The Network 2018 (Italian: La Rete 2018) was a centre-left political party in Italy led by Leoluca Orlando, former leading member of Christian Democracy in Sicily, founder of The Network and The Democrats, and five-time mayor of Palermo.
The party, which considered itself a re-foundation[1] of The Network (established, among others, by Orlando in 1991),[2][3][4] was launched in 2011 and caused a split from Italy of Values (IdV) in 2013.
[6] In 2013 Orlando launched a parallel party named 139 Movement along with two other leading IdV dissidents, Felice Belisario (former IdV floor leader in the Senate) and Carlo Costantini (regional councillor in Abruzzo).
[8] In 2018 Orlando and his closest allies, notably including his deputy mayor Giambrone,[9] joined the Democratic Party.
[10][11][12] For their part, Rinaldi returned to his original affiliation to the Italian Republican Party,[13] Belisario abandoned active politics and Costantini joined Action.