Italian Socialist Party

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Italian Socialist Party
Partito Socialista Italiano

The Italian Socialist Party (

far right, and was not able to move the country in the revolutionary direction it wanted.[4]

A split with what became known as the

class struggle and internationalism in favour of corporatism and ultranationalism, and his National Fascist Party led to the PSI's collapse in the controversial 1924 Italian general election and eventual ban in 1925. This led the party and its remaining leaders to the underground or in exile.[4] The PSI dominated the Italian left until after World War II, when it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party (PCI). The two parties formed an alliance lasting until 1956 and governed together at the local level, particularly in some big cities and the so-called red regions until the 1990s. The PSI suffered the right-wing split of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party, whose members opposed the alliance with the PCI and favoured joining the Centrism coalition, in 1947 and the left-wing split of the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity, whose members wanted to continue the cooperation with the PCI, in 1964. Starting from the 1960s, the PSI frequently participated in coalition governments led by Christian Democracy, from the Organic centre-left to the Pentapartito in the 1980s.[4]

The PSI, which always remained the country's third-largest party, came to special prominence in the 1980s when its leader

The PSI was disbanded in 1994 as a result of the

Tangentopoli scandals.[11] A series of legal successors followed, including the Italian Socialists (1994–1998),[12] the Italian Democratic Socialists (1998–2007) and the Socialist Party (formed in 2007, it took the PSI name in October 2009) within the centre-left coalition,[4] and a string of minor parties and the New Italian Socialist Party (formed in 2001) within the centre-right coalition.[4] These parties have never reached the popularity of the old PSI. Former PSI leading members and voters have joined quite different parties, from the centre-right, such as Forza Italia, The People of Freedom and the new Forza Italia, to the centre-left, such as the Democratic Party.[13]

History

Early years

Filippo Turati was one of the founders of the party.

The PSI was founded in 1892 as the Party of Italian Workers (Partito dei Lavoratori Italiani) by delegates of several workers' associations and parties, notably including the Italian Workers' Party and the Milanese Socialist League.[14] It was part of a wave of new socialist parties at the end of the 19th century and had to endure persecution by the Italian government during its early years. It modelled on the Social Democratic Party of Germany.[15] While in Sicily the Fasci Siciliani were spreading as a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration, the party was celebrating on 8 September 1893 its second congress in Reggio Emilia and changed its name to the Socialist Party of Italian Workers (Partito Socialista dei Lavoratori Italiani). During the third congress on 13 January 1895 in Parma, it decided to adopt the name of Italian Socialist Party and Filippo Turati was elected its secretary.[4]

At the start of the 20th century, the PSI chose not to strongly oppose the governments led by five-time prime minister

Bolshevik wing of the PSI who purged moderate or reformist socialists.[16]

Rise of fascism

Nicola Bombacci was secretary of the PSI and leader of its revolutionary wing, who led the party to its best result ever in 1919.

Italian Fasces of Combat). During the Third Fascist Congress in late 1921, Mussolini turned the Fasces of Combat into the National Fascist Party.[17]

After the

Communist Party of Italy (PCdI), a division from which the PSI never recovered and that had enormous consequences on Italian politics. In 1922, another split occurred when the reformist wing of the party, headed by Turati and Giacomo Matteotti, was expelled and formed the Unitary Socialist Party (PSU).[4]

Matteotti was assassinated by Fascists in 1924 and shortly afterwards a Fascist one-party dictatorship was established in Italy. The PSI and all other political parties except the Fascist party were banned in 1926. The party's leadership remained in exile during the Fascist years; in 1930, the PSU was re-integrated into the PSI. The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1930 and 1940.[19]

Post-World War II

Pietro Nenni was a historical leader of the PSI.

In the 1946 Italian general election, the first after World War II, the PSI obtained 20.7% of the vote, narrowly ahead of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) that gained 18.9%. In the 1948 Italian general election, the United States secretly convinced Britain's Labour Party to pressure Socialists to end all coalitions with Communists, which fostered a split in PSI.[20] Socialists led by Pietro Nenni chose to take part in the Popular Democratic Front along with the PCI, while Giuseppe Saragat launched the Italian Workers' Socialist Party. The PSI was weakened by the split and was far less organised than the PCI, so Communist candidates were far more competitive. As a result, the PSI parliamentary delegation was cut by a half. Nonetheless, the PSI continued its alliance with the PCI until 1956, when the Soviet repression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 caused a major split between the two parties.[4]

Starting from 1963, Socialists participated in the Organic centre-left governments in alliance with Christian Democracy (DC), the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI) and the Italian Republican Party (PRI). These governments acceded to many of the demands of the PSI for social reform and laid the foundations for Italy's modern welfare state.[21] During the 1960s and 1970s, the PSI lost much of its influence despite actively participating in the government. The PCI gradually outnumbered it as the dominant political force in the Italian left. The PSI tried to enlarge its base by joining forces with the PSDI under the name Unified Socialist Party (PSU). After a disappointing loss in the 1968 Italian general election in which the PSU gained far fewer seats in total than each of the two parties had obtained separately in 1963, it disbanded. The 1972 Italian general election underlined the PSI's precipitate decline as the party received less than 10% of the vote compared to 14.2% in 1958, when Nenni assumed the leadership of the autonomist faction.[4]

Bettino Craxi

Bettino Craxi was party leader from 1976 to 1993 and the party's first Prime Minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987.

In 1976, Bettino Craxi was elected new secretary of the party. From the beginning, Craxi tried to undermine the PCI, which until then had been continuously increasing its votes in elections and to consolidate the PSI as a modern, strongly pro-European reformist party, with deep roots in the democratic left-wing, and a left-wing alternative to the Historic Compromise between DC and PCI.[4] This strategy called for ending most of the party's historical traditions as a working-class trade union based party and attempting to gain new support among white-collar and public sector employees. At the same time, the PSI increased its presence in the big state-owned enterprises and became heavily involved in corruption and illegal party funding, which would eventually result in the mani pulite investigations.

Even if the PSI never became a serious electoral challenger either to the PCI or the DC, its pivotal position in the political arena allowed it to claim the post of Prime Minister for Craxi after the 1983 Italian general election. The electoral support for DC was significantly weakened, leaving it with 32.9% of the vote, compared to the 38.3% it gained in 1979. The PSI that had obtained only 11% threatened to leave the parliamentary majority unless Craxi was made Prime Minister. Christian Democrats accepted this compromise to avoid a new election. Craxi became the first Socialist in the history of the Italian Republic to be appointed Prime Minister.

Unlike many of its predecessors, Craxi's government proved to be durable, lasting three and a half years from 1983 to 1987. During those years, the PSI gained popularity as Craxi successfully boosted the country's

GNP and controlled inflation. He demonstrated Italy's independence and nationalism in the clash with the United States during the Sigonella incident. Moreover, Craxi spoke of many reforms, including the transformation of the Constitution of Italy toward a presidential system. The PSI looked like the driving force behind the bulk of reforms initiated by the Pentapartito
coalition. Craxi lost his post in March 1987 due to a conflict with the other parties of the coalition over the proposed budget for 1987.

In the

Tangentopoli
scandals.

Decline

Giuliano Amato was the party's second Prime Minister of Italy from 1992 to 1993.

In February 1992, Mario Chiesa, a Socialist hospital administrator in Milan, was caught taking a bribe. Craxi denounced Chiesa by calling him an isolated thief, who had nothing to do with the party as a whole. Feeling betrayed, Chiesa confessed his crimes to the police and implicated others, starting a chain reaction of judicial investigations that would ultimately engulf the entire political system. The investigations, named mani pulite ("clean hands") was carried out by three Milanese magistrates among whom Antonio Di Pietro quickly stood out becoming a national hero thanks to his charismatic character and his ability to extract confessions.

The investigations were suspended for four weeks for the 1992 Italian general election to take place in an uninfluenced atmosphere and the PSI managed to garner 13.6% of the vote in spite of the corruption scandals. Many in the party thought the scandal had been brought under control; they failed to realise that investigations would eventually be launched against ministers and party leaders. Furthermore, as early as May 1992, public opinion unconditionally supported the magistrates against a political system that the majority of Italians already distrusted. Craxi himself was under criminal investigation since December 1992. In April 1993, the Italian Parliament denied four times the authorisation for magistrates to continue investigation for Craxi. Italian newspapers shouted scandal and Craxi was besieged at his Rome residence by a crowd of young people, who threw coins at him, shouting "Bettino, do you want these as well?" This scene was to become one of the many symbols of that period.

In 1992–1993, many PSI regional, provincial, and municipal deputies, MPs, mayors and even ministers found themselves overwhelmed with accusations and arrests. At this point, public opinion turned against the PSI and many regional headquarters of the party were besieged by people who wanted an honest party with true socialist values. Between January 1993 and February 1993, Claudio Martelli (former Justice Minister and Deputy Prime Minister) started to contend for party leadership. Martelli stepped forward as a candidate, emphasising the need to clean the party of corruption and make it electable. Although he had many supporters, Martelli and Craxi were both caught in a scandal dating back to 1982, when the Banco Ambrosiano gave to the two of them around 7 million dollars. Martelli subsequently resigned from the party and from the government. Giuliano Amato, a member of the PSI, resigned as Prime Minister in April 1993. His government was succeeded by a technocratic government led by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

Dissolution

carnation
became the main symbol of the late PSI.

Craxi resigned as party secretary in February 1993. Between 1992 and 1993, most members of the party left politics and three PSI deputies committed suicide. Craxi was succeeded by two Socialist trade-unionists, first Giorgio Benvenuto and then by Ottaviano Del Turco. In the December 1993 provincial and municipal elections, the PSI was virtually wiped out, receiving around 3% of the vote. In Milan, where the PSI had won 20% in 1990, the PSI received a mere 2% and was shut out of the council. Del Turco tried in vain to regain credibility for the party.

By the

]

The party was disbanded on 13 November 1994 after two years in which almost all of its longtime leaders, especially Craxi, were involved in Tangentopoli and decided to leave politics.[citation needed] The 100-year-old party closed down, partially thanks to its leaders for their personalisation of the PSI.

Diaspora

Enrico Boselli tried an unsuccessful renaissance for the PSI and its legal successors.

Socialists who did not align with the other parties organised themselves in two groups: the Italian Socialists (SI) of Enrico Boselli, Ottaviano Del Turco, Roberto Villetti, Riccardo Nencini, Cesare Marini, and Maria Rosaria Manieri, who decided to be autonomous from the PDS; and the Labour Federation (FL) of Valdo Spini, Antonio Ruberti, Giorgio Ruffolo, Giuseppe Pericu, Carlo Carli, and Rosario Olivo, who entered in close alliance with it. The SI eventually merged with other Socialist splinter groups to form the Italian Democratic Socialists (SDI) in 1998, while the FL merged with PDS to form the Democrats of the Left (DS) later on that year.

Between 1994 and 1996, many former Socialists joined

Socialist Party, while others like Fabrizio Cicchitto and Enrico Manca launched the Reformist Socialist Party. In the 2000s, two outfits claimed to be the party's successor, namely the Italian Democratic Socialists (SDI) that evolved from the Italian Socialists (SI) and the New Italian Socialist Party (NPSI) founded by Gianni De Michelis, Claudio Martelli, and Bobo Craxi
in 2001.

Both the SDI and the NPSI were minor political forces. A number of Socialist members and voters joined FI,

The Olive Tree
as an independent.

In 2007, some former Socialists, including the SDI, a portion of the NPSI led by Gianni De Michelis, The Italian Socialists of Bobo Craxi, Socialism is Freedom of Rino Formica and splinters from the DS joined forces and formed the Socialist Party (PS), renamed Italian Socialist Party (PSI) in 2011. This PSI is the only Italian party represented in Parliament that explicitly refers to itself as Socialist; many other Socialist associations and organisation participate to the political debate both in the centre-right and the centre-left coalitions.

Ideology

During its century-long history, the party's

centre-left, positioned between the PCI and Christian Democracy, and was part of Italy's first centre-left government in the 1960s; its inclusion led those governments to be called the Organic centre-left.[4]

Popular support

When Socialists came out in the late 1890s, they were present only in rural Emilia-Romagna and southern Lombardy, where they won their first seats of the Chamber of Deputies; they soon enlarged their base in other areas of the country, especially the urban areas around Turin, Milan, Genoa, and to some extent Naples, densely populated by industrial workers. In the 1900 Italian general election, the party won 5.0% of the vote and 33 seats, its best result so far. Emilia-Romagna was confirmed as the Socialist heartland (20.2% and 13 seats), and the party also did well in Lombardy and Piedmont.[24]

By the end of the 1910s, Socialists had broadened their organisation to all the regions of Italy but were stronger in

first-past-the-post system, they had their best result ever: 32.0% and 156 seats. The PSI was at the time the representative of both the rural workers of Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and north-western Piedmont and the industrial workers of Turin, Milan, Venice, Bologna, and Florence. In 1919, the party won 49.7% in Piedmont (over 60% in Novara), 45.9% in Lombardy (over 60% in Mantua and Pavia), 60.0% in Emilia-Romagna (over 70% around Bologna and Ferrara), 41.7% in Tuscany, and 46.5% in Umbria.[24]

In the

Communist Party of Italy, the PSI was reduced to 24.5% and was particularly damaged in Piedmont and Tuscany, where Communists got more than 10% of the vote.[24] During the Italian Resistance, which was fought mostly in Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, and Central Italy, Communists were able to take roots and organise people much better than Socialists so that at the end of World War II the balance between the two parties was completely changed. In the 1946 Italian general election, the PSI was narrowly ahead of Communists (20.7% over 18.7%) but was no longer the dominant party in Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany.[25]

Craxi during a party congress in the 1980s

In the

Po River, having gained more votes than Communists only narrowly in Lombardy and Veneto. The margin between the two parties would have become larger and larger until its peak in the 1976 Italian general election, when the PCI won 34.4% of the vote and the PSI stopped at 9.6%. At that time, Communists had almost five times the vote of Socialists in the PSI's ancient heartlands of rural Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, and three times in the Northern regions, where the PSI had some local strongholds left such as in north-eastern Piedmont, north-western and southern Lombardy, north-eastern Veneto, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, where it gained steadily 12–20% of the vote.[24][26]

Under the leadership of Bettino Craxi in the 1980s, the PSI had a substantial increase in term of votes. The party strengthened its position in Lombardy, north-eastern Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and broadened its power base to Southern Italy, as all the other parties of Pentapartito coalition (Christian Democracy, Italian Republican Party, Italian Democratic Socialist Party, and the Italian Liberal Party) were experiencing. In the 1987 Italian general election, the PSI gained 14.3% of the vote, which was below expectations after four years of government led by Craxi. Alongside the high shares of vote in north-western Lombardy and the North-East (both around 18–20%), the PSI did fairly well in Campania (14.9%), Apulia (15.3%), Calabria (16.9%), and Sicily (14.9%). In the 1992 Italian general election, this trend toward the South was even more evident, and is also reflected in the PSI's main successors, the Italian Socialists, the Italian Democratic Socialists, the New Italian Socialist Party, and the modern-day Italian Socialist Party, all of which had always been stronger in those Southern regions. While Socialists, like Communists and Christian Democrats, had lost votes to Lega Nord, especially in Lombardy, they gained in the South, reaching 19.6% of the vote in Campania, 17.8% in Apulia, and 17.2% in Calabria.[24][26]

  • Kingdom of Italy
  • Italian Republic

The electoral results of the PSI in general (Chamber of Deputies) and European Parliament elections since 1895 are shown in the chart above.

Electoral results

Italian Parliament

Chamber of Deputies
Election year Votes % Seats +/− Leader
1895 82,523 (4th) 6.8
15 / 508
1897 82,536 (5th) 3.0
15 / 508
1900 164,946 (3rd) 13.0
33 / 508
Increase 17
1904 326,016 (2nd) 21.3
29 / 508
Decrease 4
1909 347,615 (2nd) 19.0
41 / 508
Increase 12
1913 883,409 (2nd) 17.6
52 / 508
Increase 11
1919 1,834,792 (1st) 32.3
156 / 508
Increase 104
1921 1,631,435 (1st) 24.7
123 / 535
Decrease 33
1924 360,694 (4th) 5.0
22 / 535
Decrease 101
1929 Banned
0 / 400
Decrease 22
1934 Banned
0 / 400
1946 4,758,129 (2nd) 20.7
115 / 556
Increase 115
1948 8,136,637 (2nd)[e] 31.0
53 / 574
Decrease 62
1953 3,441,014 (3rd) 12.7
75 / 590
Increase 22
1958 4,206,726 (3rd) 14.2
84 / 596
Increase 9
1963 4,255,836 (3rd) 13.8
83 / 630
Decrease 1
1968 4,605,832 (3rd)[f] 14.5
62 / 630
Decrease 21
1972 3,210,427 (3rd) 10.0
61 / 630
Decrease 1
1976 3,542,998 (3rd) 9.6
57 / 630
Decrease 4
1979 3,630,052 (3rd) 9.9
62 / 630
Increase 5
1983 4,223,362 (3rd) 11.4
73 / 630
Increase 11
1987 5,505,690 (3rd) 14.3
94 / 630
Increase 21
1992 5,343,808 (3rd) 13.6
92 / 630
Decrease 2
1994 849,429 (10th) 2.2
15 / 630
Decrease 77
Senate of the Republic
Election year Votes % Seats +/− Leader
1948 6,969,122 (2nd)[e] 30.8
41 / 237
1953 2,891,605 (3rd) 11.9
26 / 237
Decrease 15
1958 3,682,945 (3rd) 14.1
36 / 246
Increase 10
1963 3,849,495 (3rd) 14.0
44 / 315
Increase 8
1968 4,354,906 (3rd)[f] 15.2
36 / 315
Decrease 8
1972 3,225,707 (3rd) 10.7
33 / 315
Decrease 3
1976 3,208,164 (3rd) 10.2
30 / 315
Decrease 3
1979 3,252,410 (3rd) 10.4
32 / 315
Increase 2
1983 3,539,593 (3rd) 11.4
38 / 315
Increase 6
1987 3,535,457 (3rd) 10.9
43 / 315
Increase 5
1992 4,523,873 (3rd) 13.6
49 / 315
Increase 6
1994 103,490 (11th) 0.3
9 / 315
Decrease 40

European Parliament

European Parliament
Election year Votes % Seats +/− Leader
1979 3,866,946 (3rd) 11.0
9 / 81
1984 3,940,445 (3rd) 11.2
9 / 81
1989 5,151,929 (3rd) 14.8
12 / 81
Increase 3
1994 606,538 (10th) 1.8
2 / 87
Decrease 10

Regional elections

Regions of Italy
Election year Votes % Seats +/− Leader
1970 2,837,451 (3rd) 10.4
67 / 720
1975 3,631,912 (3rd) 12.0
82 / 720
Increase 15
1980 3,851,722 (3rd) 12.7
86 / 720
Increase 4
1985 4,267,959 (3rd) 13.3
94 / 720
Increase 8
1990 4,884,179 (3rd) 15.3
113 / 720
Increase 19

Leadership

Symbols

The PSI was rather unusual among mainstream socialist parties in Europe in using the

carnation to represent the new course of the party, in honour of the Carnation Revolution
in Portugal. The party shrank the size of the old hammer and sickle in the lower part of the symbol. It was eventually eliminated altogether in 1987.

  • 1919–1921
    1919–1921
  • 1921–1943
    1921–1943
  • 1943–1947
    1943–1947
  • 1947–1966
    1947–1966
  • 1970-1977
    1970-1977
  • 1978–1986
    1978–1986
  • 1987–1991
    1987–1991

Notes

References

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  2. . Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  3. . Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Partito socialista italiano in 'Dizionario di Storia'". Treccani (in Italian). Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  5. ^ "17 novembre 2003 – 'Il PSI di Craxi visto dal PCI di Berliguer' intevento di Umberto Ranieri al Convegno di Italianieuropei 'Riformismo socialista e Italia repubblicana. Storia e politica'". Il Socialista (in Italian). Archived from the original on 29 August 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  6. ^ "Il primo riformista italiano". Il Foglio (in Italian). 29 September 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  7. ^ Forte, Francesco (2015). "Il socialismo liberale di Craxi vent'anni di anticipo sul New Labour". Critica Sociale (in Italian). Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  8. ^ Apse, Tobias (1994). "Italy: A New Agenda". In Anderson, Perry; Camiller, Patrick (eds.). Mapping the West European Left. Verso Books. pp. 189–233.
  9. ^ Garzillo, Salvatore (30 March 2021). "Socialismi a confronto: Bettino Craxi e Felipe Gonzaléz". Avanti (in Italian). Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  10. ^ Naso, Pierpaolo (20 November 2021). "Oltre destra e sinistra: la terza via in Italia". Il Pensiero Storico (in Italian). Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  11. ^ DeLisa, Antonio (11 October 2012). "Mani Pulite e Tangentopoli". Storiografia.me (in Italian). Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  12. .
  13. ^ Ancona, Pietro. "Il Partito Socialista Italiano verso il declino e la diaspora". Luccifanti.it (in Italian). Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  14. ^ "Italian Socialist Party". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived 5 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  15. JSTOR 43207860
    .
  16. ^ Mack Smith, Denis (1983). Mussolini. New York: Vintage Books. p. 96.
  17. . Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  18. ^ "The Red Army of Turin" (25 October 1919). Workers' Dreadnought. Vol. VI. No. 31. p. 1122.
  19. ^ Kowalski, Werner (1985). Geschichte der sozialistis chen arbeiter-internationale: 1923 – 19. Berlin. Dt. Verl. d. Wissenschaften.
  20. .
  21. ^ Stille, Alexander (1996). Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic.
  22. ^ "Scritto inedito di Craxi: 'Ho speso tutta la mia vita politica per l'Unità socialista'". L'Avanti (in Italian). 18 January 2023. Retrieved 1 February 2023 – via Il Riformista.
  23. ^ "«Temeva di essere ucciso con un caffè in cella»". Archived 6 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Archiviostorico.corriere.it. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  24. ^ a b c d e Corbetta, Piergiorgio Corbetta and Piretti, Maria Serena (2009). Atlante storico-elettorale d'Italia. Zanichelli. Bologna.
  25. ^ "Dipartimento per gli Affari Interni e Territoriali". Archived 25 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  26. ^ a b "::: Ministero dell'Interno ::: Archivio Storico delle Elezioni". Elezionistorico.interno.it. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  27. ISSN 2279-7238
    . Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  28. ^ Maestri, Gabriele (28 October 2018). "La rosa nel pugno: simbolo forte, costato 60 milioni di lire". I Simboli della Discordia (in Italian). Retrieved 20 November 2022.

Further reading

External links