The Socialist League ( it, Lega Socialista, LS) was a tiny

social-democratic Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...

party in Italy, founded by

Bobo Craxi Vittorio Michele Craxi, commonly known as Bobo Craxi (born 6 August 1964), is an Italian politician, son of the former Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi and brother of Stefania Craxi. Biography Formerly a prominent member of the Italian Soc ...

on 10 May 2000. The Socialist League was already operating as a faction within the

Italian Democratic Socialists The Italian Democratic Socialists ( it, Socialisti Democratici Italiani, SDI) were a social-democratic political party in Italy. The party was the direct continuation of the Italian Socialists, the legal successor of the historical Italian Social ...

(SDI), of which the LS was a founding member in 1998. A year later, Craxi was an unsuccessful SDI candidate in the

1999 European Parliament election The 1999 European Parliament election was a European election for all 626 members of the European Parliament held across the 15 European Union member states on 10, 11 and 13 June 1999. The voter turn-out was generally low, except in Belgium and L ...

, while

Claudio Martelli Claudio Martelli (born 24 September 1943) is an Italian politician. He was the right-hand man of Bettino Craxi, the socialist Prime Minister from 1983–1987. Biography Martelli was born at Gessate, in the province of Milan. He graduated in Phi ...

was elected and later appointed SDI deputy leader. In June 2000 both Craxi and Martelli left the SDI. In January 2001 the LS was merged with the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of ...

to form the

New Italian Socialist Party The New Italian Socialist Party or New PSI ( it, Nuovo Partito Socialista Italiano or ''Nuovo PSI'', NPSI), more recently styled as Liberal Socialists – NPSI, is a political party in Italy which professes a social-democratic ideology and claims t ...

, allied with the centre-right coalition. Craxi was elected president of the new party, while Martelli was nominated spokesperson. Martelli left politics in 2004, while Craxi led a split from the NPSI in 2006 and launched

The Italian Socialists The Italian Socialists (''I Socialisti Italiani'') was a minor social-democratic political party in Italy. History The party was founded on 7 February 2006 as the result of a split from the New Italian Socialist Party (NPSI) by the wing favoura ...

, which was a founding component of the revived

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 189 ...

in 2007.

References

External links

Official website (2000)Party documentsParty logoConferenza stampa per «rilanciare l'autonomia socialista» (1/2/2000)Assemblea nazionale della Ls (26/5/2000)Assemblea ''I socialisti verso la costituzione del nuovo Psi con riformisti, laici, liberali e libertari per costruire la Sinistra delle libertà'' (20/6/2000)Dibattito ''Nasce il nuovo Psi'' alla Festa Socialista della Ls (24/9/2000)Assemblea programmatica della Lega Socialista-Nuovi Socialisti (16/12/2000)
{{Italian Socialist Party 2000 establishments in Italy 2001 disestablishments in Italy Defunct social democratic parties in Italy Defunct socialist parties in Italy Political parties disestablished in 2001 Political parties established in 2000 Defunct political parties in Italy