Leadership of Matteo Renzi
Four individuals filed their bid for becoming secretary, namely Matteo Renzi, Pippo Civati, Gianni Cuperlo and Gianni Pittella.
The leadership race started with voting by party members in local conventions (7–17 November). Renzi came first with 45.3%, followed by Cuperlo (39.4%), Civati (9.4%) and Pittella (5.8%). The first three were admitted to the open primary.
On 8 December, Renzi, who won in all regions but was stronger in the Centre-North, trounced his opponents with 67.6% of the vote. Cuperlo, whose support was higher in the South, came second with 18.2% while Civati, whose message did well with northern urban and progressive voters, came third with 14.2%. On 15 December, Renzi, whose executive included many young people and a majority of women, was proclaimed secretary by the party's national assembly while Cuperlo was elected president as proposed by Renzi.
On 20 January 2014, Cuperlo criticised the electoral reform proposed by Renzi in agreement with Berlusconi, but the proposal was overwhelmingly approved by the party's national board. The day after the vote, Cuperlo resigned from president. He was later replaced by Matteo Orfini, who hailed from the party's left wing, but since then became more and more supportive of Renzi.
After frequent calls by Renzi for a new phase, the national board decided to put an end to Letta's government on 13 February and form a new one led by Renzi as the latter had proposed. Subsequently, Renzi was sworn in as prime minister on 22 February at the head of an identical coalition. On 28 February, the PD officially joined the PES as a full member, ending a decade-long debate.
In the 2014 European Parliament election, the party obtained 40.8% of the vote and 31 seats. The party's score was virtually 15 percentage points up from five years before and the best result for an Italian party in a nationwide election since the 1958 general election, when Christian Democracy won 42.4%. The PD was also the largest national party within the Parliament in its 8th term. Following his party's success, Renzi was able to secure the post of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy within the European Commission for Federica Mogherini, his minister of Foreign Affairs.
In January 2015, Sergio Mattarella, a veteran left-wing Christian Democrat and founding member of the PD, whose candidacy had been proposed by Renzi and unanimously endorsed by the party's delegates, was elected President of Italy during a presidential election triggered by President Giorgio Napolitano's resignation.
During Renzi's first year as prime minister, several MPs defected from other parties to join the PD. They comprised splinters from SEL (most of whom led by Gennaro Migliore, see Freedom and Rights), SC (notably including Stefania Giannini, Pietro Ichino and Andrea Romano) and the M5S. Consequently, the party increased its parliamentary numbers to 311 deputies and 114 senators by April 2015. Otherwise, Sergio Cofferati, Giuseppe Civati and Stefano Fassina left. They were the first and most notable splinters among the ranks of the party's internal left, but several others followed either Civati (who launched Possible) or Fassina (who launched Future to the Left and Italian Left) in the following months. By May 2016, the PD's parliamentary numbers had gone down to 303 deputies and 114 senators.
In the 2015 regional elections, Democratic presidents were elected (or re-elected) in five regions out of seven, namely Enrico Rossi in Tuscany, Luca Ceriscioli in Marche, Catiuscia Marini in Umbria, Vincenzo De Luca in Campania and Michele Emiliano in Apulia. As a result, 16 regions out of 20, including all those of central and southern Italy, were governed by the centre-left while the opposition Lega Nord led Veneto and Lombardy and propped up a centre-right government in Liguria.
After a huge defeat in the 2016 constitutional referendum (59.9% no, 40.1% yes), Renzi resigned as prime minister in December 2016 and was replaced by fellow Democrat Paolo Gentiloni, whose government's composition and coalition were very similar to those of the Renzi Cabinet. In February 2017, Renzi resigned also as PD secretary to run in the 2017 leadership election. Renzi, Andrea Orlando (one of the leaders of the Remake Italy faction; the other leader Matteo Orfini was the party's president and supported Renzi) and Michele Emiliano were the three contenders for the party's leadership.
Subsequently, a substantial group of leftists (24 deputies, 14 senators and 3 MEPs), led by Enrico Rossi (Democratic Socialists) and Roberto Speranza (Reformist Area), backed by Massimo D'Alema, Pier Luigi Bersani and Guglielmo Epifani, left the PD and formed Article 1 – Democratic and Progressive Movement (MDP), along with splinters from the Italian Left (SI) led by Arturo Scotto. Most of the splinters as well as Scotto were former Democrats of the Left. In December 2017, the MDP, SI and Possible would launch Free and Equal (LeU) under the leadership of the President of the Senate Pietro Grasso (another PD splinter).
In local conventions, Renzi came first (66.7%), Orlando second (25.3%) and Emiliano third (8.0%). In the open primary on 30 April, Renzi won 69.2% of the vote as opposed to Orlando's 20.0% and Emiliano's 10.9%. On 7 May, Renzi was sworn in as secretary again, with Maurizio Martina as deputy and Orfini was confirmed president.
In the 2017 Sicilian regional election, Crocetta did not stand and the PD-led coalition was defeated.
In the run-up of the 2018 general election, the PD tried to form a broad centre-left coalition, but only minor parties showed interest. As a result, the alliance comprised Together (a list notably including the Italian Socialist Party and the Federation of the Greens), the Popular Civic List (notably including Popular Alternative, Italy of Values, the Centrists for Europe and Solidary Democracy) and More Europe (including the Italian Radicals, Forza Europa and the Democratic Centre).
In the election, the PD obtained its worst result ever: 18.7% of the vote, well behind the M5S (32.7%) and narrowly ahead of the Lega (17.4%). Following his party's defeat, Renzi resigned from secretary and his deputy Martina started functioning as acting secretary.
After two months of negotiations and the refusal of the PD to join forces with the M5S, the latter and the Lega formed a government under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, a M5S-proposed independent. Thus, the party returned to opposition after virtually seven years and experienced some internal turmoil as its internal factions started to re-position themselves in the new context. Both Gentiloni and Franceschini distanced from Renzi while Carlo Calenda, a former minister in Renzi's and Gentiloni's governments who had joined the party soon after the election, proposed to merge the PD into a larger republican front. However, according to several observers Renzi's grip over the party was still strong and he was still the PD's leader behind the scenes.
