Association for the Rose in the Fist
The Association for the Rose in the Fist (Associazione per la Rosa nel Pugno) was a social-democratic political association in Italy.
It was the so-called "third component" of the Rose in the Fist (RnP), a political alliance composed mainly of the Italian Democratic Socialists (SDI) and the Italian Radicals (Rad). It was formed in July 2006 by the members of RnP who were not members of either SDI or of Rad, chiefly Lanfranco Turci, Salvatore Buglio, Biagio De Giovanni and Luciano Cafagna, all former Democrats of the Left (DS). The first three came from the Italian Communist Party (which became the Democratic Party of the Left in 1991), while Luciano Cafagna and Alberto Benzoni, another member who is also member of SDI, are former members of the Italian Socialist Party (disbanded in 1994).
History
The association was founded by Lanfranco Turci, who is the President, in reaction to the crisis that invested RnP soon after the elections. Indeed the federative process between the Democratic Socialists and Radicals was stopped, and Turci wanted to create a political association for non-party members within RnP.
In 2007 the crisis of RnP seemed unstoppable, so that Turci and his association started to work with a different direction: uniting all the so-called liberal-socialist forces of Italy in what was named "Secular Liberal Socialist Convention". This convention was primarily aimed at uniting the Italian Democratic Socialists, the Italian Radicals, Turci's group and other Socialist associations (e.g. Socialism is Freedom of Rino Formica), but also the New Italian Socialist Party, The Italian Socialists, the Reformist Socialists, the Italian Democratic Socialist Party, the Federation of Italian Liberals, the European Republican Movement, former Socialists within the DS (the group around Valdo Spini) and all the members of that party who felt dissatisfied of the formation of the Democratic Party (the left-wing of Fabio Mussi and Cesare Salvi, the group around Gavino Angius and that of Peppino Caldarola and Emanuele Macaluso).
In March 2007, during a conference at Bertinoro, the proposal of a new liberal and social-democratic party was discussed by Lanfranco Turci and Rino Formica, Peppino Caldarola and Emanuele Macaluso (DS), Enrico Boselli and Roberto Biscardini (SDI), Gianni De Michelis, Alessandro Battilocchio and Mauro Del Bue (NPSI), Bobo Craxi and Saverio Zavettieri (SI), Donato Robilotta (RS), Adriano Musi (MRE) and Enzo Marzo (FdL).
In April 2007, at the national congress of SDI, launched a similar proposal: a "Socialist Constituent Assembly", open to all the Italian social-democrats and above all to the remnants of the old Italian Socialist Party. The proposal was immediately accepted by Lanfranco Turci, Rino Formica, Peppino Caldarola, Emanuele Macaluso, Gianni De Michelis, Alessandro Battilocchio and Mauro Del Bue, Bobo Craxi and Saverio Zavettieri, Valdo Spini and, to some extent, by Gavino Angius and Fabio Mussi, who were all special guests of the congress. The Constituent Assembly was intended to lead to a new social-democratic party (probably named "Italian Socialist Party"), which would form a federation with the Italian Radicals (whose leader Emma Bonino insisted that "the Rose in the Fist" was not dead at the congress), MRE and FdL.
In October 2007 the Association was merged into the newly founded Socialist Party, which was eventually renamed the Italian Socialist Party in 2009 to match the historical party of the same name.
