Democratic Party (Italy)
The Democratic Party (, PD) is a social-democratic political party in Italy. The party's secretary is Elly Schlein, elected in the 2023 leadership election, while the party's president is Stefano Bonaccini. The PD was established in 2007 upon the merger of various centre-left parties which had been part of The Olive Tree list in the 2006 Italian general election, mainly the social-democratic Democrats of the Left (DS), successor of the Italian Communist Party and the Democratic Party of the Left, which was folded with several social-democratic parties (Labour Federation and Social Christians, among others) in 1998, as well as the largely Catholic-inspired Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL), a merger of the Italian People's Party (heir of the Christian Democracy party's left wing), The Democrats and Italian Renewal in 2002. While the party has also been influenced by Christian left, social liberalism and Third Way, especially under Matteo Renzi's leadership, the PD moved closer to social liberalism. Under latter leaders, especially Schlein, whose upbringing is influenced by the radical left, environmentalism and green politics, the party has moved to the left. Between 2013 and 2018, the Council of Ministers was led by three successive prime ministers of Italy from the PD, namely Letta (2013–2014), Renzi (2014–2016) and Paolo Gentiloni (2016–2018). The PD was the second-largest party in the 2018 Italian general election, where the centre-left coalition came third. The party was returned to government in September 2019 with the Conte II Cabinet, as junior partner of the Five Star Movement, and joined the national unity Draghi Cabinet, comprising also the League and Forza Italia, in February 2021. As of 2021, the party heads five regional governments. In the 2022 Italian general election, the PD-led coalition achieved similar results to 2018 and returned to the opposition. Prominent Democrats include former leaders Walter Veltroni, Dario Franceschini, Nicola Zingaretti and Enrico Letta. Former members have included Giorgio Napolitano (President of Italy, 2006–2015), Sergio Mattarella (President of Italy, 2015–present), four Prime Ministers (Romano Prodi, Giuliano Amato, Massimo D'Alema and Renzi), three former leaders (Pier Luigi Bersani, Guglielmo Epifani and, again, Renzi), as well as David Sassoli (President of the European Parliament, 2019–2022), Francesco Rutelli, Pietro Grasso and Carlo Calenda. History Background: The Olive Tree Following Tangentopoli scandals, the end of the so-called First Republic and the transformation of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) into the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) in the early 1990s, a process aimed at uniting left-wing and centre-left forces into a single political entity was started. In 1995, Romano Prodi, a former minister of Industry on behalf of the left-wing faction of Christian Democracy (DC), entered politics and founded The Olive Tree (L'Ulivo), a centre-left coalition including the PDS, the Italian People's Party (PPI), the Federation of the Greens (FdV), Italian Renewal (RI), the Italian Socialists (SI) and Democratic Union (UD). The coalition in alliance with the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) won the 1996 general election and Prodi became Prime Minister. In February 1998, the PDS merged with