Democratic Party

The Democratic Party (Italian: Partito Democratico, PD) is a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Italy, led by Elly Schlein as secretary and Stefano Bonaccini as president. It is currently one of Italy's two major parties, along with Brothers of Italy.

The PD was established in 2007 upon the merger of various centre-left parties which had been part of The Olive Tree list in the 2006 Italian general election, mainly the social-democratic Democrats of the Left (DS), successor of the Italian Communist Party and the Democratic Party of the Left, which was folded with several social-democratic parties (Labour Federation and Social Christians, among others) in 1998, as well as the largely Catholic-inspired Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL), a merger of the Italian People's Party (heir of the Christian Democracy party's left-wing), The Democrats and Italian Renewal in 2002. While the party has also been influenced by Christian left, social liberalism and Third Way, especially under Matteo Renzi's leadership, the PD moved closer to the centre. Under latter leaders, especially Schlein, who was elected in the 2023 leadership election despite party members' preference for Bonaccini and whose upbringing is influenced by the left-wing, environmentalism and green politics, the party has tilted left.