Following the national conventions of the
Democrats of the Left (DS) and
Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL),
Romano Prodi announced a list of 45 politicians which would have composed the Organising Committee of the Democratic Party. All members successively met on 18 June 2007 in order to decide the rules regarding the election of the first leader and the 2,400 members of the Constituting Assembly. A method was chosen in order to associate lists with leadership candidates. In order to run into the election, a number of 100 signatures were needed, whereas at least 2,000 approved signatures were requested to run into the leadership race.
Leadership race 30 July 2007 was the deadline for presenting leadership candidacies. All candidates were requested to be clearly associated with the Democratic Party project, as either members of the political subjects forming it or with no party association at all. On the 30 July deadline, a total of eleven candidates officially registered their candidacy:
Walter Veltroni,
Rosy Bindi,
Enrico Letta,
Furio Colombo,
Marco Pannella,
Antonio Di Pietro,
Mario Adinolfi, ,
Jacopo G. Schettini, Lucio Cangini and Amerigo Rutigliano. Of these, Pannella and Di Pietro were stopped because of their involvement in external parties, whereas Cangini and Rutigliano did not manage to present the necessary 2,000 valid signatures for the 9pm deadline, and Colombo's candidacy was instead made into hiatus in order to give him 48 additional hours to integrate the required documentation; Colombo later decided to retire his candidacy citing his impossibility to fit with all the requirements. All rejected candidates had the chance against the decision in 48 hours' time, with Pannella and Rutigliano being the only two candidates to appeal against it. Both were rejected on 3 August. All polls predicted a clear victory for Veltroni in the election, with results ranging from 65% to 75% circa. On 26 September 2007,
Jacopo G. Schettini retired and announced he was moving his support to Gawronski, running alongside him for the party leadership.
Accepted candidacies ;Walter Veltroni
Walter Veltroni was the incumbent
Mayor of Rome and a former
Democrats of the Left party leader. His candidacy was publicly requested on 20 June by incumbent Democrats of the Left leader
Piero Fassino, who publicly asked
Walter Veltroni, being suggested by several opinion polls suggesting Veltroni could potentially win hands down the leadership race. Veltroni officially announced his intention to run at a widely publicized rally in
Turin on 27 June. He ran in a joint ticket with deputy-leadership candidate
Dario Franceschini,
Olive Tree speaker at the
Chamber of Deputies. ;Rosy Bindi
Rosaria "Rosy" Bindi was part of the
Prodi II Cabinet as Minister of Family (a
minister without portfolio) for
Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy. ;Enrico Letta
Enrico Letta was the incumbent
undersecretary in the
Prodi II Cabinet, and a leading member of
Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy. 40-year-old Letta announced his candidacy via a video posted online on his personal website on 24 July. ;Minor candidates •
Jacopo G. Schettini, economist on CSR, director of the European
Standard Ethics Aei, announced his candidacy just few days after Mr. Veltroni on 3 July. • , 50-year-old economist and Oxford graduate; ;Furio Colombo
Furio Colombo was an elected
Senator for Democrats of the Left, and former editor-in-law for left-wing newspaper ''
L'Unità''. His candidacy was initially made into hiatus by the Organizing Committee due to his failure in presenting the original copy of many of the requested 2,000 signatures. Colombo then announced his withdrawal from the competition, citing his impossibility to leave Rome in the days to come due to his Senate commitments. He however handed over the necessary signatures with a 30 minutes delay with respect to the 9pm deadline, and his candidacy was therefore rejected. == Opinion polling ==