Democratic Party of the Left

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Democratic Party of the Left
Newspaper	L'Unità
Membership	max: 989,708 (1991) min: 613,412 (1998)
Ideology	Democratic socialism
Website N/A

The Democratic Party of the Left (Partito democratico della Sinistra, PDS) was the evolution in a socialist direction of the Italian Communist Party, or PCI. It was founded by Achille Occhetto, last secretary of the PCI and first of the PDS.

The logo of the PDS consisted mainly of an oak tree that retained, in a small circle at the tree's roots, the previous symbol of the Italian Communist Party; this was done both to indicate the party's roots, and to avoid the Communist Refoundation Party making usage of the symbol immediately after the split between the two parties.

The PDS later merged with some smaller left-wing movements to form the Democrats of the Left, dropping the hammer and sickle for the classic social-democratic symbol, the red rose. The former PCI symbol was then taken over by the Party of Italian Communists. In 1997 Massimo D'Alema called for the party to become more of a European social democratic party. However, the PDS was not recognised as a European social democratic force.^{[dubious – discuss]}

[edit] Party leadership

• Secretary: Achille Occhetto (1991–1994), Massimo D'Alema (1994–1998)
  • Coordinator: Massimo D'Alema (1991–1993), Davide Visani (1993–1994), Mauro Zani (1994–1996), Marco Minniti (1996–1998)

• Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: Massimo D'Alema (1992–1994), Luigi Berlinguer (1994–1996), Fabio Mussi (1996–1998)
• Party Leader in the Senate: Giuseppe Chiarante (1992–1994), Cesare Salvi (1994–1998)
• Party Leader in the European Parliament: Renzo Imbeni (1994–1998)

 

Historical Italian political parties (active parties: simple version, in 2007)

Communist: Communist Party of Italy, Italian Communist Party, Organisation of Communists of Italy (Marxist-Leninists), Proletarian Unity Party, Proletarian Democracy, Movement of Unitarian Communists Socialist and social-democratic: Italian Socialist Party, Italian Reform Socialist Party, United Socialist Party (1922), Labour Democratic Party, Italian Socialist Workers' Party, United Socialist Party (1949), Italian Democratic Socialist Party, Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity, Unified Socialist Party, Democratic Party of the Left, Italian Socialists, Democrats of the Left Green: Green Lists, Rainbow Greens Social liberal: Action Party, Radical Party, Democratic Alliance, Democratic Union, Movement for Democracy – The Net, The Democrats, European Republicans Movement, Liberal: Italian Liberal Party, Union of the Centre, Liberal Party Centrist: Patto Segni, Italian Renewal, United Consumers, Southern Democratic Party, Middle-of-the-Road Italy, Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy Regionalist: Social Democratic Party of South Tyrol, Fronte Marco Polo, Sardinia Project, Sicilian Alliance Christian democratic: Italian People's Party (1919), Christian Democracy, Italian People's Party (1994), Christian Democratic Centre, United Christian Democrats, Christian Democrats for the Republic, Democratic Union for the Republic, European Democracy Conservative: Uomo Qualunque Front, Monarchist National Party, People's Monarchist Party, Italian Democratic Party of Monarchist Unity, National Democracy Fascist and neo-fascist: National Fascist Party, Italian Social Movement–National Right Leftist coalition: Popular Democratic Front, Alliance of Progressives, Centre-left coalition:The Olive Tree, The Union, Rose in the Fist Liberal coalition: National Democratic Union, National Bloc, Republicans, Liberals, Reformers Centrist coalition: Pact for Italy, Pact of Democrats Centre-right coalition: Pole of Freedoms, Pole of Good Government, House of Freedoms Conservative coalition: National Bloc of Freedom Neo-fascist coalition: Social Alternative Liste civetta: For the Abolition of Scorporo, New Country