Free Sicilians was founded by Massimo Costa, Antonella Pititto and Enzo Cassata. The party was launched on 3 January 2016 during a meeting in Pergusa. On the same occasion, the economist Massimo Costa, professor at the University of Palermo, became president of the party. Free Sicilians took part in the local elections for the first time in the spring of 2017, presenting its own mayoral candidate and its own electoral list in Palermo, capital of Sicily. Ciro Lomonte, an architect and scholar of the Salingaros Group, was chosen as mayoral candidate. During his electoral campaign, Lomonte focused on the issues of the urban renewal, the identity revival of Palermo and the violations of the Statute of Sicily by the Italian Government. Lomonte scored 4787 votes, while the list scored 4041 votes. Roberto La Rosa, a lawyer and former deputy secretary of the Sicilian National Front, was chosen as President of Sicily candidate for the 2017 regional election. Free Sicilians was the only pro-independence party competing for the Sicilian Regional Assembly in 2017. "Economic independence" was the key concept of the electoral campaign. According to the party's program, this key concept would be pursued through the adoption of the special economic zone and a complementary currency called Tarì, like the ancient coin of the Kingdom of Sicily. During the campaign, La Rosa also suggested the creation of the Sicilian national football team as other autonomous regions and unrecognised states did before Sicily. La Rosa scored 14,656 votes, while the list scored 12,600 votes. On December 2017 Ciro Lomonte was chosen as provisional secretary until the first Congress of the party.
Ideology
Free Sicilians believes that Sicily is a European stateless nation with its own political history, language, culture, traditions and national identity. The party describes the current political and economic condition of Sicily as a case of internal colonialism. In particular, Free Sicilians complains the persistent non-implementation of the Autonomous Statute of Sicily and, for this reason, aims to gradually achieve the full independence of the island in order to create a sovereign state. The party describes its ideology as "souverainist", in opposition to the excesses of globalization.
International relations
The responsible for the international relations of Free Sicilians is Francesco Marsala, president of the cultural association Sicilia-Catalunya, who attended as international observer during the 2017 Catalan independence referendum. On February and March 2018, Free Sicilians hosted the first delegations of Catalan nationalist parties at its headquarters in Palermo. On December 2017 Free Sicilians has congratulated the Corsican nationalist alliance Pè a Corsica for the success in the Corsican territorial election. In 2018 and 2019, the party entered in dialogue and collaboration with many other similar movements, in other territories of the Italian Republic and European Union, namely Comitato Libertà Toscana, along with Patto per l'Autonomia and Patrie Furlane, which are active in Friuli-Venetia Giulia region.
