Italian Socialist Party
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Italian Socialist Party Partito Socialista Italiano | |
---|---|
Red | |
The Italian Socialist Party (
A split with what became known as the
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
History
Early years
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
Rise of fascism
After the
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
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
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
In the
Decline
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
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
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
Both the SDI and the NPSI were minor political forces. A number of Socialist members and voters joined FI,
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
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
In the
In the
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
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- Italian Republic
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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
|
17
|
|
1904 | 326,016 (2nd) | 21.3 | 29 / 508
|
4
|
|
1909 | 347,615 (2nd) | 19.0 | 41 / 508
|
12
|
|
1913 | 883,409 (2nd) | 17.6 | 52 / 508
|
11
|
|
1919 | 1,834,792 (1st) | 32.3 | 156 / 508
|
104
|
|
1921 | 1,631,435 (1st) | 24.7 | 123 / 535
|
33
|
|
1924 | 360,694 (4th) | 5.0 | 22 / 535
|
101
|
|
1929 | Banned | – | 0 / 400
|
22
|
–
|
1934 | Banned | – | 0 / 400
|
–
|
–
|
1946 | 4,758,129 (2nd) | 20.7 | 115 / 556
|
115
|
|
1948 | 8,136,637 (2nd)[e] | 31.0 | 53 / 574
|
62
|
|
1953 | 3,441,014 (3rd) | 12.7 | 75 / 590
|
22
|
|
1958 | 4,206,726 (3rd) | 14.2 | 84 / 596
|
9
|
|
1963 | 4,255,836 (3rd) | 13.8 | 83 / 630
|
1
|
|
1968 | 4,605,832 (3rd)[f] | 14.5 | 62 / 630
|
21
|
|
1972 | 3,210,427 (3rd) | 10.0 | 61 / 630
|
1
|
|
1976 | 3,542,998 (3rd) | 9.6 | 57 / 630
|
4
|
|
1979 | 3,630,052 (3rd) | 9.9 | 62 / 630
|
5
|
|
1983 | 4,223,362 (3rd) | 11.4 | 73 / 630
|
11
|
|
1987 | 5,505,690 (3rd) | 14.3 | 94 / 630
|
21
|
|
1992 | 5,343,808 (3rd) | 13.6 | 92 / 630
|
2
|
|
1994 | 849,429 (10th) | 2.2 | 15 / 630
|
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
|
15
|
|
1958 | 3,682,945 (3rd) | 14.1 | 36 / 246
|
10
|
|
1963 | 3,849,495 (3rd) | 14.0 | 44 / 315
|
8
|
|
1968 | 4,354,906 (3rd)[f] | 15.2 | 36 / 315
|
8
|
|
1972 | 3,225,707 (3rd) | 10.7 | 33 / 315
|
3
|
|
1976 | 3,208,164 (3rd) | 10.2 | 30 / 315
|
3
|
|
1979 | 3,252,410 (3rd) | 10.4 | 32 / 315
|
2
|
|
1983 | 3,539,593 (3rd) | 11.4 | 38 / 315
|
6
|
|
1987 | 3,535,457 (3rd) | 10.9 | 43 / 315
|
5
|
|
1992 | 4,523,873 (3rd) | 13.6 | 49 / 315
|
6
|
|
1994 | 103,490 (11th) | 0.3 | 9 / 315
|
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
|
3
|
|
1994 | 606,538 (10th) | 1.8 | 2 / 87
|
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
|
15
|
|
1980 | 3,851,722 (3rd) | 12.7 | 86 / 720
|
4
|
|
1985 | 4,267,959 (3rd) | 13.3 | 94 / 720
|
8
|
|
1990 | 4,884,179 (3rd) | 15.3 | 113 / 720
|
19
|
Leadership
- Secretary: Pietro Nenni (1931–1945), Sandro Pertini (1945–1946), Ivan Matteo Lombardo (1946–1947), Lelio Basso (1947–1948), Alberto Jacometti (1948–1949), Pietro Nenni (1949–1963), Francesco De Martino (1963–1968), Mauro Ferri (1968–1969), Francesco De Martino (1969–1970), Giacomo Mancini (1970–1972), Francesco De Martino (1972–1976), Bettino Craxi (1976–1993), Giorgio Benvenuto (1993), Ottaviano Del Turco (1993–1994)
- Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: Paolo De Michelis (1946–1947), Pietro Nenni (1947–1964), Mauro Ferri (1964–1968), Flavio Orlandi (1968–1969), Antonio Giolitti (1969–1970), Luigi Bertoldi (1970–1973), Luigi Mariotti (1973–1976), Bettino Craxi (1976), Vincenzo Balzamo (1976–1980), Silvano Labriola (1980–1983), Rino Formica (1983–1986), Lelio Lagorio (1986–1987), Gianni De Michelis (1987–1988), Nicola Capria (1988–1991), Salvo Andò (1991–1992), Giuseppe La Ganga (1992–1993), Nicola Capria (1993–1994)
Symbols
The PSI was rather unusual among mainstream socialist parties in Europe in using the
-
1919–1921
-
1921–1943
-
1943–1947
-
1947–1966
-
1970-1977
-
1978–1986
-
1987–1991
Notes
- ^ They were Giuseppe Albertini, Enrico Boselli, Carlo Carli, Ottaviano Del Turco, Fabio Di Capua, Vittorio Emiliani, Mario Gatto, Luigi Giacco, Gino Giugni, Alberto La Volpe, Vincenzo Mattina, Valerio Mignone, Rosario Olivo, Corrado Paoloni, Giuseppe Pericu, and Valdo Spini.
- ^ They were Paolo Bagnoli, Orietta Baldelli, Francesco Barra, Luigi Biscardi, Guido De Martino, Gianni Fardin, Carlo Gubbini, Maria Rosaria Manieri, Cesare Marini, Maria Antonia Modolo, Michele Sellitti, Giancarlo Tapparo, Antonino Valletta, and Antonio Vozzi.
- Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (Giuseppe Drago), and 2 non-party members (Giuliano Amato and Giovanni Ricevuto).
- Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (Giuseppe Drago).
- ^ a b Into the Popular Democratic Front
- ^ a b Into the Unified PSI–PSDI
References
- ^ "Gli iscritti ai principali partiti politici italiani della Prima Repubblica dal 1945 al 1991" (in Italian). Cattaneo Institute. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-521-31511-1. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-8108-6477-1. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Il primo riformista italiano". Il Foglio (in Italian). 29 September 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Apse, Tobias (1994). "Italy: A New Agenda". In Anderson, Perry; Camiller, Patrick (eds.). Mapping the West European Left. Verso Books. pp. 189–233.
- ^ Garzillo, Salvatore (30 March 2021). "Socialismi a confronto: Bettino Craxi e Felipe Gonzaléz". Avanti (in Italian). Retrieved 7 February 2023.
- ^ Naso, Pierpaolo (20 November 2021). "Oltre destra e sinistra: la terza via in Italia". Il Pensiero Storico (in Italian). Retrieved 7 February 2023.
- ^ DeLisa, Antonio (11 October 2012). "Mani Pulite e Tangentopoli". Storiografia.me (in Italian). Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ISBN 978-0-275-95612-7.
- ^ Ancona, Pietro. "Il Partito Socialista Italiano verso il declino e la diaspora". Luccifanti.it (in Italian). Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ^ "Italian Socialist Party". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived 5 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- JSTOR 43207860.
- ^ Mack Smith, Denis (1983). Mussolini. New York: Vintage Books. p. 96.
- ISBN 9780061384752. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
- ^ "The Red Army of Turin" (25 October 1919). Workers' Dreadnought. Vol. VI. No. 31. p. 1122.
- ^ Kowalski, Werner (1985). Geschichte der sozialistis chen arbeiter-internationale: 1923 – 19. Berlin. Dt. Verl. d. Wissenschaften.
- ISBN 9780230597402.
- ^ Stille, Alexander (1996). Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "«Temeva di essere ucciso con un caffè in cella»". Archived 6 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Archiviostorico.corriere.it. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
- ^ a b c d e Corbetta, Piergiorgio Corbetta and Piretti, Maria Serena (2009). Atlante storico-elettorale d'Italia. Zanichelli. Bologna.
- ^ "Dipartimento per gli Affari Interni e Territoriali". Archived 25 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b "::: Ministero dell'Interno ::: Archivio Storico delle Elezioni". Elezionistorico.interno.it. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
- ISSN 2279-7238. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
- ^ 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
- Corduwener, Pepijn (6 June 2022). "The P.S.I. and the Crisis of Party Democracy. The Transformation of the Italian Socialists". Journal of Modern Italian Studies: 1–15. S2CID 249451834.
- Fifi, Gianmarco (15 August 2022). "From Social Protection to 'Progressive Neoliberalism': Writing the Left into the Rise and Resilience of Neoliberal Policies (1968–2019)". Review of International Political Economy. 30 (4): 1436–1458. S2CID 251609053.
- Gundle, Stephen (1996). The Rise and Fall of Craxi's Socialist Party. Routledge. pp. 85–98.
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