Common Man's Front

Common Man's Front
File:Dark blue flag waving.svg
Founded	February 16, 1946 (1946-02-16)
Dissolved	January 1, 1949 (1949-01-01)
Newspaper	L'Uomo qualunque
Ideology	Conservatism, populism

The Front of the Ordinary Man (in Italian: Fronte dell'Uomo Qualunque, UQ) was a short-lived populist libertarian and poujadist party in Italy. Its leader was the Roman journalist Guglielmo Giannini, and its symbol was the banner of Giannini's newspaper.

The party was characterized by a very loose structure based only on highly autonomous local committees, the Friends of the Ordinary Man. Its political enemies accused the party to be a hiding place for former fascists. Although Giannini himself was not a pro-Fascist, the grassroots, anti-hierarchical organization of the party allowed the infiltration of many former fascists into its structure.

Giannini founded his journal in late 1944, after the liberation of Rome by the Allies. By May 1945 it was sold in more than 850 thousands copies, a huge number for that time. The newspaper was directed against the political class in general, which was accused of oppressing the average man. One of the slogans of the journal was Abbasso tutti! or "Down with everyone!".

By 1946, many local committees were formed around the journal platform, mostly in central and northern Italy and in Sicily. Giannini organized these committees in a loose party structure, consciously differentiating itself from the rigid hierarchical system of the mass parties that dominated the Italian politics at the time. The party had a minimal program, but left the strategic decision about party politics to be decided by the local committees themselves.

The party opposed both the professionalization of politics and ideological politics. It demanded a purely administrative type of politics, led by clerks who would be directly accountable to the voters. It demanded a minimal state and opposed state interventionism in social matters. It was characterized by anti-communism, anti-etatism and populism.

In the 1946 general election the party took 4.4% and 30 members of the Italian Constituent Assembly but, after that election, the party suffered for its light structure. In 1947 ten MPs left the party founding the National Union group, slowly moving towards the Italian Liberal Party. Later, all the party accepted to join forces with the Liberals in the National Bloc, and fell into decline.

Whereas the party's history was quite short, it left one long-lasting influence in the Italian political discourse: even today, qualunquista is a common derogatory term for those people who claim that there is no difference among politicians, or who are not interested in any particular political view or ideology.