State funding of Italian parties

Recently, I've been looking at the system of state funding of Italian political parties. I'm interested in the subject because of the incentives it may create to form new parliamentary groups (since they qualify for funding), and the way funding systems interact with the new electoral system.

The history of state funding is pretty shabby. In 1993, an abrogative referendum repealed parts of the law on party funding, banning direct subventions, but allowing compensation for electoral expenses. These electoral expenses gradually grew; new laws were passed in 1999 and 2002, lowering the qualification threshold from 4% of vote-share to 1% of vote share (or electing at least one candidate), with funds divided according to the parties' vote-shares.

Marco Follini leaves the UDC

Marco Follini, former secretary of the UDC, has decided to leave the party, founding his own group, l'Italia del mezzo.

This was not unexpected - Follini had left his post as party secretary a while ago, and had carped about his party's policy and Berlusconi's leadership of the centre-right. What is surprising, at least to me, is the willingness of Italian politicians to found new parties which have negligible electoral prospects.