New Italian Socialist Party
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| New Italian Socialist Party | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Secretary | Stefano Caldoro |
| Founded | 20 January 2001 |
| Headquarters | Via di Torre Argentina, 47 00186 Rome |
| Newspaper | Socialista Lab |
| Membership (2006) | 40,000[1] |
| Ideology | Social democracy |
| Coalition | People of Freedom |
| International | none |
| European party | none |
| European Parliament Group | none |
| Website | http://www.partitosocialista.org |
The New Italian Socialist Party (Nuovo Partito Socialista Italiano, NPSI) is a small Italian party which professes a social-democratic ideology and claims to be the successor to the old Italian Socialist Party, which was disbanded after the judiciary tempest of the early 1990s (see Mani Pulite).
The party's members are often former followers of Bettino Craxi, whom they often portray as a victim of political persecution, notwithstanding the many convictions he received on corruption charges. The party leader is Stefano Caldoro, former minister in Berlusconi III Cabinet.
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[edit] History
The party was founded in 2001 by the merge of the Socialist Party of Gianni De Michelis, the Socialist League of Claudio Martelli and Bobo Craxi (son of Bettino), who had been founding members of the Italian Democratic Socialists in 1998, other splinters of that party, as Mauro Del Bue, and former members of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party.
[edit] 2001 general election
At its founding congress, the NPSI decided to enter the new centre-right House of Freedoms coalition headed by the former friend of Bettino Craxi, Silvio Berlusconi. Its decision regarding not entering the centre-left coalition laid in the past during Mani Pulite affair when the old Italian Socialist Party disintegrated while the ex-Communist party was left untouched.
The House of Freedoms won the elections and Silvio Berlusconi formed a new executive where the NPSI was represented by Stefano Caldoro as vice-minister for Education. Although the coalition won, individually the NPSI received unpromising results. It gained 353,269 (1.0%) for the Chamber of Deputies, having three deputies and one senator elected partly thanks to the uninominal electoral system where all four MPs received the support from other centre-right parties.
The elected MPs were Bobo Craxi, Vincenzo Milioto, Chiara Moroni and Franco Crinò. The secretary of the party Gianni De Michelis and the spokesman of the party Claudio Martelli didn't get elected since the NPSI failed to pass the 4% threhold in the proportional quote. The NPSI is far away from the electoral success of the old Italian Socialist Party which, during the Eighties, gained 15% of the votes.
[edit] 2004 European Parliament election
In occasion for election, the NPSI makes alliances with small social-democratic movements and parties as Socialist Unity, founded and headed by Claudio Signorile (former member of the Italian Socialist Party): Socialists United for Europe. The list gained 665,771 votes (2.0%), doubling the party's electoral weight since 2001 general election, and elected two MEPs, Gianni De Michelis and Alessandro Battilocchio. In Calabria the list gained 7.0%, the highest result ever for the party. In the European Parliament, after appling for the Party of European Socialists group the two NPSI members did not join any party group and sat as Non-Inscrits. The two MEPs eventually joined the Party of European Socialists in October 2007 as members of the newly-formed Socialist Party.
One year after the European success, the NPSI presented itself in the House of Freedoms coalition for the regional elections of April 2005. In Calabria NPSI received 5.4%, confirming the Souther region as its stronghold. However, the House of Freedoms lost 12 regions out of 14, forcing Silvio Berlusconi to reshuffle cabinet. In his reshuffling he promoted Caldoro as a minister.
[edit] Split between De Michelis and Craxi
On 21-23 October 2005, a national congress was held in Rome in order to deliberate the new political line to be held by the party, particularly about the possibility to join The Union and thus leave the House of Freedoms.
During the congress, which was characterized by a heated atmosphere and several controversies, Bobo Craxi, who supported a "unity towards left" inside the Union and an immediate retirement from the Berlusconi government, challenged incumbent leader Gianni De Michelis, who instead asked the congress to delay such a decision.
De Michelis received support from Alessandro Battilocchio, Chiara Moroni, one of the four members of the Italian parliament for the party and daughter of a former leading Socialist member who committed suicide in the early 1990s during the Mani Pulite scandal, and the minister Stefano Caldoro, whereas Craxi, another party deputy, gained support from the other two members of parliament and powerful Calabrian leader Saverio Zavettieri.
In the end, Gianni De Michelis unrecognized the congress, declaring it had never been officially opened, and abandoned it with all of his supporters leaving the only Craxi supporters pretending to elect their candidate as "new party's leader". Later, the Tribunal of Rome, after a Craxi request, closed the contest in favor of the party leader.
[edit] 2006 general election
The Craxi's faction, which abandoned the party immediately after the verdict of annulment of the last congress, is now part of The Union, organised in a very small movement named The Italian Socialists, however Bobo Craxi refused to join the Rose in the Fist alliance, consisting of Italian Radicals and Italian Democratic Socialists. On the contrary Gianni De Michelis won the legal dispute for the symbol and the leadership of the NPSI on 25 January 2006 and forged an alliance with Christian Democracy for the Autonomies (DCA) led by Gianfranco Rotondi and Publio Fiori.
The alliance DCA-NPSI, which wanted to revive the political culture of the past, received an unpromising result. It gained 0.7% for the Chamber of Deputies and 0.6% for the Senate. Despite not having passed the 2% threshold it still had four deputies elected because it was the party that received more votes under the 2% threshold in its respective alliance (House of Freedoms). The elected candidates of the NPSI were Lucio Barani and Mauro del Bue. Two more candidates were elected as candidates of Forza Italia. However, the these two (Chiara Moroni and Giovanni Ricevuto), abandoned the party on 3 May, fearing that the party was heading out from the House of Freedoms.
Nonetheless the NPSI and its two MPs formed a joint parliamentary group with its former ally the Christian Democracy for the Autonomies comprising six MPs in total, which made it a minimal force in Parliament.
[edit] Split between Caldoro and De Michelis
In June 2007 the party split among those who wanted to participate to the foundation of the Socialist Party along with the Italian Democratic Socialists of Enrico Boselli, The Italian Socialists of Bobo Craxi and the Association for the Rose in the Fist of Lanfranco Turci and those who wanted to maintain the allegiance to the House of Freedoms coalition. The first group was led by Gianni De Michelis, the second one by Stefano Caldoro.
From July to October, the party had actually two secretaries, elected in two separate congresses: on 24 June Stefano Caldoro was elected secretary of the right-wing faction of the party, while on 7 July Mauro Del Bue replaced De Michelis as leader of those NPSI members who wanted to take part to the foundation of the Socialist Party, whose first meeting took place on 14 July 2007. After the split, both groups had a deputy: Mauro Del Bue for the NPSI–De Michelis and Lucio Barani for the NPSI–Caldoro.
In October, after a consensual separation between the two groups and the foundation of the Socialist Party by Boselli, De Michelis, Craxi, Turci and splinters from Democratic Left (including Gavino Angius and Valdo Spini), the group of De Michelis changed name into Socialist Party (coherently with name of the future party), while the group of Caldoro retained the party's name and decided to change symbol. Since that moment the only NPSI is that led by Caldoro, who has announced that its party is interested in joining the future People of Freedom party along with Forza Italia and National Alliance.
[edit] Leadership
- Secretary: Gianni De Michelis (2001–2007), Stefano Caldoro (2007–...)
- Deputy Secretary: Bobo Craxi (2002–2005), Mauro Del Bue (2003–2006), Chiara Moroni (2005–2006), Alessandro Battilocchio (2006–2007) Francesco Pizzo (2006–2007), Franco Spedale (2007–...)
- Spokesman: Claudio Martelli (2001–2002), Bobo Craxi (2002–2005), Chiara Moroni (2005–2006), Mauro Del Bue (2006–2007)
- President: Bobo Craxi (2001–2002), Vincenzo Milioto (2002–2005), Francesco Pizzo (2005–2007)
- Coordinator: Stefano Caldoro (2006–2007)
