| Colorcode: |
|
| Piazza Grande | |
| Leader: | Nicola Zingaretti |
| Leader2 Title: | Coordinator |
| Leader2 Name: | Massimiliano Smeriglio |
| Foundation: | October 2018 |
| Ideology: | Social democracy Progressivism Democratic socialism |
| Position: | Centre-left to left-wing |
| Website: | Official website |
| Country: | Italy |
Piazza Grande is a social-democratic and progressive faction within the Democratic Party (PD), a political party in Italy. Its leader is Nicola Zingaretti, President of Lazio region from 2013 to 2022 and former leader of the PD. He is considered a social democrat and one of the most prominent members of the party's left-wing.[1] Piazza Grande's members are also known as Zingarettiani from the name of their leader.[2]
The faction, 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 Piazza Grande, 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]