Socialist Party New PSI
From Freepedia
| Socialist Party New PSI | |
|---|---|
| Partito Socialista - Nuovo PSI | |
| Italian National Party | |
| Leader | Gianni De Michelis |
| Coalition | House of Freedoms |
| Political ideology | Socialism |
| Official Newspaper | The most referring one is L'Avanti, shared with SDI, other main socialist party of Italy. |
| Website | http://www.nuovopsi.com |
| See also | Politics of Italy |
The Partito Socialista – Nuovo PSI is a small Italian party which professes a socialist ideology and claims to be the successor to the old Italian Socialist Party, which was disbanded after an impressive series of corruption scandals of the early 1990s (see Mani Pulite). Despite its name and purported ideology, the party is affiliated to the ruling right-wing House of Freedoms coalition, led by Silvio Berlusconi, who also was a close friend of Craxi.
The NPSI is however currently planning to leave the House of Freedoms, considering the alliance "exhausted", and join the centre-left Union, and there merge with the Italian Democratic Socialists to rebuild the Italian Socialist Party. However, they are not planning to leave the government until the elections in spring 2006, and are therefore going to run "against themselves". Some believe this is just an old-style, machiavellian attachment to power by any means, since it is currently expected that the Union will win the next national elections.
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's current leader is Gianni de Michelis, former minister of foreign affairs in a number of Italian governments, and formerly a close ally of Craxi.
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National elections
Three PSNI members were elected to the Chamber of Deputies and one to the Senate on the House of Freedoms Ticket in the parliamentary election of 2001, and two PSNI members currently hold cabinet office in the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
European elections
In the 2004, having campaigned on a joint ticket together with the smaller Unità Socialista, known as Socialists United for Europe (Socialisti uniti per l'Europa) two PSNI candidates, Gianni De Michelis and Alessandro Battilocchio were elected to the European Parliament.
In the European Parliament, the two PSNI members did not join any party group and are therefore sitting as Non-Inscrits.
Leading members
Leading members of the PSNI include Vittorio (Bobo) Craxi, son of former Prime Minister and long time leader of the old Socialist Party, Bettino Craxi, and Professor Gianni de Michelis. Craxi was elected to the Chamber of Deputies from the Sicilian constituency of Trapani in the parliamentary election of 2001, while de Michelis and Battilocchio were elected to the European Parliament in 2004.
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 hot environment and several contestations and controverses, Bobo Craxi, who supported a "socialist unity" together with the Italian Radicals and the Italian Democratic Socialist inside the Union and a immediate retirement from the Berlusconi government, challenged incumbent leader Gianni De Michelis, who instead asked the congress to decide the political line in the next future. 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 socialist leading 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 unrecognized the congress, declaring it had never been officially opened, and abandoned it with all of his supporters leaving the only Craxi supporters electing their candidate as "new party's leader". It is now easy to think about a split in the party, with the Craxi side joining the Union, and the De Michelis one staying inside the House of Freedoms.
