The Union of Socialists (, UdS) was a

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 ...

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 was founded in February 1948 by

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 ...

, former secretary of the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 1892, ...

. The UdS participated in the 1948 general election as part of the Socialist Unity coalition with the Italian Socialist Workers' Party (''Partito Socialista dei Lavoratori Italiani''; PSLI), which collectively received 7.1% of the vote for 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 ...

and gained 33 seats. However, out of them only Lombardo and

Piero Calamandrei Piero Calamandrei (21 April 1889 – 27 September 1956) was an Italian author, jurist, soldier, university professor, and politician. Born in Florence, he was one of Italy's leading authorities on the law of civil procedure. After studies in Pis ...

were members of the UdS. Lombardo was succeeded as the party's leader by

Ignazio Silone Secondino Tranquilli (1 May 1900 – 22 August 1978), known by the pseudonym Ignazio Silone (, ), was an Italian political leader, novelist, and short-story writer, world-famous during World War II for his powerful anti-fascist novels. He was no ...

in June 1949. In December of that year the UdS was dissolved into the Unitary Socialist Party (''Partito Socialista Unitario''; PSU), which itself subsequently merged with the PSLI to form 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 im ...

(''Partito Socialista Democratico Italiano''; PSDI) in 1951.

References

{{Historical Italian political parties Defunct political parties in Italy 1948 establishments in Italy 1949 disestablishments in Italy Defunct social democratic parties in Italy Political parties disestablished in 1949 Political parties established in 1948