war anti-fascist action took place in Romania under the Anti-Fascist Committee of German Workers in Romania, founded in March 1949. A Swedish group, "Antifascistisk Aktion", was formed in 1993. The People's Anti-Fascist Front in Indian Administered Kashmir was formed after the Indian government led by the far right RSS party attempted an alleged demographic change in the region.


title: Anti-fascism

text: The Christian Democratic Union of Germany politician Tim Peters notes that the term is one of the most controversial terms in political discourse. Michael Richter, a researcher at the Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism, highlights the ideological use of the term in the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc, in which the term "fascism" was applied to Eastern bloc dissidents regardless of any connection to historical fascism, and where the term "anti-fascism" served to legitimize the ruling government.


title: Oberon

text: Oberon () is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play "A Midsummer Night's Dream", in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fairies.


title: Oberon

text: Oberon is derived from Alberich (from Old High German "alb-" "elf" and "-rîh-", "ruler", "king"), the name of a dwarf from Germanic mythology. In the "Nibelungenlied", a Burgundian poem written around the turn of the 13th century, Alberich guards the treasure of the Nibelungen, but is overcome by Siegfried. In Old French, the name Alberich evolved into "Alberon" and then "Auberon" and ultimately into "Aubrey".


title: Oberon

text: The name Oberon (as Auberon) is first attested to in the early 13th century entitled , wherein it refers to an elven man of the forest encountered by the eponymous hero. Huon, son of Seguin count of Bordeaux, passed through the forest inhabited by Oberon. He was warned by a hermit not to speak to Oberon, but his courtesy had him answer Oberon's greetings and so gain his aid in his quest. Huon had murdered Charlot, the Emperor's son, in self-defense, and so he must visit the court of the amir of Babylon and perform various feats to win a pardon. He succeeds only with Oberon's aid.


title: Oberon

text: This elf is dwarfish in height, though very handsome. He explains that, at his christening, an offended fairy cursed him to dwarfish height (an example of the wicked fairy godmother folklore motif) but relented and gave him great beauty as compensation. Alberich features as a dwarf in the "Nibelungen"; the dwarfish height was thus explained.


title: Oberon

text: The real Seguin was Count of Bordeaux under Louis the Pious in 839 and died fighting against the Norsemen in 845. Charles l'Enfant, a son of Charles the Bald, died in 866 of wounds inflicted by a certain "Aubouin" in the circumstances of an ambush similar to the "Charlot" of the story. Thus, Oberon appears in a 13th-century French courtly fantasy that is based on a shred of 9th century fact. He is given some Celtic trappings, such as a magical cup (similar to the Holy Grail or the cornucopia) that is ever full for the virtuous. "The magic cup supplied their evening meal; for such was its virtue that it afforded not only wine, but more solid fare when desired", according to Thomas Bulfinch. In this story, he is said to be the child of Morgan le Fay and Julius Caesar.


title: Oberon

text: A manuscript of the romance in the city of Turin contains a prologue to the story of "Huon de Bordeaux" in the shape of a separate romance of Auberon and four sequels and there are later French versions as well.


title: Oberon

text: Shakespeare saw or heard of the French heroic song through the translation of John Bourchier, Lord Berners, called "Huon of Burdeuxe". In Philip Henslowe's diary, there is a note of a performance of a play "Hewen of Burdocize" on 28 December 1593.


title: Oberon

text: In William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", written in 1595/96, Oberon is the king of all of the fairies and is engaged in a dispute with his wife Titania, the fairy queen. They are arguing over custody of a child whom Oberon wants to raise to be his henchman. Titania wants to keep and raise the child for the sake of her mortal friend and follower who died giving birth to him.


title: Oberon

text: Because Oberon and Titania are both powerful spirits connected to nature, their feuding disrupts the weather. Titania describes the consequences of their fighting:


title: Oberon

text: Oberon tricks Titania into giving him back the child using the juice from a special flower that makes you "madly dote upon the next live thing that it sees". The flower was accidentally struck by Cupid's arrow when he attempted to shoot a young maiden in a field, instead infusing the flower with love. Oberon sends his servant, Puck, to fetch the flower, which he does successfully.


title: Oberon

text: Furious that Titania will not give him the child, he puts juice from a magical flower into her eyes while she is asleep. The effect of the juice will cause Titania to fall in love with the first live thing she sees upon awakening. Titania awakens and finds herself madly in love with Bottom, an actor from the rude mechanicals whose head was just transformed into that of a donkey, thanks to a curse from Puck.


title: Oberon

text: Meanwhile, two couples have entered the forest: lovers Hermia and Lysander are pursued by Demetrius, who also loves Hermia, and Helena, who loves Demetrius. Oberon witnesses Demetrius rejecting Helena, admires her amorous determination, and decides to help her. He sends Puck to put some of the juice in Demetrius's eyes, describing him as “a youth in Athenian clothing”, to make him fall in love with Helena. Puck finds Lysander – who is also a youth wearing Athenian clothing – and puts the love potion on Lysander's eyes. When Lysander wakes, he sees Helena first and falls in love with her. Meanwhile, Demetrius has also been anointed with the flower and awakes to see Helena, pursued by Lysander, and a fight breaks out between the two young men. Oberon is furious with Puck and casts a sleeping spell on the forest, making Puck reverse the potion on Lysander, admonishing Puck to not reverse the effects on Demetrius. Both couples awake and begin the journey back to Athens.


title: Oberon

text: Oberon now looks upon Titania and her lover, Bottom, and feels sorry for what he has done. He reverses the spell using a magic herb. When she wakes, she is confused, thinking that she had a dream. Oberon explains that the dream was real and the two reunite happily. They then return to Athens in the epilogue to bless the couples, becoming once again the benevolent fairy king and queen.


title: Oberon

text: A fanciful etymology was given for the name "Oberon" by Charles Mackay in his book "The Gaelic Etymology of the Languages of Western Europe" along with many other theories on words found in the English language that have not found mainstream acceptance.


title: European People's Party

text: The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Christian-democratic parties in 1976, it has since broadened its membership to include liberal-conservative parties and parties with other centre-right political perspectives. On 31 May 2022, the party elected as its President Manfred Weber, who was also EPP's "Spitzenkandidat" in 2019.


title: European People's Party

text: The EPP has been the largest party in the European Parliament since 1999 and in the European Council since 2002. It is also the largest party in the current European Commission. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola are from the EPP. Many of the founding fathers of the European Union were also from parties that later formed the EPP. Outside the EU the party also controls a majority in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.


title: European People's Party

text: The EPP includes major centre-right parties such as the CDU/CSU of Germany, The Republicans of France, CD&V of Belgium, PNL of Romania, Fine Gael of Ireland, National Coalition Party of Finland, New Democracy of Greece, Forza Italia of Italy, the People's Party (PP) of Spain, the Civic Platform of Poland and the Social Democratic Party of Portugal.


title: European People's Party

text: According to its website, the EPP is "the family of the political centre-right, whose roots run deep in the history and civilisation of the European continent, and [which] has pioneered the European project from its inception".


title: European People's Party

text: The EPP was founded in Luxembourg on 8 July 1976 on the initiative of Jean Seitlinger; Leo Tindemans, then Prime Minister of Belgium, who became the first President of the EPP; and Wilfried Martens, who later became both President of the EPP and Prime Minister of Belgium. It had been preceded by the "Secretariat International des partis démocratiques d'inspiration chrétienne", founded in 1925, the "Nouvelles Equipes Internationales", founded in 1946 (or 1948), and the European Union of Christian Democrats, founded in 1965.


title: European People's Party

text: In the late 1990s, the Finnish politician Sauli Niinistö negotiated the merger of the European Democrat Union (EDU), of which he was president, into the EPP. In October 2002 the EDU ceased its activities after being formally absorbed by the EPP at a special event in Estoril, Portugal. In recognition of his efforts, Niinistö was elected Honorary President of the EPP the same year.


title: European People's Party

text: During its Congress in Bucharest in 2012, the EPP updated its political platform after 20 years (since its Congress in Athens in 1992) and approved a political manifesto in which it summarised its main values and policies.


title: European People's Party

text: As a central part of its campaign for the European elections in 2009, the EPP approved its election manifesto at its Congress in Warsaw in April that year. The manifesto called for:


title: European People's Party

text: Concerns that the Hungarian ruling party Fidesz and its leader Viktor Orbán were undermining the rule of law in Hungary caused a split in the EPP in the run-up of the 2019 European Parliament election. On one hand, the EPP had been reluctant for years to address Fidesz's stance against the rule of law, expressed by the Article 7 proceedings of the European Parliament. On the other hand, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a prominent EPP-member, stated "I believe his [Fidesz's] place is not in the European People's Party". Orbán's campaigns targeting billionaire George Soros and Jean-Claude Juncker carried wide reverberations for Europe questioning the EPP's effort to install its lead candidate Manfred Weber as the next President of the European Commission.


title: European People's Party

text: After years of deferring a decision about the Fidesz issue, the EPP was eventually compelled to address the problem two months before the 2019 European elections, as 13 outraged member parties requested the Hungarian party's exclusion from the EPP due to its billboard campaign featuring Jean-Claude Juncker. 190 of the 193 EPP delegates supported the common agreement with Fidesz on 20 March 2019 to partially suspend its membership. According to it, Fidesz was "until further notice" excluded from EPP meetings and internal elections, but remained in the European People's Party Group of the European Parliament. Fidesz did not deliver on its earlier promise to leave the EPP in case of a penalty.


title: European People's Party

text: On 2 April 2020, thirteen parties within the EPP issued a joint statement aimed at Donald Tusk, asking him to expunge Fidesz from the party. Three days before this, the Hungarian Parliament had passed a law, declaring a state of emergency within Hungary, granting Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the right to rule by decree.


title: European People's Party

text: On 3 March 2021, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that Fidesz would leave the EPP group after it changed its internal rules (to allow suspension and expulsion of multiple deputies and their groups), although Fidesz remained a suspended member of the EPP itself. On 18 March 2021, Fidesz decided to leave the European People's Party.


title: European People's Party

text: Within the EPP there are three kinds of member organisations: full members, associate members and observers. Full members are parties from EU states. They have absolute rights to vote in all the EPP's organs and on all matters. Associate members have the same voting rights as full members except for matters concerning the EU's structure or policies. These associate members are parties from EU candidate countries and EFTA countries. Observer parties can participate in all the activities of the EPP, and attend the Congresses and Political Assemblies, but they do not have any voting rights.


title: European People's Party

text: Special status of "supporting member" is granted by the Presidency to individuals and associations. Although they do not have voting rights, they can be invited by the President to attend meetings of certain organs of the party.


title: European People's Party

text: The EPP is governed by the EU Regulation No 1141/2014 on European Political Parties and European Political Foundations and its operations are supervised by the EU Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations.


title: European People's Party

text: The Presidency is the executive body of the party. It decides on the general political guidelines of the EPP and presides over its Political Assembly. The Presidency is composed of the President, ten Vice-Presidents, the Honorary Presidents, the Secretary General and the Treasurer. The Chairperson of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, the Presidents of the Commission, the Parliament and the Council, and the High Representative (if they are a member of an EPP member party) are all "ex officio" Vice-Presidents.


title: European People's Party

text: As of 1 June 2022 the Presidency of the EPP is (Vice Presidents in the order of votes received at the EPP Congress in Rotterdam):


title: European People's Party

text: The Political Assembly defines the political positions of the EPP between Congresses and decides on membership applications, political guidelines and the budget. The Political Assembly is composed of designated delegates from EPP member parties, associated parties, member associations, and other affiliated groups. The Political Assembly meets at least three times a year.


title: European People's Party

text: The Congress is the highest decision-making body of the EPP. It is composed of delegates from member parties, EPP associations, EPP Group MEPs, the EPP Presidency, national heads of party and government, and European Commissioners who belong to a member party, with the numbers of delegates being weighted according to the EPP's share of MEPs, and individual delegates being elected by member parties according to member parties' rules.


title: European People's Party

text: Under the EPP's statutes, the Congress must meet once every three years, but it also meets normally during the years of elections for the European Parliament (every five years), and extraordinary Congresses have also been summoned. The Congress elects the EPP Presidency every three years, decides on the main policy documents and electoral programmes, and provides a platform for the EPP's heads of government and party leaders.


title: European People's Party

text: EPP leaders meet for the EPP Summit a few hours before each meeting of the European Council in order to formulate common positions. Invitations are sent by the EPP President and attendees include, besides the members of the EPP's presidency, all Presidents and Prime Ministers who are members of the European Council and belong to the EPP; the Presidents of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Council, as well as the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, provided that they belong to the EPP; Deputy Prime Ministers or other ministers in those cases where the Prime Minister of a country does not belong to an EPP member party; and, where no EPP member party is part of a government, the leaders of the main EPP opposition party.


title: European People's Party

text: Following the pattern of the EPP Summit the party also organises regular EPP Ministerial meetings before each meeting of the Council of the European Union, with ministers, deputy ministers, secretaries of state and MEPs in the specific policy field attending:


title: European People's Party

text: The EPP also organises working groups on different issues on an "ad hoc" basis, as well as meetings with its affiliated members in the European Commission. It also invites individual Commissioners to the EPP Summit meetings and to EPP Ministerial meetings.


title: European People's Party

text: Following amendments to the EU Regulation that governs europarties in 2007, the EPP, like the other European political parties, is responsible for organising a pan-European campaign for the European elections every five years. According to the Lisbon Treaty, the parties must present candidates for President of the European Commission, but the EPP had already done this by endorsing José Manuel Barroso for a second term in April 2009.


title: European People's Party

text: The year 2014 saw the first fully-fledged campaign of the EPP ahead of the European elections of that year. The party nominated former Luxembourgish Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker as its candidate for President of the European Commission and led a pan-European campaign in coordination with the national campaigns of all its member parties.


title: European People's Party

text: As of December 2019, the EPP will hold the Presidency of the European Commission with Ursula von der Leyen (CDU).


title: European People's Party

text: Following EPP's victory in the 2019 European Parliament election, Ursula von der Leyen was nominated by the EPP as Commission President. She was endorsed by the European Council and elected by an absolute majority in the European Parliament. On 1 December 2019, the von der Leyen Commission officially took office. It includes 10 EPP officeholders out of 27 total Commissioners.


title: European People's Party

text: The EPP has the largest group in the European Parliament: the EPP Group. It currently has 182 Members in the European Parliament and its chairman is the German MEP Manfred Weber.


title: European People's Party

text: In every election for the European Parliament candidates elected on lists of member parties of the EPP are obliged to join the EPP Group in the European Parliament.


title: European People's Party

text: The EPP has 10 out of the 27 EU heads of state or government attending the EPP summit meetings in preparation of the European Council (as of October 2021):


title: European People's Party

text: Through its associate and observer parties the EPP has five head of state or government in non-EU countries:


title: European People's Party

text: The Group of the EPP in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe defends freedom of expression and information, as well as freedom of movement of ideas and religious tolerance. It promotes the principle of subsidiarity and local autonomy, as well as the defence of national, social, and other minorities. The EPP/CD Group is led by Aleksander Pociej, a member of the Polish Civic Platform.


title: European People's Party

text: The EPP/CD group also includes members from parties that are not related to the EPP itself, including members of the Patriotic Union (Liechtenstein), the Progressive Citizens' Party (Liechtenstein), and the National and Democratic Union (Monaco).