New Italian Socialist Party

The New Italian Socialist Party (Nuovo Partito Socialista Italiano, NPSI) is a small political party in Italy 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).

Most of the party's members are former followers of Bettino Craxi, whom they often portray as a victim of political persecution, notwithstanding the many convictions he received on corruption charges. That was why the party has been an ally of the centre-right House of Freedoms coalition for most of its history, as the centre-left was dominated by former Communists who were the main opponents of the Socialists, so that most of them had joined Forza Italia earlier.

The main leader of the party has been Gianni De Michelis, who however left the party in 2007, being replaced by Stefano Caldoro. In 2007 several party members of the party left to join the left-wing Socialist Party, while what remained of the NPSI was merged into the centre-right The People of Freedom, within which the party continues to exist as a sort of associate party or internal faction.

Since 2010 party leader Stefano Caldoro is President of Campania.

History

The party was founded in 2001 by the merge of the Socialist Party of Gianni De Michelis, the Socialist League of Claudio Martelli and Bobo Craxi (son of Bettino), who had been founding members of the Italian Democratic Socialists in 1998, other...
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