| Left Ecology Freedom Sinistra Ecologia Libertà |
|
|---|---|
| President | Nichi Vendola |
| Coordinator | Claudio Fava |
| Founded | 16 March 2009 (launched) 22 October 2010 (founded) |
| Newspaper | none |
| Membership (2010) | 45,278[1] |
| Ideology | Democratic socialism Eco-socialism |
| International affiliation | none |
| European affiliation | none |
| European Parliament Group | currently no MEPs |
| Official colours | Red |
| Website | |
| http://www.sinistraecologialiberta.it/ | |
| Politics of Italy Political parties Elections |
|
Left Ecology Freedom (Sinistra Ecologia Libertà, SEL; previously Left and Freedom, Sinistra e Libertà, SL) is a socialist political party in Italy, originally founded as a left-wing coalition of parties. Its leader is Nichi Vendola.
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At the time of formation SL included:
SL/SEL was formed in the run up to the 2009 European Parliament election in order to overcome the 4% threshold introduced by the new electoral law in February 2009. Until June 2009, SL was represented in the European Parliament by 13 MEPs (4 Democratic Left, 4 Socialist Party, 2 Greens, 2 Movement for the Left and 1 Unite the Left), but failed to pass the 4% threshold in 2009, and thus lost all these seats. Despite the result, the leaders of the alliance decided that the coalition was due to be merged into a single party.
In October 2009, during a party congress, the Greens elected a new party leader, Angelo Bonelli, and voted to opt-out from the process.[2][3] However, Francescato and her faction decided to keep supporting SL as Ecologists with Left Ecology Freedom and leave the Greens.[4] SL was also weakened by the split occurred within PS, when the United Socialists, who were opposed to the integration of PS into SL, walked out.[5][6] Finally in November SL was hit by the sudden opt-out of the whole PS, that did not agree with the idea of forming a unified party and wanted to retain its autonomy.[7][8]
Since November 2009 SEL was thus composed of MpS, SD, UlS, the Ecologists and Socialism and Left, a small minority of PS that wanted to continue the experience of SL.[9] In December SEL was officially launched as a party[10] and Vendola was elected its spokesperson.[11]
SEL, often in list with the Socialists, gained fairly good results in the 2010 regional elections, especially in Central and Southern Italy. In Apulia Vendola was re-elected President of the Region and trailed SEL to 9.7%, its best electoral result.[12]
The party was officially founded in a congress in Florence on 22–24 October 2010.[13][14]
On 30 May 2011 Giuliano Pisapia, an independent close to SEL, was elected Mayor of Milan.