New Italian Socialist Party Nuovo Partito Socialista Italiano | |
|---|---|
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| Abbreviation | NPSI |
| President | Stefano Caldoro |
| Secretary | Lucio Barani |
| Founded | 19 January 2001; 25 years ago (19 January 2001) |
| Merger of | Socialist League Socialist Party |
| Headquarters | Via Archimede 10,Rome |
| Newspaper | È ora |
| Youth wing | Movimento Giovani per le Riforme |
| Membership(2015) | 6,500[1] |
| Ideology | Social democracy[2] Liberalism[2][3] |
| Political position | Centre[4] |
| National affiliation | Coalition: Centre-right coalition (2008–present) House of Freedoms (2001–2008) Political party: Forza Italia (2013–2015, 2018–2022) The People of Freedom (2008–2013) |
| Colors | Red (official) Pink (customary) |
| Chamber of Deputies | 1 / 400 (IntoForza Italia) |
| Senate | 0 / 200 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 73 |
| Regional Councils | 2 / 897 |
| Website | |
| www | |
TheNew Italian Socialist Party[5][6] orNew PSI[7][8] (Italian:Nuovo Partito Socialista Italiano orNuovo PSI,NPSI), more recently styled asLiberal Socialists – NPSI, is apolitical party in Italy which professes asocial-democratic ideology and claims to be the successor to the historicalItalian Socialist Party, which was disbanded after the judiciary tempest of the early 1990s (seeMani pulite).
The party was founded in 2001 asSocialist Party – New PSI (Partito Socialista – Nuovo PSI),[9] during a founding congress inMilan,[10] but after the 2007 split of theSocialist Party, headed byGianni De Michelis andMauro Del Bue, it took the current name, under the leadership ofStefano Caldoro. Most of the party's members are former followers ofBettino Craxi, who was convicted for corruption and whom New Socialists often portray as a victim of political persecution. The NPSI has been a member of thecentre-rightHouse of Freedoms coalition for most of its history, as the Italiancentre-left has been dominated by formercommunists, the main opponents of the Socialist Party led by Craxi (most of the Craxi's followers had earlier joinedForza Italia). The NPSI defines itself as a "liberal socialist", "reformist" and "anti-communist" party.[11][12]
The main leader of the party wasGianni De Michelis, who left the party in 2007 and was replaced byStefano Caldoro. In 2007, several members also left to join theSocialist Party, allied with the centre-left, while what remained of the NPSI was merged into the centre-right PdL. From 2010 to 2015, party leader Caldoro served as President ofCampania for the PdL. The party was later affiliated with the newForza Italia.
The party was founded on 19 January 2001 by the merger of theSocialist Party ofGianni De Michelis, theSocialist League ofBobo Craxi and former members of theItalian Democratic Socialist Party.
At its founding congress, the NPSI decided to enter the centre-rightHouse of Freedoms (CdL) coalition led bySilvio Berlusconi (a former friend ofBettino Craxi) as the centre-left was considered too compromised with theMani pulite investigation, upon which the oldItalian Socialist Party was disbanded while the exCommunists were not touched.
The centre-right won the2001 general election and Berlusconi appointed NPSI'sStefano Caldoro as Deputy Minister for Education in hisgovernment. In the election, the NPSI gained just 1.0% of the vote and had three deputies (Craxi,Vincenzo Milioto andChiara Moroni) and one senator (Franco Crinò) elected in single-seat constituencies. Secretary De Michelis and spokesperson Martelli were not elected since the party failed to pass the 4% threshold.
At the2004 European Parliament election, the NPSI formed an alliance with small social democratic movements and parties such asSocialist Unity, founded and headed byClaudio Signorile. The list, namedUnited Socialists for Europe, gained 2.0% of the vote and two MEPs, De Michelis andAlessandro Battilocchio. InCalabria, the list gained 7.0%, the highest result ever for the party. The party was denied membership of theGroup of the Party of European Socialists and the two NPSI MEPs sat asNon-Inscrits. They eventually joined theParty of European Socialists in October 2007 as members of the newly formedSocialist Party (PS).
At the2005 regional elections, the NPSI ran its lists as part of the CdL. In Calabria, the party's stronghold, it received 5.4%. However, the CdL lost 12 regions out of 14, forcing Berlusconi to reshuffle cabinet. In thenew government, Caldoro was promoted minister.
In October 2005, a national congress was held in Rome in order to deliberate the political line to be held by the party, particularly about electoral coalitions. During the congress, which was characterised by a heated atmosphere and several controversies, Craxi, who supported a "unity towards left" withinThe Union and an immediate retirement from Berlusconi's government, challenged De Michelis, who instead asked the congress to delay the decision.
De Michelis received support from Caldoro, Maroni and Battilocchio whereas Craxi was supported by Milioto, Crinò andSaverio Zavettieri, the powerful Calabrian leader of the party. At some point, De Michelis unrecognised the congress, declaring it had never been officially opened and abandoned it with all of his supporters. The remaining delegates thus elected Craxi secretary. Later, the Tribunal of Rome nullified the congress's outcome.
Craxi's faction abandoned the party immediately after the sentence, was re-organised intoThe Italian Socialists and joined The Union. After winning the legal dispute for the symbol and the leadership of the NPSI, De Michelis led the party into an alliance withGianfranco Rotondi'sChristian Democracy for Autonomies (DCA) at the2006 general election.
The DCA-NPSI list gained a mere 0.7% of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies and 0.6% for the Senate. It still had six deputies elected because as the list that received more votes under the 2% threshold in its alliance, the CdL. Of these, two were of the NPSI, namelyLucio Barani and Del Bue. Two more candidates were elected as candidates ofForza Italia (Moroni andGiovanni Ricevuto), but they abandoned the party in May, fearing that it was heading out of the centre-right coalition. Nonetheless, the NPSI and its two MPs formed a joint parliamentary group with the DCA comprising six MPs in total, which made it a minimal force in Parliament.
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In June 2007, the NPSI split among those who wanted to participate to the foundation of a joint Socialist Party along with theItalian Democratic Socialists ofEnrico Boselli,The Italian Socialists of Bobo Craxi and theAssociation for the Rose in the Fist ofLanfranco Turci and those who wanted to maintain the allegiance to theHouse of Freedoms coalition. The first group was led by De Michelis, the latter by Caldoro.
From some time, the NPSI had actually two leaderships, which were elected in two separate congresses. On 24 June, Stefano Caldoro was elected secretary of the right-wing faction of the party[13] while on 7–8 July Del Bue was elected secretary and De Michelis president by those NPSI members who wanted to take part to the foundation of the Socialist Party,[14] whose first meeting took place on 14 July.[15][16] In practical terms, there were two parties with the same name.[17] After the split, both groups had a member in the Chamber of Deputies, namely Del Bue for the left-wing and Barani for the right-wing (led by Caldoro). Anyway, already on 23 June the two groups had acknowledged the irreconcilability of their political choices and agreed on a consensual separation: the group of Caldoro and Barani would be calledNuovo PSI, while the group of De Michelis and Del Bue would be calledPartito Socialista.[18] This second faction, that however continued to act on behalf of the NPSI, joined theSocialist constituent assembly promoted byEnrico Boselli, while the two MEPs elected with the NPSI in 2004, De Michelis and Battilocchio, joined theSocialist Group in theEuropean Parliament.[19][20] Since that moment, the only NPSI was that led by Caldoro, who announced that its party was interested in joiningThe People of Freedom (PdL) along withForza Italia andNational Alliance.
At the2008 general election, the NPSI got two deputies re-elected on the PdL list, namely Caldoro and Barani. In March 2009, the party was merged into the PdL, but it has retained some of its autonomy. In the2010 Campania regional election, Caldoro was elected president by a landslide. Following his election, Caldoro was replaced as secretary by Barani. Caldoro was then elected president of the party.[21]
In 2013, the NPSI joinedForza Italia (FI), the new party born from the PdL's ashes.
In 2015, Barani stepped down from secretary after having joined theLiberal Popular Alliance, formed by FI dissidents who wanted to explicitly supportMatteo Renzi's centre-leftgovernment.[22][23] Following Barani's move, the party appointedAntonio Fasolino as coordinator, chose to cut its official ties with FI and launched the so-called "dual membership". Under this system, any NPSI member can contextually join another party, such as FI or the PSI. Caldoro remained with FI.[24][25][26]
In the2018 general election, Battilocchio was elected to the Chamber from the single-seat constituency ofCivitavecchia with the support of thecentre-right coalition.[27] After his election, Battilocchio, who was also a member of FI, joined FI's parliamentary group. Subsequently, in 2019, Barani was re-appointed secretary of the party.[28]
In the2022 general election, Battilocchio was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies,[29][30] while Caldoro failed to be elected to the Senate.[31] Following this and Caldoro's exclusion from theMeloni government,[32] the NPSI broke its alignment with FI,[33][34] while continuing to support the government.[35] In July 2023, the NPSI formed an agreement with theUnion of the Centre andGreen is Popular /Christian Democracy with Rotondi in theRegional Council of Campania.[36][37][38]
| Chamber of Deputies | ||||||
| Election year | No. of overall votes | % of overall vote | No. of overall seats won | +/– | Leader | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 353,269 (13th) | 0.93 | 3 / 630 | – | Gianni De Michelis | |
| 2006 | 285,474 (13th) | 0.74 | 4 / 630 |  1 | Gianni De Michelis | |
| 2008 | withPdL | – | 2 / 630 |  2 | Stefano Caldoro | |
| 2013 | withPdL | – | 0 / 630 | 2 | Stefano Caldoro | |
| 2018 | intoFI[a] | – | 1 / 630 | 1 | Stefano Caldoro | |
| 2022 | intoFI | – | 1 / 400 | – | Stefano Caldoro | |
| Senate of the Republic | |||||
| Election year | No. of overall votes | % of overall vote | No. of overall seats won | +/– | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | withCdL | – | 1 / 315 | – | Gianni De Michelis |
| 2006 | 190,724 (15th) | 0.55 | 0 / 315 | 1 | Gianni De Michelis |
| 2008 | withPdL | – | 0 / 315 | – | Stefano Caldoro |
| 2013 | withPdL | – | 1 / 315 | 1 | Stefano Caldoro |
| 2018 | intoFI | – | 0 / 315 | 1 | Stefano Caldoro |
| 2022 | intoFI | – | 0 / 200 | – | Stefano Caldoro |
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | EP Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004[a] | Gianni De Michelis | 664,463 (11th) | 2.04 | 2 / 72 | New | NI(2004-2007) PES(2007-2009) |
| 2009 | Did not contest | 0 / 72 | 2 | – | ||
| 2014 | Did not contest | 0 / 72 |  0 | |||
| 2019 | Did not contest | 0 / 72 | 0 | |||
| 2024 | Stefano Caldoro | IntoFdI | 0 / 72 | 0 | ||