Background: The Olive Tree In the early 1990s a process was started, aimed at uniting left-wing and centre-left forces into a single political entity. This followed the
Tangentopoli corruption 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 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 minor social democratic parties (
Labour Federation and
Social Christians, among others) to become the
Democrats of the Left (DS), while in March 2002 the PPI, RI and
The Democrats (Prodi's own party, launched in 1999) became
Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL). In the summer of 2003, Prodi suggested that centre-left forces should participate in the
2004 European Parliament election with a common list. Whereas the
Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR) and the far-left parties refused, four parties accepted, namely the DS, DL, the
Italian Democratic Socialists (SDI) and the
European Republicans Movement (MRE). These launched a joint list named United in the Olive Tree which ran in the election and garnered 31.1% of the vote. The project was later abandoned in 2005 by the SDI. In the
2006 general election the list obtained 31.3% of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies.
Road to the Democratic Party The project of a Democratic Party was often mentioned by Prodi as the natural evolution of The Olive Tree and was bluntly envisioned by
Michele Salvati, a former centrist deputy of the DS, in an appeal in
Il Foglio newspaper in April 2013. The term
Partito Democratico was used for the first time in a formal context by the DL and DS members of the
Regional Council of
Veneto, who chose to form a joint group named The Olive Tree – Venetian Democratic Party (''L'Ulivo – Partito Democratico Veneto'') in March 2007. The 2006 election result, anticipated by the 2005
primary election in which over four million voters endorsed Prodi as candidate for prime minister, gave a push to the project of a unified centre-left party. Eight parties agreed to merge into the PD: •
Democrats of the Left (DS,
social democratic, leader:
Piero Fassino) •
Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL,
centrist, leader:
Francesco Rutelli). •
Southern Democratic Party (PDM, centrist, leader:
Agazio Loiero); •
Sardinia Project (PS, social democratic, leader:
Renato Soru); •
European Republicans Movement (MRE,
social-liberal, leader:
Luciana Sbarbati); •
Democratic Republicans (RD, social-liberal, leader:
Giuseppe Ossorio); •
Middle Italy (IdM, centrist, leader:
Marco Follini); •
Reformist Alliance (AR, social democratic, leader:
Ottaviano Del Turco). While the DL agreed to the merger with virtually no resistance, the DS experienced a more heated final congress. On 19 April 2007, approximately 75% of party members voted in support of the merger of the DS into the PD. The left-wing opposition, led by
Fabio Mussi, obtained just 15% of the support within the party. A third motion, presented by
Gavino Angius and supportive of the PD only within the
Party of European Socialists (PES), obtained 10% of the vote. Both Mussi and Angius refused to join the PD and, following the congress, founded a new party called
Democratic Left (SD). On 22 May 2007 the organising committee of the nascent party was formed. It consisted of 45 members, mainly politicians from the two aforementioned major parties and the leaders of the other six minor parties. Also leading external figures such as
Giuliano Amato,
Marcello De Cecco,
Gad Lerner,
Carlo Petrini and
Tullia Zevi were included. On 18 June, the committee decided the rules for the open election of the 2,400 members of the party's constituent assembly; each voter could choose between a number of lists, each of them associated with a candidate for secretary.
Foundation and leadership election All candidates interested in running for the PD leadership had to be associated with one of the founding parties and present at least 2,000 valid signatures by 30 July 2007. A total of ten candidates officially registered their candidacy:
Walter Veltroni,
Rosy Bindi,
Enrico Letta,
Furio Colombo,
Marco Pannella,
Antonio Di Pietro,
Mario Adinolfi,
Pier Giorgio Gawronski,
Jacopo Schettini,
Lucio Cangini and
Amerigo Rutigliano. Of these, Pannella and Di Pietro were rejected because of their involvement in external parties (the
Radicals and
Italy of Values respectively) whereas Cangini and Rutigliano did not manage to present the necessary 2,000 valid signatures for the 9 pm deadline and Colombo's candidacy was instead made into hiatus 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. Both were rejected on 3 August. On 14 October 2007 Veltroni was elected leader with about 75% of the national votes in an
open primary attended by over three million voters. Veltroni was proclaimed secretary during a party's constituent assembly held in
Milan on 28 October 2007. On 21 November the new logo was unveiled. It depicts an
olive branch and the acronym PD in colours reminiscent of the
Italian tricolour flag (green, white and red). In the words of
Ermete Realacci, green represents the ecologist and social-liberal cultures, white the Catholic solidarity and red the socialist and social democratic traditions. The green-white-red idea was coined by Schettini during his campaign.
Leadership of Walter Veltroni After the premature fall of the
Prodi II Cabinet in January 2008, the PD decided to form a less diverse coalition. The party invited the Radicals and the
Socialist Party (PS) to join its lists, but only the Radicals accepted and formed an alliance with Italy of Values (IdV) which was set to join the PD after the election. The PD included many notable candidates and new faces in its lists and
Walter Veltroni, who tried to present the PD as the party of the renewal in contrast both with
Silvio Berlusconi and the previous centre-left government, ran an intense and modern campaign which led him to visit all
provinces of Italy, but that was not enough. In the
2008 general election on 13–14 April 2008, the PD–IdV coalition won 37.5% of the vote and was defeated by the
centre-right coalition, composed of
The People of Freedom (PdL), the
Lega Nord and the
Movement for Autonomy (46.8%). The PD was able to absorb some votes from the parties of the far-left as also IdV did, but lost voters to the
Union of the Centre (UdC), ending up with 33.2% of the vote, 217 deputies and 119 senators. After the election Veltroni, who was gratified by the result, formed a
shadow cabinet. IdV, excited by its 4.4% which made it the fourth largest party in Parliament, refused to join both the Democratic groups and the shadow cabinet. The early months after the election were a difficult time for the PD and Veltroni, whose leadership was weakened by the growing influence of internal factions because of the popularity of Berlusconi and the dramatic rise of IdV in opinion polls. IdV became a strong competitor of the PD and the relations between the two parties became tense. In the
2008 Abruzzo regional election, the PD was forced to support IdV candidate
Carlo Costantini. In October, Veltroni, who distanced from Di Pietro many times, declared that "on some issues he [Di Pietro] is distant from the democratic language of the centre-left".
Leadership of Dario Franceschini After a crushing defeat in the February 2009
Sardinian regional election,
Walter Veltroni resigned as party secretary. His deputy
Dario Franceschini took over as interim party secretary to guide the party toward the selection of a new stable leader. Franceschini was elected by the party's national assembly with 1,047 votes out of 1,258. His only opponent
Arturo Parisi won a mere 92 votes. However, the Socialists, the Greens and Democratic Left decided instead to contest the election together as a new alliance called
Left and Freedom which failed to achieve the 4% threshold required to return any MEPs, but damaged the PD, which gained 26.1% of the vote, returning 21 MEPs.
Leadership of Pier Luigi Bersani The national convention and a subsequent open primary were called for October, with Franceschini,
Pier Luigi Bersani and
Ignazio Marino were running for the leadership, while a fourth candidate, Rutigliano, was excluded because of lack of signatures. In local conventions, a 56.4% of party members voted and Bersani was by far the most voted candidate with 55.1% of the vote, largely ahead of Franceschini (37.0%) and Marino (7.9%). Three million people participated in the open primary on 25 October 2009; Bersani was elected new secretary of the party with about 53% of the vote, ahead of Franceschini with 34% and Marino with 13%. On 7 November, during the first meeting of the new national assembly, Bersani was declared secretary,
Rosy Bindi was elected party president (with
Marina Sereni and
Ivan Scalfarotto vice presidents),
Enrico Letta deputy secretary and
Antonio Misiani treasurer. In reaction to the election of Bersani, perceived by some moderates as an old-style social democrat,
Francesco Rutelli (a long-time critic of the party's course) and other centrists and liberals within the PD left to form a new centrist party, named
Alliance for Italy (ApI). Following March 2009, and especially after Bersani's victory, many deputies, senators, one MEP and several regional/local councillors left the party to join the UdC, ApI and other minor parties. They included many
Rutelliani and most
Teodems. In March 2010, a
big round of regional elections, involving eleven regions, took place. The PD lost four regions to the centre-right (
Piedmont,
Lazio,
Campania and
Calabria), and maintained its hold on six (
Liguria,
Emilia-Romagna,
Tuscany,
Marche,
Umbria and
Basilicata), plus
Apulia, a traditionally conservative region where due to divisions within the centre-right
Nichi Vendola of SEL was re-elected with the PD's support. In September 2011, Bersani was invited by
Antonio Di Pietro's IdV to take part to its annual late summer convention in
Vasto,
Abruzzo. Bersani, who had been accused by Di Pietro of avoiding him to court the centre-right UdC, proposed the formation of a New Olive Tree coalition comprising the PD, IdV and SEL. The three party leaders agreed in what was soon dubbed the pact of Vasto. The pact was broken after the
resignation of Silvio Berlusconi as
Prime Minister in November 2011, as the PD gave external support to
Mario Monti's
technocratic government, along with the PdL and the UdC.
Road to the 2013 general election A year after the pact of Vasto, the relations between the PD and IdV had become tense. IdV and its leader, Antonio Di Pietro, were thus excluded from the coalition talks led by Bersani. To these talks were instead invited SEL led by
Nichi Vendola and the
Italian Socialist Party (PSI) led by
Riccardo Nencini. The talks resulted on 13 October 2012 in the Pact of Democrats and Progressives (later known as
Italy. Common Good) and produced the rules for the upcoming
centre-left primary election, during which the PD–SEL–PSI joint candidate for prime minister in the
2013 general election would be selected. In the primary, the strongest challenge to Bersani was posed by a fellow Democrat, the 37-year-old mayor of
Florence Matteo Renzi, a
liberal moderniser, who had officially launched his leadership bid on 13 September 2012 in
Verona,
Veneto. Bersani launched his own bid on 14 October in his hometown
Bettola, north-western
Emilia. Other candidates included Nichi Vendola (SEL),
Bruno Tabacci (ApI) and
Laura Puppato (PD). In the
2012 regional election,
Rosario Crocetta (member of the PD) was elected president with 30.5% of the vote thanks to the support of the UdC, but the coalition failed to secure an outright majority in the Regional Assembly. For the first time in 50 years, a left-wing politician had the chance to govern Sicily. On 25 November, Bersani came ahead in the first round of the primary election with 44.9% of the vote, Renzi came second with 35.5%, followed by Vendola (15.6%), Puppato (2.6%) and Tabacci (1.4%). Bersani did better in the
South while Renzi prevailed in
Tuscany,
Umbria and
Marche. In the subsequent run-off, on 2 December, Bersani trounced Renzi 60.9% to 39.1% by winning in each and every single region but Tuscany, where Renzi won 54.9% of the vote. The PD secretary did particularly well in
Lazio (67.8%),
Campania (69.4%),
Apulia (71.4%),
Basilicata (71.7%),
Calabria (74.4%),
Sicily (66.5%) and
Sardinia (73.5%).
2013 general election in 2013 In the election, the PD and its coalition fared much worse than expected and according to pollsters predictions. The PD won just 25.4% of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies (−8.0% from 2008) and the
centre-left coalition narrowly won the majority in the house over the centre-right coalition (29.5% to 29.3%). Even worse, in the Senate the PD and its allies failed to get an outright majority due to the rise of the
Five Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-right's victory in key regions such as
Lombardy,
Veneto,
Campania,
Apulia,
Calabria and
Sicily (the centre-right was awarded of the majority premium in those regions, leaving the centre-left with just a handful of elects there). Consequently, the PD-led coalition was unable to govern alone because it lacked a majority in the Senate which has equal power to the Chamber. As a result, Bersani, who refused any agreement with the PdL and was rejected by the M5S, failed to form a government. After an agreement with the centre-right parties, Bersani put forward
Franco Marini as his party's
candidate for President to succeed to
Giorgio Napolitano on 17 April. However, Renzi, several Democratic delegates and SEL did not support Marini. On 18 April, Marini received just 521 votes in the first ballot, short of the 672 needed, as more than 200 centre-left delegates rebelled. On 19 April, the PD and SEL selected
Romano Prodi to be their candidate in the fourth ballot. Despite his candidacy had received unanimous support among the two parties' delegates, Prodi obtained only 395 votes in the fourth ballot After the vote, Prodi pulled out of the race and Bersani resigned as party secretary. Bindi, the party's president, also resigned. The day after, Napolitano accepted to stand again for election and was re-elected President with the support of most parliamentary parties. On 28 April,
Enrico Letta, the party's deputy secretary and former
Christian Democrat, was sworn in as
Prime Minister of Italy at the head of a
government based around a
grand coalition including the PdL,
Civic Choice (SC) and the UdC. Letta was the first Democrat to become prime minister.
Leadership of Guglielmo Epifani After Bersani's resignation from party secretary on 20 April 2013, the PD remained without a leader for two weeks. On 11 May 2013,
Guglielmo Epifani was elected secretary at the national assembly of the party with 85.8% of vote. Epifani, secretary-general of the
Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), Italy's largest trade union, from 2002 to 2010, was the first former
Socialist to lead the party. Epifani's mission was to lead the party toward a national convention in October. A few weeks after Epifani's election as secretary, the PD had a success in the
2013 local elections, winning in 69
comuni (including
Rome and all the other 14
provincial capitals up for election) while the PdL won 22 and the M5S 1. The decision, on 9 November, that the PD would organise the next congress of the
Party of European Socialists (PES) in Rome in early 2014, sparked protests among some of the party's Christian democrats, who opposed PES membership. Epifani was little more than a secretary
pro tempore and in fact frequently repeated that he was not going to run for a full term as secretary in the leadership race that would take place in late 2013, saying that his candidacy would be a betrayal of his mandate.
Leadership of Matteo Renzi Four individuals filed their bid for becoming secretary, namely
Matteo Renzi,
Pippo Civati,
Gianni Cuperlo and
Gianni Pittella. The leadership race started with voting by party members in local conventions (7–17 November). Renzi came first with 45.3%, followed by Cuperlo (39.4%), Civati (9.4%) and Pittella (5.8%). The first three were admitted to the open primary. On 8 December, Renzi, who won in all regions but was stronger in the Centre-North, trounced his opponents with 67.6% of the vote. Cuperlo, whose support was higher in the South, came second with 18.2% while Civati, whose message did well with northern urban and progressive voters, came third with 14.2%. On 15 December, Renzi, whose executive included many young people and a majority of women, was proclaimed secretary by the party's national assembly while Cuperlo was elected president as proposed by Renzi. On 20 January 2014, Cuperlo criticised the electoral reform proposed by Renzi in agreement with Berlusconi, but the proposal was overwhelmingly approved by the party's national board. The day after the vote, Cuperlo resigned from president. He was later replaced by
Matteo Orfini, who hailed from the party's left wing, but since then became more and more supportive of Renzi. After frequent calls by Renzi for a new phase, the national board decided to put an end to Letta's government on 13 February and form a new one led by Renzi as the latter had proposed. Subsequently, Renzi was sworn in as prime minister on 22 February at the head of an identical coalition. On 28 February, the PD officially joined the PES as a full member, ending a decade-long debate.
Premiership of Matteo Renzi In the
2014 European Parliament election, the party obtained 40.8% of the vote and 31 seats. The party's score was virtually 15 percentage points up from five years before and the best result for an Italian party in a nationwide election since the
1958 general election, when
Christian Democracy won 42.4%. The PD was also the largest national party within the
Parliament in its
8th term. Following his party's success, Renzi was able to secure the post of
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy within the
European Commission for
Federica Mogherini, his minister of Foreign Affairs. In January 2015,
Sergio Mattarella, a veteran left-wing
Christian Democrat and founding member of the PD, whose candidacy had been proposed by Renzi and unanimously endorsed by the party's delegates, was elected
President of Italy during a
presidential election triggered by President
Giorgio Napolitano's resignation. During Renzi's first year as prime minister, several MPs defected from other parties to join the PD. They comprised splinters from SEL (most of whom led by
Gennaro Migliore, see
Freedom and Rights), SC (notably including
Stefania Giannini,
Pietro Ichino and
Andrea Romano) and the M5S. Consequently, the party increased its parliamentary numbers to 311 deputies and 114 senators by April 2015. Otherwise,
Sergio Cofferati, Giuseppe Civati and
Stefano Fassina left. They were the first and most notable splinters among the ranks of the party's internal left, but several others followed either Civati (who launched
Possible) or Fassina (who launched
Future to the Left and
Italian Left) in the following months. By May 2016, the PD's parliamentary numbers had gone down to 303 deputies and 114 senators. Renzi,
Andrea Orlando (one of the leaders of the
Remake Italy faction; the other leader
Matteo Orfini was the party's president and supported Renzi) and
Michele Emiliano were the three contenders for the party's leadership. Subsequently, a substantial group of leftists (24 deputies, 14 senators and 3 MEPs), led by
Enrico Rossi (
Democratic Socialists) and
Roberto Speranza (
Reformist Area), backed by
Massimo D'Alema,
Pier Luigi Bersani and
Guglielmo Epifani, left the PD and formed
Article 1 – Democratic and Progressive Movement (MDP), along with splinters from the
Italian Left (SI) led by
Arturo Scotto. Most of the splinters as well as Scotto were former
Democrats of the Left. In December 2017, the MDP, SI and Possible would launch
Free and Equal (LeU) under the leadership of the
President of the Senate Pietro Grasso (another PD splinter). convention In local conventions, Renzi came first (66.7%), Orlando second (25.3%) and Emiliano third (8.0%). In the open primary on 30 April, Renzi won 69.2% of the vote as opposed to Orlando's 20.0% and Emiliano's 10.9%. On 7 May, Renzi was sworn in as secretary again, with
Maurizio Martina as deputy and Orfini was confirmed president. In the
2017 Sicilian regional election, Crocetta did not stand and the PD-led coalition was defeated. In the run-up of the
2018 general election, the PD tried to form a broad centre-left coalition, but only minor parties showed interest. As a result, the alliance comprised
Together (a list notably including the
Italian Socialist Party and the
Federation of the Greens), the
Popular Civic List (notably including
Popular Alternative,
Italy of Values, the
Centrists for Europe and
Solidary Democracy) and
More Europe (including the
Italian Radicals,
Forza Europa and the
Democratic Centre).
2018 general election In the election, the PD obtained its worst result ever: 18.7% of the vote, well behind the M5S (32.7%) and narrowly ahead of the Lega (17.4%). Following his party's defeat, Renzi resigned from secretary and his deputy Martina started functioning as acting secretary. After two months of negotiations and the refusal of the PD to join forces with the M5S, the latter and the Lega formed a
government under Prime Minister
Giuseppe Conte, a M5S-proposed independent. Thus, the party returned to opposition after virtually seven years and experienced some internal turmoil as its internal factions started to re-position themselves in the new context. Both Gentiloni and Franceschini distanced from Renzi while
Carlo Calenda, a former minister in Renzi's and Gentiloni's governments who had joined the party soon after the election, proposed to merge the PD into a larger republican front. However, according to several observers Renzi's grip over the party was still strong and he was still the PD's leader behind the scenes.
Leadership of Maurizio Martina In July,
Maurizio Martina was elected secretary by the party's national assembly and a new leadership election was scheduled for the first semester of 2019. On 17 November 2018, Martina resigned and the national assembly was dissolved, starting the electoral proceedings. During Martina's tenure, especially after a rally in Rome in September, the party started to prepare for the leadership election. In January 2019, Calenda launched the "
We Are Europeans" manifesto advocating for a
pro-Europeanist joint list at the
upcoming European Parliament election. Among those who signed there were several Democratic regional presidents and mayors as well as
Giuseppe Sala and
Giuliano Pisapia, two independents who are the current
mayor of Milan and his predecessor, respectively. Calenda aimed at uniting the PD,
More Europe and the
Greens–
Italia in Comune.
Leadership of Nicola Zingaretti Three major candidates, Martina,
Nicola Zingaretti and
Roberto Giachetti, plus a handful of minor ones, formally filed papers to run for secretary. Prior to that,
Marco Minniti, minister of the Interior in the Gentiloni Cabinet, had also launched his bid, before renouncing in December and supporting Zingaretti. Zingaretti won the first round by receiving 47.4% of the vote among party members in local conventions. He, along with Martina and Giachetti, qualified for the primary election, to be held on 3 March. In the event, Zingaretti was elected secretary, exceeding expectations and winning 66.0% of the vote while Martina and Giachetti won 22.0% and 12.0%, respectively. Zingaretti was officially appointed by the national assembly, on 17 March. On the same day, former Prime Minister Gentiloni was elected as the party's new president. A month later, Zingaretti appointed
Andrea Orlando and
Paola De Micheli as deputy secretaries. In the run-up to the
2019 European Parliament election Zingaretti presented a special logo including a large reference to "We Are Europeans" and the symbol of the PES. Additionally, the party forged an alliance with
Article One. In the election, the PD garnered 22.7% of the vote, finishing second after the League. Calenda was the most voted candidate of the party. On 3 July 2019,
David Sassoli, a member of the PD, was elected
President of the European Parliament.
Coalition with the Five Star Movement In August 2019 tensions grew within Conte's government coalition, leading to the issuing of a motion of no-confidence on Prime Minister Conte by the League. After Conte's resignation, the national board of the PD officially opened to the possibility of forming a new cabinet in a coalition with the M5S, based on pro-Europeanism,
green economy,
sustainable development, fight against
economic inequality and a new immigration policy. The party also accepted that Conte may continue at the head of a new government, and on 29 August President Mattarella formally invested Conte to do so. Disappointed by the party's decision to form a government with the M5S, Calenda decided to leave and establish We Are Europeans as an independent party. The
Conte II Cabinet took office on 5 September, with Franceschini as Minister of Culture and head of the PD's delegation. Gentiloni was contextually picked by the government as the Italian member of the
von der Leyen Commission and would serve as
European Commissioner for the Economy. On 18 September, Renzi, who had been one of the earliest supporters of a M5S–PD pact in August, left the PD and established a new centrist party named
Italia Viva (IV). 24 deputies and 13 senators (including Renzi) left. However, not all supporters of Renzi followed him in the split: while the
Always Forward and
Back to the Future factions mostly followed him, most members of
Reformist Base remained in the party. Other MPs and one MEP joined IV afterwards. From 15 to 17 November, the party held a three-days convention in
Bologna, named ''Tutta un'altra storia'' ("A whole different story"), with the aim of presenting party's proposals for the 2020s decade. The convention was characterised by a strong
leftward move, stressing a strong distance from liberal and centrist policies promoted under Renzi's leadership. Some newspapers, like
La Stampa, compared Zingaretti's new policies to
Jeremy Corbyn's. On 17 November the party's national assembly approved the new party's statute, featuring the separation between the roles of party secretary and candidate for prime minister. Starting from November 2019, the grassroots
Sardines movement began in the region of
Emilia-Romagna, aimed at contrasting the rise of right-wing populism and the League in the region. The movement endorsed the PD's candidate
Stefano Bonaccini in the
upcoming Emilia-Romagna regional election. In the next months the movement grew to a national level. On 26 January Bonaccini was re-elected with 51.4% of the vote. On the same day, in the
Calabrian regional election, the centre-left candidate supported by the PD lost to the centre-right candidate
Jole Santelli, who won with 55.3% of the vote. In February 2020 the party's national assembly unanimously elected its new president,
Valentina Cuppi, mayor of
Marzabotto. In the September
2020 regional elections the party lost Marche to the centre-right, but held Tuscany, Campania and Apulia.
Draghi's national unity government On 13 January 2021, Renzi's IV withdrew its support for the second Conte cabinet, triggering the
2021 Italian government crisis. The government won motions of confidence in both chambers of Parliament, but still lacked an overall majority, leading to Conte's resignation. In resulting discussions, Zingaretti and the PD pushed for Conte to be reappointed prime minister. They participated in negotiations with the M5S, IV, and LeU, from 30 January to 2 February, but IV ultimately rejected the option of a renewed coalition. President Mattarella then appointed
Mario Draghi to form a cabinet, which won support from the League and (FI) on 10 February. The PD's national board voted unanimously to join the new government on 11 February. Later that day, the M5S also agreed to support the cabinet in an online referendum. The PD had three ministers in the
Draghi Cabinet:
Lorenzo Guerini, who remained
Minister of Defence;
Andrea Orlando, the new
Minister of Labour and Social Policies; and
Dario Franceschini, who retained a modified
Minister of Culture portfolio.
Leadership of Enrico Letta In the midst of the formation of Draghi's government, Zingaretti was heavily criticised by the party's minority for his management of the crisis and strenuous support to Conte. On 4 March, after weeks of internal turmoil, Zingaretti announced his resignation as secretary, stating that he was "ashamed of the power struggles" within the party. In the next days, many prominent members of the PD, including Zingaretti himself, but also former Prime Minister Gentiloni, former party secretary Franceschini and President of Emilia-Romagna Bonaccini, publicly asked former Prime Minister
Enrico Letta to become the new leader of the party. Following an initial reluctancy, Letta stated that he needed a few days to evaluate the option. On 12 March, he officially accepted his candidacy as new party's leader. On 14 March, the national assembly of the PD elected Letta secretary with 860 votes in favour, 2 against and 4 abstentions. On 17 March, Letta appointed
Irene Tinagli and
Peppe Provenzano as his deputy secretaries. On the following day, he appointed the party's new executive, composed of eight men and eight women. Later that month, Letta forced the party's leaders in Parliament,
Graziano Delrio and
Andrea Marcucci, to resign and proposed the election of two female leaders. Consequently,
Simona Malpezzi and
Debora Serracchiani were elected to replace them. In October 2021, Letta won the
by-election for the
Siena district with 49.9% of votes, returning to the Parliament after six years. In the concurrent
local elections, the PD and its allies won municipal elections in
Milan,
Bologna,
Naples,
Rome,
Turin and many other major cities across the country.
2022 general election In July 2022 the M5S did not participate in a Senate's confidence vote on a government bill. Prime Minister Draghi offered his resignation, which was rejected by President Mattarella. After a few days, Draghi sought a confidence vote again to secure the government majority supporting his cabinet, while rejecting the proposal put forward by Lega and FI of a new government without the M5S. In that occasion, the M5S, Lega, FI and FdI did not participate in the vote. Consequently, Draghi tendered his final resignation to President Mattarella, who dissolved the houses of Parliament, leading to the 2022 general election. The event led the party to terminate the alliance with the M5S. In the run-up of the election, the PD formed a joint list named
Democratic and Progressive Italy (IDP) along with several minor parties, notably including
Article One, the
Italian Socialist Party and
Solidary Democracy. The PD also signed individual alliances with
Action–
More Europe, the
Greens and Left Alliance (AVS) formed by
Green Europe and
Italian Left, and
Luigi Di Maio's and Bruno Tabacci's
Civic Commitment. Under each agreement, the PD would give a number of candidates in single-seat constituencies to each coalition partner. A few days before the closing of coalitions and lists, Calenda announced that he was walking away from the pact he has signed with Letta because of the subsequent alliances that the PD had formed, notably including that with the AVS. The IDP list offered a broad range of candidates, including some high-profile independents: left-wingers like
Susanna Camusso and
Elly Schlein, the liberal economist
Carlo Cottarelli, Christian-democrat and long-time MP
Pier Ferdinando Casini, scientist
Andrea Crisanti, etc. In the election the PD obtained 19.1% of the vote and the centre-left coalition lost to the centre-right coalition, whose leader
Giorgia Meloni went on to form a
government. Consequently, Letta announced that he would step down from party secretary and that a
leadership election would determine the party's new leader in 2023. Following the 2022 general election, the PD has consistently declined in
opinion polls to a record low of 14.0% in January 2023, according to SWG.
Leadership of Elly Schlein The 2023 leadership election scheduled for February 2023 was the final step of a "constituent" process for the PD, as the party amended its statute, updated its internal charters and refreshed its political platform, while welcoming individuals, minor parties and groups. Among minor parties, Article One, Solidary Democracy and the
Democratic Centre indicated their intent to merge into the PD. Outgoing secretary Letta and Article One leader
Roberto Speranza were chosen to lead the committee overseeing the process. Former minister
Paola De Micheli was the first to announce her candidacy in late September, but the two top contenders were
Stefano Bonaccini,
president of Emilia Romagna, and
Elly Schlein, Bonaccini's former vice president. Bonaccini was supported by most regional presidents and big-city mayors, plus the more moderate factions of the party, notably including
Reformist Base, while the more radical Schlein counted on the endorsement on most of the party's left and most bigwigs, including former leaders
Dario Franceschini (despite most of his faction supporting Bonaccini) and
Nicola Zingaretti. A fourth candidate,
Gianni Cuperlo, representing the traditional left-wing within the party, announced his bid just before Christmas. Bonaccini won the first round by receiving 52.9% of the vote among party members in local conventions, while Schlein came second with 34.9% and was the only one to qualify for the primary election, along with Bonaccini. In the event, on 26 February, Schlein was surprisingly elected secretary, by defeating Bonaccini 53.8% to 46.2%. Schlein was officially appointed by the national assembly, on 12 March. On the same day, as proposed by Schlein, Bonaccini was elected as the party's president. In June 2023, during an assembly of delegates held in Naples, Article One was merged into the PD. In the
2024 European Parliament election Schlein will lead the party in two constituencies, but refrained to add her name to the symbol, after internal opposition. Bonaccini, philanthropist
Cecilia Strada and journalist
Lucia Annunziata will lead the party in the other three constituencies. Other leading candidates include
Giorgio Gori,
Matteo Ricci and
Antonio Decaro (outgoing mayors of
Bergamo,
Pesaro and
Bari, respectively), as well as former party leader Zingaretti and
Marco Tarquinio, a social-conservative and pacifist journalist. The PD's share of the vote was 24.1%, with Decaro and Bonaccini being the most voted candidates and receiving far more preference votes than Schlein in their respective constituencies. In the
2025 regional elections the centre-left retained the control of the regions that it previously government, including
Tuscany with PD's
Eugenio Giani,
Apulia with PD's
Antonio Decaro and
Campania with M5S'
Roberto Fico. The PD was by far the largest party in all three regions, especially in Apulia where it fielded three lists, which obtained the absolute majority of seats. == Ideology ==