Great Square

Great Square (Italian: Piazza Grande) is a social-democratic and progressive movement within the Democratic Party (PD), a political party in Italy. Its leader is Nicola Zingaretti, President of Lazio region since 2013 and current leader of the PD. He is considered a social democrat and one of the most prominent members of the party's left-wing.[1] Great Square's members are also known as Zingarettiani from the name of their leader.[2]

Great Square

Piazza Grande
LeaderNicola Zingaretti
CoordinatorMassimiliano Smeriglio
FoundedOctober 2018
IdeologySocial democracy
Progressivism
Democratic socialism
Political positionCentre-left to left-wing
Website
Official website

History

The movement, which has never been organised as a formal faction, grew around Nicola Zingaretti, in late 2018. Born in 1965, Zingaretti became, during the 1990s, a prominent European youth leader, serving as National Secretary of the Left Youth, the youth-wing of the Democratic Party of the Left and as President of International Union of Socialist Youth.[3] In 2004, he was elected Member of the European Parliament for the centre-left coalition The Olive Tree.[4] Then, from 2008 he served as President of the Province of Rome,[5] until 2013, when he was elected President of Lazio.[6]

On 4 March 2018, Zingaretti was narrowly re-elected president with 1,018,736 votes (32.9%), defeating the centre-right candidate Stefano Parisi (31.2%) and the Five Star's Roberta Lombardi (27%). Despite the small margin of victory, Zingaretti's win was seen as a strong showing due to the poor electoral result of the centre-left coalition in the general election which was held in the same day.[7][8] After the election defeat, the Democratic leader, Matteo Renzi, resigned from secretary, his deputy Maurizio Martina started functioning as acting secretary and a new leadership election was called for early 2019.[9][10][11] On 7 July 2018, Nicola Zingaretti announced his intention to run as new party's leader.[12][13]

In August 2018, Zingaretti launched the political convention in support of his candidacy, named Great Square, which was held in Rome in October.[14] Zingaretti's campaign was based on a social democratic platform, whose aim was to abandon the social liberal and centrist policies promoted by Matteo Renzi and to move the Democratic Party more on the left.[15] The campaign's main themes were social justice and fight to economic inequality.[16]

Symbols
  • Great Square logo
  • Zingaretti's campaign logo

References
  1. "Pd, Zingaretti pronto a correre per la segreteria. Orlando sta con lui. Calenda: "Fronte Repubblicano oltre attuali partiti" - Il Fatto Quotidiano". 27 June 2018.
  2. In Sicilia è scontro tra zingarettiani e renziani: pronta la Commissione di Garanzia
  3. "Lazio, chi è il candidato del centrosinistra Nicola Zingaretti - LaPresse". 2 March 2018.
  4. "Nicola ZINGARETTI - History of parliamentary service - MEPs - European Parliament". www.europarl.europa.eu.
  5. "Zingaretti presenta la Giunta provinciale". 12 May 2008.
  6. "Elezioni regionali 2013, "Zingaretti vincente in Lazio. Lombardia in bilico" - Il Fatto Quotidiano". 25 February 2013.
  7. "Elezioni Lazio, Zingaretti confermato Presidente: 'Me vie' da piagne'". Repubblica Tv - la Repubblica.it. 5 March 2018.
  8. "Regionali, il nuovo consiglio regionale del Lazio: la possibile suddivisione dei seggi".
  9. "Rep". rep.repubblica.it.
  10. "L'assemblea. Il Pd avvia nuova fase: Martina segretario. Primarie il 24 febbraio 2019". 7 July 2018.
  11. Meli, Maria Teresa. "Renzi, ecco la lettera di dimissioni: "Sono già fuori"".
  12. alaNEWS (7 July 2018). "Zingaretti: "Mi candido: scenderò in campo. M5S? Dobbiamo fare politica"" – via YouTube.
  13. Così Zingaretti prepara la scalata al Pd
  14. Nicola Zingaretti – Piazza Grande
  15. Zingaretti: Voglio ricostruire valori e classe politica. La sinistra deve ritrovare il modo di difendere I diritti
  16. Pd, scende in campo Zingaretti: ecco come cambiano gli equilibri nel partito
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