The Italian Socialists (, SI) were a minor

social-democratic Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, socia ...

political party in Italy active from 1994 to 1998. The party was the legal successor of the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Social democracy, social democratic and Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parti ...

(PSI), following its dissolution by the 47th Party Congress due to the severe financial crisis following the ''

Tangentopoli (; ) was a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in Italy held in the early 1990s, resulting in the demise of the First Italian Republic and the disappearance of many political parties. Some politicians and industry leade ...

'' scandal. A minoritarian group of the congress, who proposed an autonomist and centrist solution against the PSI dissolution, instead founded the Reformist Socialist Party.

History

Crisis of the Italian Socialist Party

1994 general election

In occasion of the 1994 general election and the introduction of the majoritarian electoral system of "

Mattarellum The Italian electoral law of 1993 (better known as Mattarellum) was a reform of the electoral laws of Italy, passed on 4 August 1993. The nickname, conceived by Giovanni Sartori, derived from its author Sergio Mattarella. The law was also nickname ...

", the

(PSI) of Ottaviano Del Turco joined the

Alliance of Progressives The Alliance of Progressives () was a left-wing political alliance of parties in Italy formed in 1994, with relevant predecessors at local level in 1993. The leader of the alliance was Achille Occhetto. The alliance was a predecessor of the mod ...

coalition; however, the PSI obtained poor results compared to the main parties of the coalition: PSI received 2.2% of votes in the proportional quota for the Chamber of Deputies and the 0.3% for the Senate. However, PSI parliamentarians were elected in single-members districts according to the agreements within the

centre-left coalition The centre-left coalition () is a political alliance of political parties in Italy active under several forms and names since 1995, when The Olive Tree was formed under the leadership of Romano Prodi. The centre-left coalition has ruled the c ...

and, thanks to the majoritarian system, obtained 14 seats in the Chamber and 9 in the Senate. Due to their number, PSI deputies were forced to join the unitarian centre-left group "Progressives - Federative" (''Progressisti - Federativo'') while PSI senators managed to create their own autonomous group, thanks also to the adhesion of the Senator for life and former PSI National Secretary Francesco De Martino.

Exit of the Labourist faction from PSI

After the disappointing outcome of the elections, Del Turco resigned as secretary and the PSI Directive Committee appointed

Valdo Spini Valdo Spini (born 20 January 1946 in Florence) is an Italian politician and author. A long-time member of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), in 1994 he founded the Labour Federation (Italy), Labour Federation (FL), of which he was leader until ...

as national coordinator on 21 June 1994, giving him the task to organise the Extraordinary Congress of the Party until September of the same year. However, Spini was convinced that PSI had to change its entire identity, which was associated with corruption after the role of the party in the

scandal, and he convened a meeting on 26 July 1994 to promote the "Labourist Constituent". On 22 September, Spini resigned as coordinator and formed the Labour Federation on 5 November 1994 in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

and much of parliamentarians, who were elected among Socialist lists, joined this new political formation and left the PSI, deepening its financial crisis.

Last PSI Congress

In a climate of high tension, the 47th Congress of the Italian Socialist Party was held in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

in November 1994 and saw the participation of Socialist delegates who decided to not follow Spini into his new Labour Federation party. The majoritarian side of the Congress, which was supported by former PSI Secretary Ottaviano Del Turco and

Enrico Boselli Enrico Boselli (born 7 January 1957) is an Italian politician. He has been Vice President of Alliance for Italy, and is the former leader of the Italian Democratic Socialists and the modern-day Socialist Party, and former president of Emilia ...

, proposed the liquidation of the Party due to its disastrous financial situation and the creation create a new political formation called "Socialisti Italiani". The minoritarian side, supported by Fabrizio Cicchitto and Enrico Manca, was opposed to the dissolution of the PSI. At the end, the congress decided to liquidate the PSI, considering the debts accumulated during the rule of former Prime Minister

Bettino Craxi Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi ( ; ; ; 24 February 1934 – 19 January 2000) was an Italian politician and statesman, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1976 to 1993, and the 45th Prime Minister of Italy, prime minister of Italy from 1 ...

and the decline of subscriptions and contributions which led to the foreclosing of various properties belonging to the party.

Foundation of Italian Socialists

Despite the sadness for the closure of the historical Italian Socialist Party after 102 years of activity, all delegates wanted to continue and preserve the history and the identity of PSI: after a few hours, the new "Italian Socialists" (SI) was proclaimed as the official successor party to the PSI and its traditions. Delegates of the new party elected

as Secretary and Gino Giugni as President, with the indication to keep the party among the democratic left. At the Chamber, 11 deputies, of whom 9 elected for the PSI, joined the Labour Federation; the five remaining PSI deputies ( Giuseppe Albertini,

, Ottaviano Del Turco, Gino Giugni and Alberto La Volpe) decided instead to join the Italian Socialists. They left the "Progressives" parliamentary group and formed a united group called "The Democrats" (''I Democratici'') on 21 February 1995, along with some members of the Segni Pact and Democratic Alliance. At the Senate, the Socialist group was preserved but most of its members joined the Labour Federations, and only senators Maria Rosaria Manieri and Cesare Marini adhered to SI.

First elections

At the 1995 regional elections, the Italian Socialists formed a list with the Democratic Alliance and Segni Pact called the Pact of Democrats. The coalition obtained 4.2% of the vote and 33 regional councillors, mostly Socialists. However, the alliance was dissolved shortly after the election due to the good results achieved only by SI. For the 1996 general election, the Italian Socialists joined the electoral list of Italian Renewal (RI), a newly formed liberal-centrist party led by

Lamberto Dini Lamberto Dini (; born 1 March 1931) is an Italian politician and economist. He was the Director General of Bank of Italy from 1979 to 1994, Italian Minister of the Treasury, Minister of Treasury from 1994 to 1996, the 51st Prime Minister of Ital ...

, within The Olive Tree centre-left coalition. SI participated then to the electoral victory of the centre-left: RI obtained the 4.3% of vote for the Chamber while The Olive Tree list obtained the 39.9% of votes for the Senate. The Italian Socialists had 7 deputies (Giuseppe Albertini, Enrico Boselli, Enzo Ceremigna, Giovanni Crema, Leone Delfino, Sergio Fumagalli and Roberto Villetti) and 5 senators ( Livio Besso Cordero, Ottaviano Del Turco, Giovanni Iuliano, Maria Rosaria Manieri and Cesare Marini). Del Turco was nominated as the group's senate leader. However, the federation with RI did not last long, disbanding on 21 December 1996, with the exit from the parliamentarian group in the Chamber by Socialist deputies, who joined the component of Italian Socialists in the

Mixed Group The mixed group (, GM) is a parliamentary group active in both houses of the Italian Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. ...

. Socialist senators in turn left the parliamentarian group of the Senate on 6 February 1997, determining the dissolution of RI. They instead joined the Mixed Group the Senate, forming the component of Italian Socialists and the one of " Italian Democratic Socialists" (SDI) on 9 November 1998.

Merger with the SDI

On 10 May 1998 and under the proposal of Party Secretary Boselli, the Italian Socialists merged with the SDI, along with a segment of 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 th ...

(led by Ugo Intini), Labour Federation (led by Alberto Benzoni) and the remains of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (led by Gianfranco Schietroma).

Leadership

* Secretary:

(1994–1998) ** Deputy-Secretary: Roberto Villetti (1994–1998) * President: Gino Giugni (1994–1996), Ottaviano Del Turco (1996–1998)

References

{{Authority control 1994 establishments in Italy 1998 disestablishments in Italy Defunct social democratic parties in Italy Defunct political parties in Italy Former member parties of the Socialist International Political parties disestablished in 1998 Political parties established in 1994 Italian Socialist Party