Rocco Buttiglione first attained attention on the Italian political stage when in 1994 he became secretary of the Italian People's Party, the largest of the parties that emerged from the collapse of Christian Democracy, formerly the largest party in Italy since the Second World War, after the Tangentopoli corruption scandals. The People's Party had presented itself along with "Patto Segni" in the centrist alliance Pact for Italy, in which it came third after Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Pole of Freedoms/Pole of Good Government and the centre-left Alliance of Progressives.