Democrats of the Left

Democrats of the Left Democratici di Sinistra
Italian National Party
Leader	Piero Fassino
Founded	February 3, 1991 (as PDS) February 13, 1998 (as DS)
Headquarters	Via Nazionale, 12 00184 Rome
Coalition	Olive Tree, The Union
Political ideology	Democratic socialism, Social democracy
International affiliation	Socialist International
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists
European Parliament Group	Party of European Socialists
Membership	615,414 (2006[1])
Official newspaper	L'Unità
Website	www.dsonline.it
See also	Politics of Italy Political parties in Italy Elections in Italy

The Democrats of the Left (Democratici di Sinistra, DS) was the main Italian left-wing political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007. Its leaders were Piero Fassino, national secretary, and Massimo D'Alema, president.

History

The Democrats of the Left developed from the Democratic Party of the Left (Partito Democratico della Sinistra, PDS), which in turn was a reshaping of the Italian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) into a democratic socialist party. Under the leadership of Massimo D'Alema, the party merged with other minor like-minded movements (Labour Federation, Social Christians, Republican Left, Unitarian Communists and Reformists for Europe), and took the current name, removing the hammer and sickle from its symbol and substituting it with a rose.

Massimo D'Alema became prime minister in October 1998 and was replaced at the leadership of DS by Walter Veltroni. During the I national congress in January 2000, Veltroni received the support of the 79.9% of delegates, while the left-wing, at the time led by three women (Anna Finocchiaro, Fulvia Bandoli and Pasqualina Napoletano), had the support of 20.1% of them.

Leadership of Piero Fassino

The current secretary is Piero Fassino, elected with 61.8% of party members' votes during the II national congress in November 2001. Piero Fassino was the candidate of a mainstream Third Way tendency. The candidacy of Giovanni Berlinguer, endorsed by left-wingers, democratic socialists and the CGIL trade union, gained 34.1% of party members votes. The right-wing of the party, led by Enrico Morando, got 4.1%.

Piero Fassino has been re-elected during the III national congress, in February 2005 with 79.1% of party members' votes. No other candidates were present, but left-wing candidates ran for congressional delegates and received 14.6% of party members votes won by the DS Left-wing – Returning to win, 4.0% by the DS Left-wing for Socialism and 2.4% by the Ecologist Left.

A political placard of the Democrats of the Left.

2006 general election

In the 2006 general election, held on April 9 and April 10, 2006, the Democrats of the Left endorsed the candidacy of Romano Prodi as Prime Minister of Italy. DS presented their symbol for the Senate and ran under the Olive Tree symbol for the Chamber, together with DL and MRE. The party achieved a 17.17% in the Senate (62 senators) and the Olive Tree reached a 31.20% in the Chamber (220 deputies), more than the sum of its components in the Senate. This, and the narrow margin gained on the centre-right coalition, prompted a discussion on the party's future. As of 2006 the party leadership is committed to a future merge with DL, creating a new Democratic Party.

Nine Ministers of Prodi's government are affiliated to the Democrats of the Left, including the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Massimo D'Alema. The current President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano, elected on May 10, 2006, is also a former DS member (as usual, although not mandatory, he renounced his party affiliation before being sworn in, because the office he was going to assume is considered to be super partes).

IV national congress and split

The IV national congress was held from April 19 to 21, 2007. During local congresses, Piero Fassino and his motion named For the Democratic Party, backed by the majority of the leading members of the party, such as D'Alema, Pier Luigi Bersani and Antonio Bassolino, received the support of 75.6% of party members. The motion was clearly in support of the Democratic Party project.

The left-wing of Fabio Mussi, Cesare Salvi, Fulvia Bandoli and Valdo Spini (To the Left. For European Socialism, joint-group of members of DS Left-wing – Returning to win, DS Left-wing for Socialism, some affiliates to the Ecologist Left and most Labourites – Liberal Socialists scored 15.0%; this motion was instead opposed to the Democratic Party. All members supportive of this group later founded a new movement, Democratic Left, which aims to unite the heterogeneus Italian left-wing, from direct descendants of the Italian Socialist Party to the euro-communist sides best represented in Italy by the Communist Refoundation Party.

A third motion, named For a New, Democratic and Socialist Party and signed by Gavino Angius, Mauro Zani and originally also by Peppino Caldarola took 9.3% of party members votes. This group, mainly composed of former supporters of D'Alema and Fassino (gathered in the new Socialists and Europeans faction), and some left-wingers and environmentalists, supported the creation of a new party only within the Party of European Socialists (PES) and opposes the current proposal of Democratic Party (perceived as a mere addition of DS and DL with no reference at all to socialism). Several of its members and supporters, including Angius, later decided to leave the party to join the Democratic Left movement, whereas several others, including Zani, preferred to stay within the Democrats of the Left.

Factions

Inside the party are several organized political tendency associations. Inside the party, there is often a somewhat simplistic distinction between reformists (riformisti) and radicals (radicali or massimalisti), indicating respectively the mainstream or the left-wing area, formerly known as Correntone.

The core of the social democratic party majority isn't related to a specific tendency association, although several smaller movements, splits of former centrist or center-left Italian parties, relate to it. These are the Labourites – Liberal Socialists (Laburisti – Socialisti Liberali), Reformist Europe (Europa Riformista) and the Sicilian Reformist Movement (Movimento Riformista) all from the Italian Socialist Party, the Social Christians (Cristiano Sociali) from the left-wing of Christian Democracy, the Republican Left (Sinistra Repubblicana) from the left-wing of the Italian Republican Party and the Liberal Left (Sinistra Liberale) from the left-wing of the Italian Liberal Party.

On the right wing the Liberal association has a moderate Third Way or radical center political agenda. This faction is now included in the party majority, while a dissident group left it, in opposition to the creation of the Democratic Party, and formed a new faction, named Socialists and Europeans.

Before the 2007 convention, the left-wing opposition was led by the DS Left-wing-Returning to win (Sinistra DS-Per tornare a vincere), a left-wing democratic socialist tendency, with other smaller groups including DS Left-wing for Socialism (Sinistra DS per il Socialismo), left-wing democratic socialists and the Ecologist Left (Sinistra Ecologista), left-wing environmentalists. As most of their members left the party in refusal of the Democratic Party foundation, their composition and weight is now unclear.

Several personalities formerly inside or close to the left-wing area of the party, as Pietro Folena, Pietro Ingrao and Achille Occhetto, are now approaching or joining the Communist Refoundation Party which, from its VI congress held in January 2005, is moving towards a more heterogeneous, non-sectarian and strongly pacifist kind of left-wing party.

Popular support

The electoral results of the Democrats of the Left (Democratic Party of the Left until 1998) in the 10 most populated Regions of Italy are shown in the table below. The result for the 2006 general election refers to the election for the Senate, indeed DS contested the election for the Chamber of Deputies in a joint-list with DL.

Leadership

• Secretary: Massimo D'Alema (1998), Walter Veltroni (1998–2001), Piero Fassino (2001–...)
  • Coordinator: Marco Minniti (1998), Pietro Folena (1998–2001), Vannino Chiti (2001–2004), Vannino Chiti / Maurizio Migliavacca (2004–2006), Maurizio Migliavacca (2006–...)
• President: Massimo D'Alema (2000–2007)

• Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: Fabio Mussi (1998–2001), Luciano Violante (2001–2006), Marina Sereni (deputy-leader of the Olive Tree's group, 2006–...)
• Party Leader in the Senate: Gavino Angius (1998–2006), Anna Finocchiaro (leader of the Olive Tree's group, 2006–...)
• Party Leader in the European Parliament: Renzo Imbeni (1998–1999), Pasqualina Napoletano (1999–2004), Nicola Zingaretti (2004–2006), Giovanni Pittella (2006–...)

References

External links

• Official website

Political parties in Italy (complete version, historical parties)
The Union	Democratic Party – Communist Refoundation Party – Democratic Left Minor: Party of Italian Communists – Italy of Values – Federation of the Greens – UDEUR Populars – Italian Democratic Socialists – Italian Radicals Micro: Liberal Democrats – Democratic Union – Italian Democratic Socialist Party – United Consumers Regional: South Tyrolean People's Party – Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party – Valdotanian Renewal
House of Freedoms	Forza Italia – National Alliance – Union of Christian and Centre Democrats – Lega Nord Minor: The Right – Christian Democracy for the Autonomies – Movement for Autonomy – Pensioners' Party – Tricolour Flame – Social Action Micro: Italian Republican Party – Liberal Reformers – New Italian Socialist Party – Italians in the World Regional: Veneto for the EPP – Sardinian Reformers – Sardinian People's Party – Sardinian Democratic Union – New Sicily
Others	Micro: Italian Associations in South America – Socialist Party Regional: Valdotanian Union – Edelweiss Aosta Valley – Autonomist Federation – Union for South Tyrol – The Libertarians – North-East Project – Sardinian Action Party Complete list
- List of political parties - Politics of Italy

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