Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy in the context of Italian People's Party (1994)

⭐ Core Definition: Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy

Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (Italian: Democrazia è Libertà – La Margherita, DL), commonly known simply as The Daisy (La Margherita), was a centrist political party in Italy. The party was formed from the merger of three parties within the centre-left coalition: the Italian People's Party, The Democrats and Italian Renewal.

The party president and leader was Francesco Rutelli, former mayor of Rome and prime minister candidate during the 2001 general election for The Olive Tree coalition, within which The Daisy electoral list won 14.5% of the national vote. The Daisy became a single party in February 2002. It was set up by former left-leaning Christian Democrats, centrists, and social-liberals, including former Liberals and Republicans, as well as other left-wing politicians from the former Italian Socialist Party and Federation of the Greens. On 14 October 2007, DL merged with the Democrats of the Left to form the Democratic Party (PD).

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HINT:

The Italian People's Party (Italian: Partito Popolare Italiano, PPI) was a Christian-democratic, centrist and Christian-leftist political party in Italy. The party was a member of the European People's Party (EPP).

The PPI was the formal successor of the Christian Democracy (DC), but was soon deprived of its conservative elements, which successively formed the Christian Democratic Centre (CCD) in 1994 and the United Christian Democrats (CDU) in 1995. The PPI was finally merged into Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL) in 2002, and DL was later merged with the Democrats of the Left (DS) and minor centre-left parties into Democratic Party (PD) in 2007.

In this Dossier

The Democratic Party (Italian: Partito Democratico, PD) is a social democratic political party in Italy. The party's secretary is Elly Schlein, elected in the 2023 leadership election, while the party's president is Stefano Bonaccini.

The PD was established in 2007 upon the merger of various centre-left parties which had been part of The Olive Tree list in the 2006 Italian general election, mainly the social democratic Democrats of the Left (DS), successor of the Italian Communist Party and the Democratic Party of the Left, which was folded with several social democratic parties (Labour Federation and Social Christians, among others) in 1998, as well as the largely Catholic-inspired Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL), a merger of the Italian People's Party (heir of the Christian Democracy party's left wing), The Democrats and Italian Renewal in 2002. While the party has also been influenced by Christian left, social liberalism and Third Way, especially under Matteo Renzi's leadership, the PD moved closer to social liberalism. Under latter leaders, especially Schlein, whose upbringing is influenced by the left-wing, environmentalism and green politics, the party has moved to the left.

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The Democrats of the Left (Italian: Democratici di Sinistra, DS) was a social-democratic political party in Italy. Positioned on the centre-left, the DS, successor of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) and the Italian Communist Party, was formed in 1998 upon the merger of the PDS with several minor parties. A member of The Olive Tree coalition, the DS was successively led by Massimo D'Alema, Walter Veltroni, and Piero Fassino, and merged with Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy and a number of minor centre-left parties to form the Democratic Party in October 2007.

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The Democrats (Italian: I Democratici, Dem) was a centrist and social-liberal political party in Italy.

The party was launched in 1999 by Romano Prodi, a few months after his dismissal as Prime Minister and leader of The Olive Tree coalition. Three parties merged into The Democrats: the Democratic Union, Italy of Values and The Network. Also splinters from the Italian People's Party joined. In 2002 The Democrats were merged into Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy, which would be merged into the Democratic Party in 2007.

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