The Democrats (Italy) in the context of Italian People's Party (1994)

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.

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).