Editing Democrats of the Left (section)

===Fourth national congress and split===
The party's fourth national congress was held in 19–21 April 2007. During local congresses, Fassino and his motion named ''For the Democratic Party'', backed by most leading members (D'Alema, [[Pier Luigi Bersani]], and [[Antonio Bassolino]], among others), received the support of 75.6% by party members. The left wing of [[Fabio Mussi]], [[Cesare Salvi]], [[Fulvia Bandoli]], and [[Valdo Spini]] (''To the Left. For European Socialism'') scored 15.0%; this motion was instead opposed to the merger of the DS with DL. A third motion (''For a New, Democratic and Socialist Party''), signed by [[Gavino Angius]], [[Mauro Zani]], and originally [[Giuseppe Caldarola]], took 9.3% of the vote; its members (gathered in the new [[Socialists and Europeans]] faction) supported the creation of a new party only within the PES, which was opposed by the DL. As a result, the DS approved the formation of a Democratic Party, along with DL and minor parties. Most supporters of the two motions which had opposed the merger left the DS right after the congress and launched the [[Democratic Left (Italy)|Democratic Left]] on 5 May 2007, which aimed to unite the heterogeneous Italian left.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Daniela Giannetti|author2=Michael Laver|chapter=Party cohesion, party discipline, and party factions in Italy|editor1=Daniela Giannetti|editor2=Kenneth Benoit|title=Intra-Party Politics and Coalition Governments|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IKp9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA154|year=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-04288-3|page=154}}</ref>

The [[Democratic Party (Italy)|Democratic Party]] (PD) was formed in October 2007 and its first secretary was [[Walter Veltroni]], a former DS leader who was elected leader of the new party through a [[2007 Democratic Party (Italy) leadership election|leadership election]], which saw the participation of over 3,5 million Italian voters in which Veltroni won 75.8% of the vote.