The (''Democratici di Sinistra'', DS) is the main
Italian Left-wing Political Party , part of the
Olive Tree electoral coalition. Its leaders are
Piero Fassino , national secretary, and
Massimo D'Alema , president.
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.
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''.
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'').
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 enviromentalists, 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.
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 strongly moderate
Third Way or
Radical Middle 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.
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 .
