Democratic Party of the Left Partito Democratico della Sinistra | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Secretary |
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| Founded | 3 February 1991; 34 years ago (1991-02-03) |
| Dissolved | 14 February 1998; 27 years ago (1998-02-14) |
| Preceded by | Italian Communist Party |
| Succeeded by | Democrats of the Left |
| Newspaper | L'Unità |
| Youth wing | Youth Left |
| Membership |
|
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| National affiliation |
|
| European affiliation | Party of European Socialists (1993–1998) |
| European Parliament group |
|
| International affiliation | Socialist International (1993–1998) |
| Colors | Red |
TheDemocratic Party of the Left (Italian:Partito Democratico della Sinistra,PDS) was ademocratic-socialist andsocial-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in February 1991 as thepost-communist evolution of theItalian Communist Party,[1][2][3] the party was the largest in theAlliance of Progressives andThe Olive Tree coalitions. In February 1998, the party merged with minor parties to formDemocrats of the Left. At its peak in 1991, the party had a membership of 989,708; by 1998, it was reduced to 613,412.[4]
The PDS evolved from theItalian Communist Party (PCI), the largestCommunist party in theWestern Bloc for most of theCold War. Since 1948, it had been the second-largest party inItalian Parliament. The PCI moved away fromCommunist orthodoxy in the late 1960s, when it opposed theWarsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. In the 1970s, it was one of the first parties to embraceEurocommunism. By the late 1980s, the PCI had ties withsocial democratic anddemocratic socialist parties, and it was increasingly apparent that it was no longer aMarxist–Leninist party. With this in mind, the PCI dissolved itself and refounded itself as the PDS in 1991,[5] reforming its ideology to adopt acceptance of amulti-party system and themixed economy.[6]
The party's first leader wasAchille Occhetto, the final party secretary of the PCI. Although Ochetto had proclaimed the end of Communism, the new party's logo consisted of anoak tree sprouting from the previous symbol of the PCI in aroundel at the tree's roots. This logo was adopted not only to allow the PDS to trade on the PCI's roots but to keep any potential splinter party from immediately adopting the old PCI symbol. This did not prevent hard-liners leaving the party and launching theCommunist Refoundation Party (PRC).[7] In 1993, the PDS was admitted into both theSocialist International and theParty of European Socialists (PES).[8] In the same year, the party'sMembers of the European Parliament moved from theEuropean United Left to the PES group in theEuropean Parliament.[9] In 1996, the PDS explored the possibility of adopting thefist and rose emblem of the Socialist International but was prevented to do it by theTransnational Radical Party, which had obtained the right to use it in Italy in the 1970s.[10]
In the1992 Italian general election, the PDS reached second place with 107 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 64 in the Senate. The PDS had briefly entered thenational unity government of theCiampi Cabinet, headed byCarlo Azeglio Ciampi, on 29 April 1993, holding three ministries. Both the PDS andFederation of the Greens quickly withdrew from the cabinet on 4 May 1993 in protest against the Chamber's refusal to begin prosecution of former Prime MinisterBettino Craxi.[11] The party's transformation from the PCI to the PDS happened with the background ofTangentopoli and the end of the First Republic, when the dominantChristian Democracy and four other establishment parties collapsed and were replaced by new political formations during 1992–1994.[12]
In the following1994 Italian general election, Occhetto was the leader of theAlliance of Progressives, a left-wing coalition of which the PDS was the largest single party. He lost to thecentre-right coalition, organised during the election as thePole of Freedoms andPole of Good Government jointly led bySilvio Berlusconi, who becamePrime Minister of Italy for the first time. In the aftermath of the election,Massimo D'Alema was elected new party secretary. In the1996 Italian general election, after the collapse of Berlusconi's coalition, the PDS was the largest component of thecentre-left coalition, winning the election under the banner ofThe Olive Tree led byRomano Prodi. It became the largest single party in the legislature, with 146 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 102 in the Senate. TheProdi I Cabinet included 16 PDS ministers and 10 PDS junior ministers; it was the first time that former Communists had taken part in government in half a century.Walter Veltroni, a leading member of the PDS, served asDeputy Prime Minister of Italy, while another leading member,Giorgio Napolitano, became theItalian Minister of the Interior.
In 1997,D'Alema called for the party to become a full-fledged European social-democratic party. In accordance with this call, the PDS merged in 1998 with theLabour Federation (splinters of theItalian Socialist Party), theSocial Christians (including also several former Christian Democrats), theRepublican Left (splinters of theItalian Republican Party), theMovement of Unitarian Communists (splinters of the PRC), theReformists for Europe (mostly former members of theItalian Socialist Party), and theDemocratic Federation (aSardinian party formed by theItalian Democratic Socialist Party, along with former Republicans and Socialists) to form theDemocrats of the Left (DS). On that occasion, the DS decided to replace thehammer and sickle of its logo with the redrose of European social democracy.
The electoral results of PDS in general (Chamber of Deputies) andEuropean Parliament elections from 1992 to 1996 are shown in the chart below.
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| Chamber of Deputies | |||||
| Election year | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 6,321,084 (2nd) | 16.1 | 107 / 630 | – | |
| 1994 | 7,881,646 (2nd) | 20.4 | 116 / 630 |  9 | |
| 1996 | 7,894,118 (1st) | 21.1 | 172 / 630 | 56 | |
| Senate of the Republic | |||||
| Election year | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 5,663,976 (2nd) | 17.0 | 66 / 315 | – | |
| 1994 | withAdP | – | 76 / 315 | 10 | |
| 1996 | withOlive Tree | – | 98 / 315 | 26 | |
| European Parliament | |||||
| Election year | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 6,281,354 (2nd) | 19.1 | 16 / 87 | – | |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
