Socialist Unity (, US) was a social-democratic political alliance in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

which participated in the key 1948 general election, which decided the post-war direction of Italy. Socialist Unity was formed by the Italian Socialist Workers' Party (''Partito Socialista dei Lavoratori Italiani''), of Giuseppe Saragat and the

Union of Socialists The Union of Socialists (, UdS) was a social-democratic political party in Italy. The party was founded in February 1948 by Ivan Matteo Lombardo, former secretary of the Italian Socialist Party. The UdS participated in the 1948 general election ...

(''Unione dei Socialisti'') of former

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Socialism, socialist and later Social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the l ...

leader

Ivan Matteo Lombardo Ivan Matteo Lombardo (22 May 1902 – 6 February 1980) was an Italian politician. Early career Lombardo was born in Milan in 1902. A budding young journalist, from 1920 to 1922 he was editor of the labour section of ''Avanti!'', the daily newsp ...

. The party's anti-communist ideology precluded any collaboration with the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...

-led Popular Democratic Front in the 1948 election. Socialist Unity reached 7.1% of the vote for the

Italian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies ( it, Camera dei deputati) is the lower house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Senate of the Republic). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical funct ...

, gaining 33 seats. In the election for the Italian Senate, where it ran together with the

Italian Republican Party The Italian Republican Party ( it, Partito Repubblicano Italiano, PRI) is a liberal and social-liberal political party in Italy. Founded in 1895, the PRI is the oldest political party still active in Italy. The PRI has old roots and a long hist ...

, Socialist Unity won 8 seats. In the following years, the links between the members of Socialist Unity became closer and the

Italian Democratic Socialist Party The Italian Democratic Socialist Party (, PSDI), also known as Italian Social Democratic Party, was a minor social-democratic political party in Italy. The longest serving partner in government for Christian Democracy, the PSDI had been an ...

(PSDI) was founded.

Election results

References

{{Historical Italian political parties Political parties established in 1948 Defunct political party alliances in Italy