South Tyrolean People's Party

The South Tyrolean People's Party (German: Südtiroler Volkspartei) was founded 1945 and is a political party in the South Tyrol region of Italy.

The SVP campaigns on a program of increased rights for German and Ladin-speakers in the South Tyrol region, which was annexed by Italy after the First World War, to some success; the province now has wide autonomy. There is no official ideology in the party, as it is meant to represent all German and Ladin speakers in South Tyrol.

Since the first elections to the regional parliament (1948), the party has gained more than 50 percent, and is also providing most of the 116 mayors in South Tyrol.

In the 2004 European Parliamentary Election the SVP formed an electoral grouping with the Olive Tree coalition, on the understanding that an SVP candidate would be included in the list of elected if they could achieve more than 50,000 votes. In practice, Michl Ebner gained 93,169 votes and was included in the list of MEPs.

2006 elections

In the 9-10 April 2006 general elections, the party was member of the winning The Union (L'Unione) and won 5 out of 315 senators and 4 out of 630 deputies.