Solidary Democracy ( it, Democrazia Solidale, DemoS) is a Christian-leftist

political party in Italy This article contains a list of political parties in Italy since Italian unification in 1861. Throughout history, numerous political parties have been operating in Italy, and since World War II no party has ever gained enough support to govern ...

. The party's early leader,

Lorenzo Dellai Lorenzo Dellai (born 28 November 1959 in Trento) is an Italian politician deputy of the Chamber of Deputies, and former governor of the Autonomous Province of Trento and former President of the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. Backgrou ...

has described it as a " Christian-social" party. DemoS is led by Paolo Ciani; several party members, including Ciani himself, hail from the

Community of Sant'Egidio The Community of Sant'Egidio ( it, Comunità di Sant'Egidio) is a lay Catholic association dedicated to social service, founded in 1968 under the leadership of Andrea Riccardi. The group grew and in 1973 was given a home at the former Carmelite ...

. DemoS maintains solid relations with the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. It also had relations with a number of alike minor parties/groups of the

Christian left The Christian left is a range of left-wing Christian political and social movements that largely embrace social justice principles and uphold a social doctrine or social gospel. Given the inherent diversity in international political thoug ...

, notably including the Democratic Centre (with which DemoS formed a joint parliamentary group in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

in 2014–2018), the

Christian Popular Union The Christian Popular Union ( it, Unione Popolare Cristiana, UPC) is a Christian-democratic political party in Italy. The UPC was launched in August 2009 by Antonio Satta, a former Christian Democrat who had been the regional leader of UDEUR and ...

(active mainly in

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

) and the

Union for Trentino The Union for Trentino ( it, Unione per il Trentino, UpT) is a Regionalism (politics), regionalist, Centrism, centrist and Christian democracy, Christian-democratic List of political parties in Trentino, political party active in Trentino, Italy. ...

(Dellai's long-time party in

Trentino Trentino ( lld, Trentin), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region ...

, of which he was

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

in 1999–2012).

History

DemoS was formed in July 2014, following the split of the left-wing faction from the

Populars for Italy Populars for Italy ( it, Popolari per l'Italia, PpI) is a Christian-democratic political party in Italy led by Mario Mauro, minister of Defence in Letta Cabinet and, previously, long-serving MEP for Forza Italia. History The party was launched i ...

(PpI). The party, led by

, Andrea Olivero,

Mario Marazziti Mario Marazziti (born 24 April 1952 in Rome) is an Italian journalist, executive, and politician. Currently a deputy in the Italian parliament, he is also an executive at RAI, an opinion writer at Corriere della Sera, and a representative of th ...

, Mario Giro and

Lucio Romano Lucio is an Italian and Spanish male given name derived from the Latin name ''Lucius''. In Portuguese, the given name is accented Lúcio. Lucio is also an Italian surname. Given name * Lúcio (Lucimar Ferreira da Silva) (born 1978), Brazilian ...

, re-affirmed the strategic (not just tactical) alliance with

Matteo Renzi Matteo Renzi (; born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016. He has been a senator for Florence since 2018. Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having been ...

(PD), while the PpI considered it temporary and wanted to restructure the centre-right camp instead. At its start, the party counted eight deputies, two senators, one deputy minister and one undersecretary. In November 2014 the "

For Italy For Italy ( it, Per l'Italia, PI) was the name of two centrist and mainly Christian-democratic parliamentary groups active in each house of the Italian Parliament: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The groups were launched on 12 December 20 ...

" group in the Chamber welcomed the two deputies of the Democratic Centre (CD). In December the two senators of DemoS, Olivero and Romano, left the "For Italy" group, which was later disbanded, in order to join

For the Autonomies For the Autonomies ( it, Per le Autonomie, Aut) is a heterogeneous mostly centrist to centre-left and originally regionalist parliamentary group, which has been active, with slightly different names and different composition, in the Italian Se ...

, a miscellaneous group composed of minor autonomist and/or centre-left parties. In September a ninth deputy,

Maurizio Baradello Maurizio is an Italian masculine given name, derived from the Roman name Mauritius. Mauritius is a derivative of Maurus, meaning ''dark-skinned, Moorish''. List of people with the given name Maurizio Art and music * Maurizio Arcieri (born 1945), ...

, joined the party and the parliamentary group; Baradello would die in May 2017. In early 2015 Demos adopted a new symbol, Dellai was elected president of the party and Paolo Ciani coordinator. In January 2016 the "For Italy" group changed its name to "Solidary Democracy – Democratic Centre", following a strengthening of the alliance with CD. In February Giro, formerly an undersecretary, became deputy minister of Foreign Affairs; Giro was thus one of the party's two deputy ministers, along with Olivero at Agriculture. In June and December 2017, respectively, Fucsia Nissoli and

Gianluigi Gigli Gianluigi is an Italian masculine given name meaning "John Louis". It is often an abbreviation of "Giovanni Luigi". Famous people with this given name include: * Gianluigi Braschi, Italian film producer *Gianluigi Buffon, Italian footballer *Gianl ...

joined

Forza Italia Forza ItaliaThe name is not usually translated into English: ''forza'' is the second-person singular imperative of ''forzare'', in this case translating to "to compel" or "to press", and so means something like "Forward, Italy", "Come on, Ital ...

(FI) and

Energies for Italy Energies for Italy ( it, Energie per l'Italia, EpI) was a political party in Italy, launched in November 2016 and officially established on 1 April 2017. Its leader is Stefano Parisi, a former director-general of Confindustria and CEO of Fastweb ...

(EpI), both members of the

centre-right coalition The centre-right coalition ( it, coalizione di centro-destra) is an alliance of political parties in Italy, active—under several forms and names—since 1994, when Silvio Berlusconi entered politics and formed his Forza Italia party. Despite ...

. For its part, DemoS was a founding member of the

Popular Civic List The Popular Civic List ( it, Civica Popolare, CP) was a centrist coalition of political parties in Italy. Its leader is Beatrice Lorenzin, minister of Health from 2013 to 2018 and member of Popular Alternative. History CP participated in the 2 ...

(CP), a centrist electoral list within the

centre-left coalition The centre-left coalition ( it, coalizione di centro-sinistra) is an political alliance, alliance of list of political parties in Italy, political parties in Italy active, under several forms and names, since 1995 when The Olive Tree (Italy), Th ...

, along with

Popular Alternative Popular Alternative ( it, Alternativa Popolare, AP) is a Christian democracy, Christian-democratic list of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy that was founded on 18 March 2017 after the dissolution of New Centre-Right (NCD), one ...

(AP),

Italy of Values Italy of Values ( it, Italia dei Valori, IdV) is a populist and anti-corruption political party in Italy. The party was founded in 1998 by former ''Mani pulite'' prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro, who entered politics in 1996 and finally left the par ...

(IdV), the

Centrists for Europe Centrists for Europe ( it, Centristi per l'Europa, CpE) is a Christian-democratic political party in Italy. The party was launched, as Centrists for Italy (''Centristi per l'Italia'', CpI), by splinters from the Union of the Centre in December 2 ...

(CpE),

Italy is Popular Italy is Popular ( it, L'Italia è Popolare, IP) is a Christian-democratic political party active in Italy. History IP was launched as a split from the Union of the Centre (UdC) in November 2017 by Giuseppe De Mita, nephew of Ciriaco De Mita, ...

(IP), the

(UpT) and the

(UPC). In the 2018 general election CP obtained a mere 0.5% and no seats, thus DemoS was excluded from Parliament. Moreover, Dellai was defeated in a single-seat constituency in

. However, in the simultaneous 2018 regional election in Lazio, Ciani was elected regional councillor, at the head of a regional list named "Solidary Centre". In October 2018 DemoS was re-launched, with the aim of creating a large Christian-leftist movement within the centre-left, at the presence of

Andrea Riccardi Andrea Riccardi (born 16 January 1950, in Rome) is an Italian historian, professor, politician and activist, founder of the Community of Sant'Egidio. He served as minister for international cooperation Minister without portfolio, without portfol ...

, founder of the

, and

Paolo Gentiloni Paolo Gentiloni Silveri (; born 22 November 1954) is an Italian politician who has served as European Commissioner for Economy in the von der Leyen Commission since 1 December 2019. He previously served as prime minister of Italy from December ...

, a leading Democrat, former Prime Minister and minister of Foreign Affairs. In the following months, the party was joined by some high-profile people, including Nello Formisano and

Pietro Bartolo Pietro Bartolo, OMRI, (born 10 February 1956) is an Italian doctor and politician who was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019 for the Democratic Party. He is known to have been, from 1992 to 2019, the responsible medician fo ...

, while Michela Rostan, deputy of Article One, expressed her willingness to represent the issues put forward by Demo.S in the Parliament. The party also joined the PD's lists for the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peopl ...

, resulting in the election of Bartolo as MEP. In May 2022 the party held its first national congress. Ciani, until then coordinator, was elected secretary, while Giro was re-elected president.

Leadership

*President:

(2015–2018), Mario Giro (2018–present) *Coordinator/Secretary: Paolo Ciani (2015–present)

Symbol

Democrazia Solidale.png, 2015–2018 Democrazia Solidale logo 2018.jpeg, 2018–present Democrazia Solidale Logo.png, Vector logo

References

External links

Official website
{{Italian political parties 2014 establishments in Italy Centrist parties in Italy Christian democratic parties in Italy Catholic political parties Political parties established in 2014 Left-wing politics in Italy