Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

Democratic Party (Italy)

The Democratic Party (Partito Democratico, PD) is a centre-left political party in Italy.

It was founded on 14 October 2007 as a merger of various left-wing and centrist parties which were part of the The Union in the 2006 general election. Several parties merged into the Democratic Party, however its bulk is formed by former members of the Democrats of the Left and Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy.

The current leader of the party is Walter Veltroni (Deputy Prime Minister and Culture Minister in 1996–1998, leader of the Democrats of the Left in 1998–2001 and Mayor of Rome in 2001-2008), who was elected secretary in an open primary.

History

The Olive Tree coalition

In the early 1990s, following Tangentopoli, the end of the so-called First Republic and the disbandment of the Italian Communist Party, a process started which aimed to join the moderate left-wing forces of Italian politics into a single political entity. This process caused the entering of Romano Prodi (formerly close to the left-wing of the Christian Democrats) into national politics and the creation of the The Olive Tree, a centre-left coalition including: the Democratic Party of the Left, the Italian People's Party, the Federation of the Greens, Italian Renewal, the Italian Socialists, Democratic Union. The coalition, allied with the Communist Refoundation Party, won the 1996 general election.

Later steps transformed the Democratic Party of the Left into the Democrats of the Left, with the merging of other centre-left parties, in 1998 and centrists in the coalition to form Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy, in 2002. This was born by the merger of the Italian People's Party, The Democrats, launched by Romano Prodi in 1999 with a centre-left platform based on social liberalism, social democracy and Christian left, and Italian Renewal. In the 2001 general election these three parties, alongside with UDEUR Populars, formed an electoral alliance under the leadership of Francesco Rutelli, then Prime Ministerial candidate for The Olive Tree coalition, and then transformed it into a single centrist party, without the participation of UDEUR Populars.

The Olive Tree list

In the summer of 2003, Romano Prodi suggested that the centre-left forces participate in the 2004 European Parliament election with a common list. Whereas the UDEUR Populars and the far-left parties refused the offer, four parties accepted it: the Democrats of the Left, Democracy is Freedom, the Italian Democratic Socialists and the European Republicans Movement. They launched a joint-list named "United in the Olive Tree" which ran in the election, scoring 31.1% nationally. The project was later abandoned in 2005 by the Italian Democratic Socialists, which preferred to run in an alliance, the Rose in the Fist, with the Italian Radicals. In the 2006 general election, the Olive Tree list ran only for the Chamber of Deputies, obtaining 31.3%.

Road to the new party

The 2006 election result, together with the success of the 2005 centre-left primary election, in which over four million voters formally endorsed Prodi as Prime Minister candidate, gave a push to the project of a unified centre-left party. Since then, Francesco Rutelli and Piero Fassino, party leaders of Democracy is Freedom and the Democrats of the Left, scheduled their party conventions for April 2007 in order to formally approve the merger.

On 19 April 2007 the Democrats of the Left held their last party congress, since approximately 75% of party members voted in support of the creation of the Democratic Party as soon as possible, while the left-wing minority, led by Minister Fabio Mussi and opposed to the project, obtained circa 15% of the support within the party. A third motion, presented by Gavino Angius and supportive of the Democratic Party only within the Party of European Socialists, obtained 10% of votes. During and following the Democrats of the Left national convention, both Mussi and Angius announced their intention not to join the Democratic Party and founded a new leftist party called Democratic Left more keen on uniting the far-left under a united banner. This ultimately led Angius to abandon the new party in favour of the creation of a much moderate social-democratic party with the Italian Democratic Socialists, the Socialist Party.

On 22 May 2007 the list of members of the Organizing Committee of the Democratic Party was announced: it featured 45 politicians, mainly from the two major parties involved in the process, but also including external figures such as Marco Follini, Ottaviano Del Turco, Luciana Sbarbati, Renato Soru, Giuliano Amato, Gad Lerner and Tullia Zevi. On 18 June the Committee met to decide the rules for the open election of the 2,400 members of the Constituting Assembly. Prodi announced each voter would have chosen between a number of lists, each of them associated with a candidate leader; the assembly would then have elected the first leader in a Founding Convention, scheduled on 14 October.

The parties which agreed to merge into the new party were eight:

Leadership race and foundation

All candidates interested in running for the Democratic Party leadership must have presented at least 2,000 valid signatures not later than 30 July 2007. All candidates must also be associated with the Democratic Party project, as either members of the political subjects forming it or with no party association at all.

On the 30 July deadline, a total of ten candidates officially registered their candidacy: Walter Veltroni, Rosy Bindi, Enrico Letta, Furio Colombo, Marco Pannella, Antonio Di Pietro, Mario Adinolfi, Pier Giorgio Gawronski, Jacopo Gavazzoli Schettini, Lucio Cangini and Amerigo Rutigliano. Of these, Pannella and Di Pietro were stopped because of their involvement in external parties, whereas Cangini and Rutigliano did not manage to present the necessary 2,000 valid signatures for the 9pm deadline, and Colombo's candidacy was instead made into hiatus in order to give him 48 additional hours to integrate the required documentation; Colombo later decided to retire his candidacy citing his impossibility to fit with all the requirements. All rejected candidates had the chance against the decision in 48 hours' time, with Pannella and Rutigliano being the only two candidates to appeal against it. Both were rejected on 3 August.

On 14 October 2007 Veltroni was elected leader with circa 75% of the national votes in an open primary attended by over three million voters. Veltroni was officially crowned as first Democratic Party secretary during the founding constituting assembly held in Milan on 28 October 2007.

On 21 November, the new logo was unveiled; it depicts the party acronym (PD) with colours reminiscent of the Italian tricolour flag (green, white and red) and featuring also the olive branch, historical symbol of the Olive Tree. In the words of Ermete Realacci, green represents the ecologist and social-liberal cultures, white is for the Catholic solidarity and red for the socialist and social-democratic traditions.

Ideology

The Democratic Party is a social-democratic party, strongly influenced by the ideas of the Christian left. The party stresses national and social cohesion, green issues, social liberalism and Europeanism. In this respect the party and its precursors had always supported fiscal conservatism, modelled on the management of the economy by Bill Clinton, and the need of balancing budgets in order to comply to Maastricht criteria. Recently, under the leadership of Veltroni, the party took a strong stance in favour of constitutional reforms and of a new electoral law, on the road toward a two-party system.

The foundation of the Democratic Party is called into question by various cases of infighting among the prospective members of the new party; the discussion on which European political party to join also seems to be far from solved, with some parties being in favour of the Party of European Socialists (e.g. the Democrats of the Left) and some in favour of the European Democratic Party (e.g. Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy).

Factions

2007 primary election

Although not officially recognized, the Democratic Party has several internal factions, most of whom trace the previous allegiances of party members. These groups united themselves to form lists for the election of the Constituent Assembly of the party in October.

Three lists supported the candidacy of Walter Veltroni. The bulk of the former Democrats of the Left (Veltroniani, Dalemiani, Fassiniani), the Rutelliani of Francesco Rutelli (including the Theo-Dem), The Populars of Franco Marini, those who are now known as Liberal PD, the Social Christians and smaller groups (including Middle-of-the-Road Italy, European Republicans Movement, Reformist Alliance and the Reformists for Europe) formed a joint-list named "Democrats with Veltroni". The Democratic Ecologists of Ermete Realacci, together with the followers of Giovanna Melandri and Cesare Damiano, formed the "Environment, Innovation and Labour", while the Democrats, Laicists, Socialists, Say Left and the Labourites – Liberal Socialists presented a list named "To the Left".

The Ulivists, a group closely linked to Romano Prodi, divided between those supporting Rosy Bindi, as Arturo Parisi, and the supporters of Enrico Letta, as Paolo De Castro. Bindi received also the endorsement of Agazio Loiero and his Southern Democratic Party, while Letta the support of Lorenzo Dellai and his Daisy Civic List, Renato Soru and his Sardinia Project, and Gianni Pittella.

Current situation

PD is composed of several factions, which form different alliances on different issues and whose members are sometimes also members of other factions:

Veltroniani: followers of Walter Veltroni, basically social democrats coming from the Democrats of the Left.
Populars: heirs of the Christian left tradition of the Italian People's Party and of the left-wing of the late Christian Democracy.
Dalemiani: the social-democratic group around Massimo D'Alema, who want the party to join the Party of European Socialists; D'Alema recently organized his faction as Reformists and Democrats, welcoming also some Lettiani and some Populars.
Rutelliani: centrists gathered around Francesco Rutelli, who want the party to be modelled on the Democratic Party of the United States and to join the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and the Alliance of Democrats.
Liberal PD: the liberal faction of PD, composed mostly of social liberals and led by Valerio Zanone; many members are close to Rutelli.
Democratic Ecologists: the green faction of PD led by Ermete Realacci; many members are close to Rutelli.
Ulivists: Followers of Romano Prodi who want the party to be more in the tradition of The Olive Tree; they include both Christian left exponents, as their leaders Rosy Bindi and Arturo Parisi, and social democrats and social liberals.
Lettiani: The centrist group around Enrico Letta, who has a central position thanks to his good relations with Populars, Ulivists, Dalemiani and Veltroniani; Letta organized his faction within the 360 Association, whose main goal is to form an alliance with the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats.
To the Left: The social-democratic and democratic-socialist internal left led by Livia Turco and formed with the merger of four different groups (Democrats, Laicists, Socialists, Say Left, Labourites – Liberal Socialists and Left for the Country (comprising also some communist splinters from the Party of Italian Communists); the group includes both people close to Veltroni and people linked to D'Alema.
Social Christians: a Christian social-democratic group, which was a founding component of the Democrats of the Left and who strongly support Veltroni.
Theo-Dems: a tiny christian-democratic group representing the right-wing of the party on ethical issues, albeit being progressive on economic issues.

Popular support

The electoral results of the Democratic Party in the 10 most populated Regions of Italy are shown in the table below. As PD was founded in 2007, the electoral results from 1994 to 2006 refer to the combined result of the two main percursor parties, the Democrats of the Left and Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (and its preursors, 1994-2001), or to the joint-list called The Olive Tree.

	1994 general	1995 regional	1996 general	1999 European	2000 regional	2001 general	2004 European	2005 regional	2006 general	2008 general
Piedmont	29.8	31.4	26.6	25.0	25.6	31.0	29.0	30.5	31.4	32.4
Lombardy	28.0	25.9	25.5	24.2	20.2	26.8	26.3	27.1	26.7	28.1
Veneto	33.3	31.5	25.1	23.8	26.0	25.6	26.7	28.9	26.7	26.5
Emilia-Romagna	51.4	52.3	47.5	43.7	43.9	44.3	43.0	48.1	44.8	45.7
Tuscany	49.4	47.2	44.8	41.0	44.1	44.3	41.6	48.8	43.3	46.8
Lazio	37.7	33.2	33.5	30.4	29.6	33.4	31.7	33.8	31.0	36.8
Campania	36.8	33.3	32.2	31.7	32.9	26.4	31.3	31.3	28.5	29.2
Apulia	42.1	35.7	31.0	30.8	29.4	29.0	26.3	28.9	29.1	30.1
Calabria	42.0	37.3	32.0	34.4	27.7	28.6	27.2	33.9	31.4	32.6
Sicily	30.7	26.4 (1996)	26.7	31.6	22.4 (2001)	24.2	28.6	34.8 (2006)	25.3	25.4
ITALY	39.3	-	32.2	31.9	-	31.1	31.1	-	31.3	33.2

Trivia

The term Partito Democratico was first used in the Regional Council of Veneto, where the Democrats of the Left and Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy form a joint parliamentary group called L'Ulivo – Partito Democratico Veneto (The Olive Tree – Venetian Democratic Party).