The Democrats of the Left (Italian: Democratici di Sinistra, DS) was a social-democratic political party in Italy.^[2][3][4] Positioned on the centre-left,^[5] 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.^[6]

At its 20th congress in 1991, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was transformed into the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), responding to the Revolutions of 1989 in eastern Europe by re-orienting the party towards the European democratic socialist tradition.^[7] Under the leadership of Massimo D'Alema, the PDS merged with some minor centre-left movements (Labour Federation, Social Christians, Republican Left, Movement of Unitarian Communists, Reformists for Europe, and Democratic Federation) on 13 February 1998.^[8][9]

The DS' symbol lacked the hammer and sickle, which was present in the PDS' one and was instead replaced by the red rose of European social democracy as used by the Party of European Socialists (PES). Massimo D'Alema became Prime Minister of Italy in October 1998, the first former Communist to hold the post. D'Alema was replaced as the leader of DS by Walter Veltroni. During the party's first national congress in January 2000, Veltroni received the support of the 79.9% of delegates, while the left wing of the party, at the time led by three women (Anna Finocchiaro, Fulvia Bandoli, and Pasqualina Napoletano), had the support of 20.1% of delegates.

Inside the DS, there was often a somewhat simplistic distinction between reformists (riformisti) and radicals (radicali), indicating respectively the party's mainstream and its left wing. The party also included several organised factions. The social-democratic majority was loosely organised, while including several organised movements: the Labourites – Liberal Socialists and Sicily's Reformist Movement, both splinter groups of the Italian Socialist Party; Reformist Europe, a splinter group of the Democratic Union led by Giorgio Benvenuto (previously named Reformists for Europe); the Social Christians, which had emerged from the left wing of Christian Democracy; the Republican Left, from the left wing of the Italian Republican Party; and the Liberal Left, from the left wing of the Italian Liberal Party. A dissident group left the Labourites in order to launch Socialists and Europeans as a vehicle to oppose the party's merger with DL. On the party's right, the Liberal DS had a moderate Third Way or radical centrist political agenda and joined the party's majority in latter years.

Before the party's last congress in 2007, the left-wing opposition was led by the DS Left – Returning to win, a democratic-socialist grouping, with other smaller groups including DS Left – for Socialism and the Ecologist Left. Before that, some DS leading members, including Pietro Ingrao, Achille Occhetto, and Pietro Folena, had left the party in order to join the Communist Refoundation Party, which at its sixth congress held in January 2005 moved toward a more heterogeneous, non-sectarian, and strongly pacifist variety of leftism.

The electoral results of DS (PDS until 1998) in general (Chamber of Deputies) and European Parliament elections from 1992 to 2006 are shown in chart below. The result for the 2006 general election refers to the election for the Senate (the DS contested the election for the Chamber of Deputies in a joint list with the DL).

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

The electoral results of the DS (PDS until 1998) in the 10 most populated regions of Italy are shown in the table below.

• 1998
• 2004

• Secretary: Massimo D'Alema (1998), Walter Veltroni (1998–2001), Piero Fassino (2001–2007)
  • Coordinator: Marco Minniti (1998), Pietro Folena (1998–2001), Vannino Chiti (2001–2004), Vannino Chiti / Maurizio Migliavacca (2004–2006), Maurizio Migliavacca (2006–2007)
  • Organizational Secretary: Pietro Folena (1998), Franco Passuello (1998–2001), Maurizio Migliavacca (2001–2004), Marina Sereni (2004–2006), Andrea Orlando (2006–2007)
• President: Massimo D'Alema (2000–2007)
• Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: Fabio Mussi (1998–2001), Luciano Violante (2001–2006), Marina Sereni (deputy-leader of the Olive Tree's group, 2006–2007)
• Party Leader in the Senate: Gavino Angius (1998–2006), Anna Finocchiaro (leader of the Olive Tree's group, 2006–2007)
• Party Leader in the European Parliament: Renzo Imbeni (1998–1999), Pasqualina Napoletano (1999–2004), Nicola Zingaretti (2004–2006), Giovanni Pittella (2006–2009)