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Democratic Party (Italy)

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Template:Infobox Italy Political Party

The Democratic Party (Partito Democratico, PD) is a proposed political party in Italy. It is meant to be a merger of various party which were part of the L'Unione coalition in the 2006 general election. Its core would likely consist of the social-democratic Democrats of the Left and the centrist Democracy is Freedom – Daisy, whereas other parties might join it later in the founding process; it is considered certain that the European Republican Movement, the Southern Democratic Party, Middle-of-the-Road Italy and Renato Soru's Sardinia Project will join the party. Italy of Values was also widely considered to be likely to join the party, but this is currently in doubt. The Italian Democratic Socialist Party, the Italian Socialists, the Italian Democratic Socialists and the Democratic Left have ruled out joining the party. (Which led to the split of the Reformist Alliance from the SDI, consisting of former SDI members who want to join the PD; they are led by Ottaviano Del Turco.)

On May 11, 2007 Democrats of the Left leader Piero Fassino announced the founding convention of the Democratic Party will be held on 14 October 2007, when Romano Prodi will be elected its first chairman.[1]

History

Olive Tree

In the early 1990s, following Tangentopoli, the end of the so-called "Italian First Republic" and the disbandment of the Italian Communist Party, a process started in order to join the moderate left-wing forces of Italian politics to a single political entity. This process caused the entering of Romano Prodi into national politics and the creation of the centre-left Olive Tree coalition that won the 1996 general election. Later steps brought in 1998 the Democratic Party of the Left to give up every single communist legacy and embrace the democratic socialism, thus giving birth to the Democrats of the Left.

Democracy is Freedom

In 1998, contemporarily with the democratic-socialist change inside the DS, a new party, The Democrats (I Democratici), was launched by Romano Prodi, with a reformist left-of-centre platform based on social liberalism, social democracy and Christian democracy. Popular-UDEUR, which were initially part of the Daisy, later abandoned the alliance, whereas The Democrats merged with the Italian People's Party and Italian Renewal, both two Christian democratic left-of-centre parties, to found the Daisy in 2002.

Democracy is Freedom and Democrats of the Left together

In the summer of 2003, Romano Prodi suggested the centre-left forces to participate in the 2004 European parliamentary election with a common list. Whereas the Popular-UDEUR and the radical left parties refused the offer, four parties accepted it: Democrats of the Left, The Daisy, Italian Democratic Socialists and European Republican Movement successively founded a common list called Uniti nell'Ulivo (United in the Olive Tree) which ran in the election, obtaining 31.1% of national votes. The project was later abandoned in 2006 by the Italian Democratic Socialists, which preferred to run in a ticket wit the Italian Radicals known as Rose in the Fist. In the 2006 election, the Olive Tree list ran only in the Chamber of Deputies, obtaining 31.2% of national votes, more than the total of the percentage votes obtained by the single three parties in the Senate.

Road to the first convention

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 PM candidate, gave a push to the project of a unified centre-left reformist party. Since then, Francesco Rutelli and Piero Fassino, party leaders of Daisy and Democrats of the Left, scheduled their party conventions for April 2006 in order to formally approve the merger. On February 2007, a manifesto for the party, written by twelve centre-left "sages", was announced. On April 19, 2007, Democrats of the Left's national convention started in Florence; it is likely to be the last, since circa 75% of the Democrats of the Left members already voted in support of party secretary Fassino's motion in favour of founding the Democratic Party as soon as possible; the left-wing minority, headed 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; as they announced, it seems possible they would look forward to build a new left-wing socialist movement together with parties that are not involved in the Democratic Party project, such as Communist Refoundation Party, Federation of the Greens and Party of Italian Communists.

On May 22, 2007 the list of members of the Organizing Committee of the Democratic Party was announced: it features 45 politicians, mainly from DL and DS, but also including figures such as Middle-of-the-Road Italy leader Marco Follini, Abruzzo regional president and leading member of the Italian Democratic Socialists Ottaviano Del Turco, Luciana Sbarbati, Renato Soru and Giuliano Amato.[2] On June 18 the organizing committee met to decide the rules for the primary election of the 2,400 members of the Constituting Assembly. Prodi announced each voter will choose between a number of lists, each of them associated with a candidate leader; the assembly will then elect the first leader in the October 14 founding convention. At least one hundred signatures will be necessary for each list in order to run in the election.[3]

Leadership race

On June 20 Piero Fassino publicly asked Walter Veltroni to run for the leadership.[4] Veltroni, currently serving as Mayor of Rome and considered the potential leading Democratic Party leadership candidate according to several opinion polls,[5] officially announced his intention to run at a rally in Turin on June 27.[6] On July 9, Economical Development Minister Pierluigi Bersani, another possible rumoured candidate, denied any interest in running for the leadership.[7] On July 15, Senator Furio Colombo publicly announced his candidacy in an article published on L'Unità.[8] This was followed the next day by Minister of Family Rosy Bindi's announcement of her leadership candidacy.[9] A fourth candidate, 35-year-old journalist and blogger Mario Adinolfi, announced his intention to run on July 18.[10]

Issues

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 – Daisy). It is planned to come into being by the end of 2008, in time to contest the 2009 European Parliament election.[11]

Recently, a number of associations were started nationwide in favour of the Democratic Party. Among them, Federazione delle Associazioni per il Partito Democratico (Federation of Associations for the Democratic Party), Libertà e Giustizia (Freedom and Justice) and Associazione della Sinistra per il Partito Democratico (Left-Wing Association for the Democratic Party).

Trivia

The term Partito Democratico was first used in the Regional Council of Veneto, where the Democrats of the Left and Daisy form a joint parliamentary group called L'Ulivo – Partito Democratico Veneto (Olive Tree – Venetian Democratic Party).[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Pd, assemblea il 14 ottobre. Prodi: "Ora fare in fretta"" (in Italian). La Repubblica. Retrieved 2007-05-12.
  2. ^ "Pd, è nato il comitato dei 45. Prodi: "Nessuna egemonia Ds o Dl"" (in Italian). La Repubblica. 2007-05-22. Retrieved 2007-05-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Pd, Prodi: "Avrà un segretario forte". Lo eleggerà l'assemblea costituente" (in Italian). La Repubblica. 2007-06-18. Retrieved 2007-06-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "Pd: Fassino «Veltroni si candidi a segreteria»" (in Italian). Corriere della Sera. 2007-06-20. Retrieved 2007-06-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Ekma SRL - Sondaggi Politico Elettorali (2007-06-13). "Sondaggio Politico-Elettorale - Il Comitato dei 45" (in Italian). Retrieved 2007-06-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Italy's Left Looks Beyond Prodi". The Guardian. 2007-06-27. Retrieved 2007-06-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "Partito democratico, Bersani: "Non mi candido alle primarie"" (in Italian). La Repubblica. 2007-07-09. Retrieved 2007-07-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "Pd, Colombo sfiderà Veltroni «E ora Moretti si faccia vivo»" (in Italian). Corriere della Sera. 2007-07-15. Retrieved 2007-07-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "Rosy Bindi si candida alla segreteria del Pd" (in Italian). La Repubblica. 2007-07-16. Retrieved 2007-07-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "Pd, si candida l'outsider Mario Adinolfi" (in Italian). Corriere della Sera. 2007-07-18. Retrieved 2007-07-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ "Presentato il Manifesto del Partito democratico" (in Italian). L'Unità. Retrieved 2007-05-12.
  12. ^ "Gruppi consiliari" (in Italian). Regional Council of Veneto. Retrieved 2007-05-12.
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