Socialist Party New PSI
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The Partito Socialista – Nuovo PSI (NPSI) is a small Italian party which professes a social-democratic ideology and claims to be the successor to the old Italian Socialist Party, which was disbanded after the judiciary tempest of the early 1990s (see Mani Pulite). The party is affiliated with the ruling right-of-centre House of Freedoms coalition, led by Silvio Berlusconi, who also was a close friend of Bettino Craxi. The party's headquarters is in Rome.
The party's members are often former followers of Bettino Craxi, whom they often portray as a victim of political persecution, notwithstanding the many convictions he received on corruption charges. The party leader is Gianni De Michelis, former minister of foreign affairs in a number of Italian governments, and formerly a close ally of Craxi. After a disputed congress Bobo Craxi also claimed to be the leader of the party. However, on 25 Jan 2006 the Tribunal of Rome decided that Gianni De Michelis is the official leader of NPSI, a ruling that promped the quick departure of Bobo Craxi with a few supporters.
National elections
At its founding congress, the New PSI decided to enter the new centre-right coalition of House of Freedoms headed by the former friend of Bettino Craxi, Silvio Berlusconi. Its decision regarding not entering the centre-left coalition laid in the past during Mani Pulite affair when the old Italian Socialist Party disintegrated while the ex-communist party was left untouched.
The House of Freedoms won the elections and Silvio Berlusconi formed a new executive where the New PSI was represented by Stefano Caldoro as vice-minister for Education. Although the coalition won, individually the New PSI received unpromising results. It gained 353,269 (1%) for the Chamber of Deputies, electing 3 deputies and one senator partly thanks to the uninominal electoral system where all 4 MPs received the support from other centre-right parties.
The elected MPs are Vittorio Craxi (son of Bettino Craxi), Vincenzo Milioto, Chiara Moroni and Franco Crinò. The secretary of the party Gianni De Michelis and the spokesman of the party Claudio Martelli didn't get elected since the New PSI failed to pass the 4% threhold in the proportional quote. The New PSI is far away from the electoral success of the old Italian Socialist Party which, during 80', gained 15% of the votes.
In the coalition things are starting to get cold. The Northern League has, during Mani Pulite affair, verbally attacked the Socialists of which most were under corruption accusations. This started having constrasts with the new Socialist Party, which attempted to re-create the old political parties that characterized the First Republic.
An unprecedent accident happened when the Northern League deputies verbally attacked the memory of Sergio Moroni, father of Chiara Moroni who was a socialist deputy who killed himself after having been accused of corruption.
European elections
In occasion for election, the New PSI makes allainces with small socialist movements and parties of which Socialst Unity founded and headed by Rino Formica (former member of the Italian Socialist Party). The party's logo temporaly changes the name to 'Socialisti Uniti per L'Europe' Socialists United for Europe. The list gains 665,771 votes (2,0%) (doubling their electoral weight since 2001 General Elections). In the region of Calabria it gains 8% making it the highest result ever. It elects 2 NPSI MEPs of which there's Gianni De Michelis. In the European Parliament, the two PSNI members did not join any party group and are therefore sitting as Non-Inscrits.
Regional Elections
One year after the European success, the New PSI presented itself in the House of Freedoms coalition for the regional elections of April 2005. In Calabria New PSI received 5.4%, making Calabria its stronghold. However, the House of Freedoms lost 12 regions out of 14, forcing Silvio Berlusconi to reshuffle cabinet. In his reshuffling he promoted Caldoro as a minister.
The October 2005 congress
On October 21-23, 2005, a national congress was held in Rome in order to deliberate the new political line to be held by the party, particularly about the possibility to join the Union and thus leave the House of Freedoms.During the congress, which was characterized by a heated atmosphere and several contestations and controverses, Bobo Craxi, who supported a "socialist unity" together with the Italian Radicals and the Italian Democratic Socialists inside the Union and an immediate retirement from the Berlusconi government, challenged incumbent leader Gianni De Michelis, who instead asked the congress to delay such a decision.
De Michelis received support from Battilocchio, Chiara Moroni, one of the 4 members of the Italian parliament for the party and daughter of a former leading socialist member who committed suicide in the early 1990s during the Mani Pulite scandal, and the minister Stefano Caldoro, whereas Craxi, another deputy, gained support from the other two members of parliament and powerful Calabrian leader Saverio Zavettieri.
In the end, De Michelis majority unrecognized the congress, declaring it had never been officially opened, and abandoned it with all of his supporters leaving the only Craxi supporters pretending to elect their candidate as "new party's leader". Later, the Tribunal of Rome, after a Craxi request, closed the contest in favor of the party leader.
Road to the 2006 general election
The Craxi's faction, which abandoned the party immediately after the verdict of annulment of the last congress, is now part of The Union, organised in a very small party named The Socialists; however the party faces tough odds, after Bobo Craxi refused to join the Rose in the Fist alliance, consisting of Italian Radicals and Italian Democratic Socialists.On the contrary, Gianni De Michelis, who won the legal dispute for the symbol and the leadership of the NPSI on 25 January 2006 and forged an alliance with Christian Democracy for the Autonomies led by Gianfranco Rotondi and Publio Fiori.
The unpromising results
The alliance DC-PSI, which wanted to revive the political culture of the past, received unpromising results. It gained 285,744 votes (0.7%) for the Chamber of Deputies and 190,724 (0.6%) for the Senate. Despite not having passed the 2% threshold it still elected 4 deputies since it was the party which received more votes under the 2% threshold in its respective alliance (House of Freedoms). The elected candidates of the New PSI are Lucio Barani and Mauro del Bue; two more candidates have been promised a seat as candidates of Forza Italia. However, the 2 candidates (Chiara Moroni and Giovanni Ricevuto) elected for Forza Italia, abandoned the party on the 3rd of May for motives which are not known.
Nonetheless the New PSI and its two MPs form a joint parliamentary group with its former ally the Christian Democracy for the Autonomies comprising 6 MPs in total, which makes it a minimal force in Parliament.
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