Partito Democratico della Sinistra (PDS)

Italian political party, founded in 1991 by the majority of the Italian Communist Party after it was dissolved. Its first leader was Achille Occhetto, and the party supported the Segni referendum campaign and the Ciampi government economic reorganization programme. Allied with other progressive movements, it obtained considerable success in the 1993 local elections. Massimo d'Alema succeeded Occhetto as leader in 1994. The PDS is part of the centre-left coalition L'Ulivo, which was successful in the 1996 elections.

The Democratic Party of the Left (Italian: Partito democratico della Sinistra, or PDS) was the evolution in a socialist direction of the Italian Communist Party, or PCI.

The logo of the PDS consisted mainly of an oak tree that retained, in a small circle at the tree's roots, the previous symbol of the Italian Communist Party; this was done both to indicate the party's roots, and to avoid that the Communist Refoundation Party could make use of it immediately after the split between the two. The former PCI symbol was then taken over by the Party of Italian Communists. In 1997 Massimo D'Alema called for the party to become more of a European social democratic party.