The Social Democratic Party of South Tyrol (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Südtirols, SPS) was a regionalist

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 ...

and Christian-social

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...

of German speakers in

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

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 re ...

, that was active from 1972 to 1983.

History

The party was launched in 1972 by Hans Dietl, former provincial deputy from the left-wing of the

South Tyrolean People's Party The South Tyrolean People's Party (german: Südtiroler Volkspartei, SVP) is a regionalist and autonomist political party in South Tyrol, an autonomous province with a German-speaking majority in northern Italy. Founded on 8 May 1945, the SVP ha ...

(SVP) and member of 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 ...

from 1963 to 1972, who was expelled from that party in 1971 for having taken a hard line over an agreement between the provincial and the national government known as ''il Pacchetto'' ("the package"). The SPS gathered politicians of diverse ideological provenance, including the former

Communist Party of Italy The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current ...

member Silvio Flor junior. Most of its members were organised in or close to the Autonomous South Tyrolean Federation of Trade Unions (ASGB). Despite its name, the party represented rather conservative positions on cultural and nationality issues. In the 1972 general election Dietl was the candidate of the hard-liners, including the Party of Independents, in the single-seat constituency of

Brixen Brixen (, ; it, Bressanone ; lld, Porsenù or ) is a town in South Tyrol, northern Italy, located about north of Bolzano. Geography First mentioned in 901, Brixen is the third largest city and oldest town in the province, and the artistic and ...

and won 20.8 percent of the vote, the major defection from SVP since then. SPS obtained its best result in 1973, when it won 5.1% of the votes and got two provincial deputies elected (Hans Dietl, who left the party soon after, and Wilhelm Erschbaumer). It was mostly supported by unionised part-time farmers and rural workers as well as lower middle classes, but did badly among the group of urban industrial workers. Since then the party suffered a decline in term of votes as the SVP re-organized itself as a multi-factional catch-all party with the left-wingers united in the ''Arbeitnehmer'' ("employees") faction. After Dietl's resignation, the party developed more towards classical social democracy, identifying as a "member of European social democracy" and sister party of the German

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

and Austrian

SPÖ The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...

. Erschbaumer himselft left and re-joined SVP in 1982.
or http://elezionistorico.interno.it/liste.php?tp=S&dt=07/05/1972&cta=I&tpEnte=L&tpSeg=C&numEnte=406&sut1=4&sut2=6&sut3=0&descEnte=%20Regione:%20TRENTINO-ALTO%20ADIGE%20-%20Collegio:%20BRESSANONE&descArea=&codTipoSegLeader=

Electoral results

Provincial Council

Literature

* Joachim Gatterer, ''"rote milben im gefieder". Sozialdemokratische, kommunistische und grün-alternative Parteipolitik in Südtirol'', Studienverlag, Innsbruck-Vienna-Bozen, 2009.

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in South Tyrol Defunct social democratic parties in Italy