| Democratic Party Partito Democratico |
|
|---|---|
| Secretary | Pier Luigi Bersani |
| Deputy-Secretary | Enrico Letta |
| President | Rosy Bindi |
| Coordinator | Maurizio Migliavacca |
| Founded | 14 October 2007 |
| Merger of | Democrats of the Left, Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy, minor parties |
| Headquarters | v. S. Andrea delle Fratte 16 00186 Rome |
| Youth wing | Young Democrats |
| Membership (2009) | 831,042[1] |
| Ideology | Social democracy, Christian left (minority) |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| National affiliation | with Italy of Values |
| International affiliation | none |
| European affiliation | none |
| European Parliament Group | Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats |
| Official colours | Red, White, Green |
| Chamber of Deputies |
206 / 630
|
| Senate |
106 / 315
|
| European Parliament |
21 / 73
|
| Website | |
| http://www.partitodemocratico.it | |
| Politics of Italy Political parties Elections |
|
The Democratic Party (Italian: Partito Democratico, PD) is a social-democratic political party in Italy, that is the second-largest in the country. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected in the 2009 leadership election.
The party was founded on 14 October 2007 as a merger of various left-wing and centrist parties which were part of The Union in the 2006 general election. Several parties merged into the Democratic Party, however its bulk was formed by the Democrats of the Left (heirs of the Italian Communist Party) and Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy. Within the party, an important role is played also by Christian leftists, who are the direct heirs of the late Christian Democracy party's left.
After Silvio Berlusconi's resignation in November 2011, the PD has supported Mario Monti's government since its formation, along with Berlusconi's The People of Freedom, the Union of the Centre and Future and Freedom.[2][3]
Contents |
In the early 1990s, following Tangentopoli, the end of the so-called First Republic and the transformation of the Italian Communist Party into the Democratic Party of the Left, a process aimed at uniting left-wing and centre-left forcees into a single political entity started. In 1995–1996 Romano Prodi, formerly close to the left-wing of Christian Democracy, entered politics and founded The Olive Tree, a centre-left coalition including the former Communists, the Italian People's Party, the Federation of the Greens, Italian Renewal, the Italian Socialists and Democratic Union. The coalition, in alliance with the Communist Refoundation Party, won the 1996 general election and Prodi was sworn in as Prime Minister.
Later steps transformed the Democratic Party of the Left into the Democrats of the Left in 1998, with the merging of other centre-left parties, and in 2002 centrists in the coalition to form Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy. 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, 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.
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%.
The 2006 election result, anticipated by the 2005 primary election in which over four million voters endorsed Prodi as prime-ministerial candidate, gave a push to the project of a unified centre-left party. Francesco Rutelli and Piero Fassino, party leaders of Democracy is Freedom and the Democrats of the Left, scheduled their parties' conventions for April 2007 in order to formally approve the merger.
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).[4]
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 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 Italian far left under a united banner. This ultimately led Angius to abandon the new party in favour of the creation of a much more moderate social-democratic party with the Italian Democratic Socialists, the Socialist Party.
On 22 May 2007 the composition of the organising committee of the nascent party was announced. It featured 45 members, mainly politicians from the two major parties involved in the process, but included also external figures such as Marco Follini, Ottaviano Del Turco, Luciana Sbarbati, Renato Soru, Giuliano Amato, Gad Lerner and Tullia Zevi.[5] On 18 June the committee met to decide the rules for the open election of the 2,400 members of the party's constituent assembly. Prodi announced each voter would choose between a number of lists, each of them associated with a candidate for secretary.
The parties which agreed to merge into the PD were eight:
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 and be associated with one of the parties and associations forming the PD.
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 G. Schettini, Lucio Cangini and Amerigo Rutigliano. Of these, Pannella and Di Pietro were stopped because of their involvement in external parties (the Italian Radicals and Italy of Values respectively), 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.[6] All rejected candidates had the chance against the decision in 48 hours' time,[7] with Pannella and Rutigliano being the only two candidates to appeal against it.[8] Both were rejected on 3 August.[9]
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.[10] Veltroni was officially crowned as first Democratic Party secretary during the founding constituting assembly held in Milan on 28 October 2007.[11]
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.[12] The “green-white-red” idea coined by Jacopo G. Schettini during his campaign.
After the premature fall of Prodi II Cabinet in January 2008, the party decided to run in the next election alone or at the head of a less diverse coalition. The party proposed to the Radicals and the Socialist Party to join its lists, but only the Radicals accepted, and formed an alliance with Italy of Values (IdV), set to join the PD after the election. The party included many notable candidates and new faces in its lists and Walter Veltroni, who tried to present the PD as the party of the renewal in contrast both with Silvio Berlusconi and the previous centre-left government, ran an intense and modern campaign, which led him to visit all provinces of Italy, but that was not enough.
In the 2008 general election the PD–IdV coalition won 37.5% of the vote and was defeated by the centre-right coalition, composed of The People of Freedom, Lega Nord and the Movement for Autonomy (46.8%). The PD was able to absorb some votes from the parties of the far left (as also IdV did), but lost some voters to the Union of the Centre (UdC), ending up with 33.2% of the vote, 217 deputies and 119 senators. After the election Veltroni, who was anyway gratified by the result, formed a shadow cabinet, including most party leading figures. IdV, excited by its 4.4% which made it the fourth largest party in Parliament, refused to join both the Democratic groups in Parliament and the shadow cabinet.
The early months after the election were a difficult time for the PD and Veltroni, whose leadership was weakened by the growing influence of internal factions, because of the popularity of Berlusconi and the dramatic rise of IdV in opinion polls.[13] IdV became a strong competitor of the PD and the relations between the two parties became tense. In the 2008 Abruzzo regional election the PD was forced to support IdV candidate Carlo Costantini.[14] In October 2008 Veltroni, who distanced from Di Pietro many times, declared that "on some issues he [Di Pietro] is distant from the democratic language of the centre-left".[15] On 25 October the Democratic Party held its first national rally at Circo Massimo, Rome, to protest against Silvio Berlusconi's policies. According to the organising committee, over 2.5 million people attended the rally.[16]
In February 2009, after a crushing defeat in the Sardinian regional election, Walter Veltroni resigned as party secretary and was replaced by his deputy Dario Franceschini on an interim basis to guide the party toward the selection of a new stable leader.[17][18][18] Franceschini was elected interim secretary by the national assembly of the party 1,047 votes out of 1,258. His only opponent Arturo Parisi won just 92 votes.[17][18]
The 2009 European Parliament election was considered an important test for the PD. Prior to the election, the Democratic Party considered offering hospitality to the Socialist Party and the Greens in its lists, and proposed a similar pact to Democratic Left.[19] However, the Socialists, the Greens and Democratic Left decided instead to contest the election together as Left and Freedom, which failed to achieve the 4% threshold required to return any MEPs, but damaged PD's electoral chances. The Democratic Party itself gained 26.1% of votes, returning 21 MEPs.
Following the election it was confirmed that a national convention was to be held in October and that it would be followed by a primary election, in compliance with the party rules. By July three candidates announced their bid: Pier Luigi Bersani, Ignazio Marino and Dario Franceschini.
On 8 October 2009 the party's electoral commission released the results of the vote among party members. In the local congresses a 56.4% of party members got out and vote. Bersani was by far the most voted candidate with 55.1% of the vote, largely ahead of Franceschini (37.0%) and Marino (7.9%).[20] On 25 October 2009 Bersani was elected new secretary of the party in a open primary that saw the participation of three million people by receiving about 53% of the vote. Franceschini got 34% and Marino 13%. On 7 November, during the first meeting of the new national assembly, Bersani was declared secretary, Rosy Bindi was elected party president (with Marina Sereni and Ivan Scalfarotto vice-presidents), Enrico Letta deputy-secretary and Antonio Misiani treasurer.[21][22]
In reaction to the election of Bersani, perceived by some centrists as an old-style social democrat, Francesco Rutelli, a long-time critic of the party's course, left in order to form a new centrist party, named Alliance for Italy (ApI), along with Linda Lanzillotta, Gianni Vernetti and other liberal and centrist Democrats. The new outfit was tipped to eventually join forces with the Union of the Centre (UdC) at the centre of the Italian political spectrum.[23] Since March 2009, and especially after Bersani's victory, 12 deputies, [24] 13 senators[25], one MEP and many regional/local councillors[26] left the party in order to join UDC, ApI and other minor parties: they included many Rutelliani and most Theo-Dems.
At the big round of regional elections of 2010 the PD lost four regions to the centre-right (Piedmont, Lazio, Campania and Calabria), while maintaining its traditional hold on six regions (Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Marche, Umbria and Basilicata) plus Apulia, a traditionally conservative region where, due to divisions within the centre-right, Nichi Vendola (Left Ecology Freedom) was re-elected with the PD's support.
On 16 September 2011 Bersani was invited by Antonio Di Pietro's Italy of Values (IdV) to take part to its annual late summer convention in Vasto, Abruzzo. Bersani, who had been previously accused by Di Pietro of avoiding him in order to court the centre-right UdC,[27] proposed the formation of a "New Olive Tree" coalition comprising the PD, IdV and Nichi Vendola's Left Ecology Freedom (SEL).[28] The three party leaders agreed in what was soon the "pact of Vasto".[29][30]
The Democratic Party is a big tent centre-left party, strongly influenced by the ideas of social democracy and the Christian left. The common roots of the founding components of the party reside in the Italian resistance movement, the writing of Italian Constitution and the Historic compromise, all three events which saw the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communist Party (the two major forerunners of Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy and the Democrats of the Left, respectively) cooperate. The United States Democratic Party and American liberalism are also an important source of inspiration.[31][32][33]
The party stresses national and social cohesion, green issues, social progressivism, progressive taxation and Europeanism. In this respect the party's precursors strongly supported the need of balancing budgets in order to comply to Maastricht criteria. Under the leadership of Veltroni, the party took a strong stance in favour of constitutional reform and of a new electoral law, on the road toward a two-party system.
The foundation of the Democratic Party was 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 was divided between the former Democrats of the Left being generally in favour of the Party of European Socialists (PES), and most former members of Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy in favour of the European Democratic Party, a component of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).
After the party's formation, the new party's MEPs continued to sit with the PES and ALDE groups to which their former parties had been elected during the 2004 European Parliament election. Following the conclusion of the 2009 European Parliament election, the party chose to unite for the new term within a single European parliamentary group, formed with the PES, to be known as the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.[34]
Although not officially recognised, the Democratic Party has several internal factions, most of whom trace the previous allegiances of party members. As the factions form different alliances depending on the issues, some party members have multiple factional allegiances.
After the election, which saw the victory of Walter Veltroni, the party's internal composition was as follows:
Three national lists supported the candidacy of 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, Liberal PD, the Social Christians and smaller groups (Middle-of-the-Road Italy, European Republicans Movement, Reformist Alliance and the Reformists for Europe) formed a joint-list named "Democrats with Veltroni" (43.7%). The Democratic Ecologists of Ermete Realacci, together with Giovanna Melandri and Cesare Damiano, formed "Environment, Innovation and Labour" (8.1%). The Democrats, Laicists, Socialists, Say Left and the Labourites – Liberal Socialists presented a list named "To the Left" (7.7%). Local lists in support of Veltroni got 16.4%.
The Ulivists, whose members were staunch supporters of Romano Prodi, divided in two camps. The largest one, including the faction's main leader Arturo Parisi, endorsed Rosy Bindi, while a smaller one, including Paolo De Castro, endorsed Enrico Letta, as Paolo De Castro. Bindi benefited also from the support of Agazio Loiero's Southern Democratic Party, while Letta was endorsed by Lorenzo Dellai's Daisy Civic List, Renato Soru's Sardinia Project and Gianni Pittella's social democrats.
After the election, which saw the victory of Pier Luigi Bersani, the party's internal composition was as follows:
During the summer of 2010, Dario Franceschini, leader of Democratic Area (the single largest minority faction), and Piero Fassino re-approached with Pier Luigi Bersani and joined the party majority.[35] As a response, Walter Veltroni formed Democratic Movement to defend the "original spirit" of the PD.[35][36] In doing this he was supported by 75 deputies: 33 Veltroniani, 35 Populars close to Giuseppe Fioroni and 7 former Rutelliani led by Paolo Gentiloni.[37][38][39] During a meeting of the party's national board, held on 23 September, Franceschiniani and Fassiniani voted a motion proposed by Bersani, while most Veltroniani abstained from the vote: the resolution passed by a landslide.[40] Some pundits hinted that the Bersani-Franceschini pact was envisioned in order both to marginalise Veltroni and to reduce the influence of Massimo D'Alema, the party bigwig behind Bersani, whose 2009 bid was supported primarily by Dalemiani. Veltroni and D'Alema had been long-time rivals within the centre-left.[41]
As of September 2010 the party's majority was composed of those who supported Bersani since the beginning (divided in five main factions: Bersaniani, Dalemiani, Lettiani, Bindiani and the party's left-wing) and Democratic Area of Franceschini and Fassino, who tended to be autonomous though. Then, there were two minority coalitions: Veltroni's Democratic Movement (Veltroniani, Fioroni's Populars, ex-Rutelliani, Democratic Ecologists and a majority of Liberal PD members) and Change Italy of Ignazio Marino. Strangely enough, Arturo Parisi, leader of the group formerly known as Ulivists, backed Veltroni.[42]
According to Corriere della Sera, in November 2011 the party was divided mainly in three ideological camps battling for its soul:
Since November 2011 similar differences surfaced in the party regarding Monti Cabinet: while the party's right-wing, especially Liberals PD, was enthusiastic in its support of the new government, Fassina and other leftists, especially those linked to the unions, were much less enthusiastic.[45][46][47][48]
Two small parties act as associate parties of the PD and in fact their MPs are members of the Democratic groups in the Chamber and the Senate: the Italian Radicals and the Moderates for Piedmont. A third party, the European Republicans Movement left the PD in 2010.
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 | 2009 European | 2010 regional | |
| Piedmont | 29.8 | 31.4 | 26.6 | 25.0 | 25.6 | 31.0 | 29.0 | 30.5 | 31.4 | 32.4 | 24.7 | 23.2 |
| Lombardy | 28.0 | 25.9 | 25.5 | 24.2 | 20.2 | 26.8 | 26.3 | 27.1 | 26.7 | 28.1 | 21.3 | 22.9 |
| Veneto | 33.3 | 31.5 | 25.1 | 23.8 | 26.0 | 25.6 | 26.7 | 28.9 | 26.7 | 26.5 | 20.3 | 20.3 |
| Emilia-Romagna | 51.4 | 52.3 | 47.5 | 43.7 | 43.9 | 44.3 | 43.0 | 48.1 | 44.8 | 45.7 | 38.6 | 40.6 |
| Tuscany | 49.4 | 47.2 | 44.8 | 41.0 | 44.1 | 44.3 | 41.6 | 48.8 | 43.3 | 46.8 | 38.7 | 42.2 |
| Lazio | 37.7 | 33.2 | 33.5 | 30.4 | 29.6 | 33.4 | 31.7 | 33.8 | 31.0 | 36.8 | 28.1 | 26.3 |
| Campania | 36.8 | 33.3 | 32.2 | 31.7 | 32.9 | 26.4 | 31.3 | 31.3 | 28.5 | 29.2 | 23.4 | 21.4 |
| Apulia | 42.1[49] | 35.7 | 31.0 | 30.8 | 29.4 | 29.0 | 26.3 | 28.9 | 29.1 | 30.1 | 21.7 | 20.8 |
| Calabria | 42.0 | 37.3 | 32.0 | 34.4 | 27.7 | 28.6 | 27.2 | 33.9 | 31.4[50] | 32.6 | 25.4 | 22.8[51] |
| Sicily | 30.7 | 26.4 (1996) | 26.7 | 31.6 | 22.4 (2001) | 24.2 | 28.6 | 34.8 (2006) | 25.3 | 25.4 | 21.9 | 18.8 (2008) |
| ITALY | 39.3 | - | 32.2 | 31.9 | - | 31.1 | 31.1 | - | 31.3 | 33.2 | 26.1 | - |
|
|||||