The Democratic Party (Italian: Partito Democratico, PD) is a social-democraticpolitical party in Italy, that is the country's second-largest. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected at the 2009 leadership election.

The party was founded on 14 October 2007 as a merger of various left-wing and centrist parties which were part of The Union in the 2006 general election. Several parties merged into the Democratic Party, however its bulk was formed by the Democrats of the Left (heirs of the Italian Communist Party) and Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy. Within the party, an important role is played also by Christian leftists, who are direct heirs of the late Christian Democracy party's left.

After Silvio Berlusconi's resignation in November 2011, the PD has supported Mario Monti's government since its formation, along with Berlusconi's The People of Freedom, the Union of the Centre and Future and Freedom.

In the early 1990s, following Tangentopoli, the end of the so-called First Republic and the transformation of the Italian Communist Party into the Democratic Party of the Left, a process aimed at uniting left-wing and centre-left forcees into a single political entity started. In 1995–1996 Romano Prodi, formerly close to the left-wing of Christian Democracy, entered politics and founded The Olive Tree, a centre-left coalition including the former Communists, the Italian People's Party, the Federation of the Greens, Italian Renewal, the Italian Socialists and Democratic Union. The coalition, in alliance with the Communist Refoundation Party, won the 1996 general election and Prodi was sworn in as Prime Minister.

Italy ⁱ/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km² (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.

Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.

The following is a list of political parties whose names (in English) could be translated to Democratic Party or the Democrat(s).

Paolo Rossi (born 23 September 1956 in Prato) is an Italian former football striker. In 1982, he led Italy to the 1982 FIFA World Cup title, scoring six goals to win the Golden Boot/top scorer honors, and the Golden Ball. After his performance at the 1982 FIFA World Cup he became a hero in the hearts of all Italians. Rossi is one of only two players to have won all three honours at a single tournament (the other is the Argentinian Mario Kempes, in 1978). Javier Saviola, Lionel Messi, Sergio Agüero and Dominic Adiyiah accomplished this in junior teams, in the 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cups respectively. He is listed among Pelé's 125 all-time greatest footballers.

Since retiring, Rossi has gone into sports journalism and punditry. He currently works as a pundit for Juventus Channel.

Rossi was born at Santa Lucia, in the province of Prato (Tuscany).

He made his debut in professional Italian football with Como, to which Juventus had sent him to gain experience after three operations on his knees, as a right wing, where his small build would not be a hindrance.

Luciano Ligabue (born March 13, 1960), more commonly known as Ligabue or Liga, is an Italian rock singer-songwriter, film director and writer.

Ligabue was born in Correggio, in the province of Reggio Emilia (Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy). Before becoming a successful singer, he held various jobs, working in agriculture and in factories. He entered the music world in 1987, when he founded the amateur band Orazero. For this band he wrote several original songs, with which they participated in several local and national contests. The following year his fellow Emilian singer-songwriter Pierangelo Bertoli was the first to discover Ligabue's writing talents, and included one of Ligabue's songs, "Sogni di Rock'n'Roll" ("Dreams of rock n roll"), in his new LP.

The following year Bertoli introduced him to producer Angelo Carrara, to finish an LP of his own, Ligabue, which was released in May 1990. Ligabue soon gained fame as one of the most successful Italian rock stars, finding fans mainly among younger audiences. His most famous hits include Balliamo sul mondo (Let's Dance On The World), Ho perso le parole (I lost words) and the most successful of all, Certe Notti (Certain Nights), which was voted as "Italian song of the 1990s" in a poll held by a popular music magazine. He also collaborated with another famous singer-songwriter, Francesco Guccini, who also had a part in Ligabue's first movie (see below).