After the DS decided to merge into the PD in April 2007, some members (Mauro Zani, Massimo Brutti, Sergio Gentili, Giuseppe Caldarola and others) joined it, while Gavino Angius, Alberto Nigra, Franco Grillini and others (comprising two senators and two deputies) formed, along with other splinter groups of the DS, the Democratic Left (SD).
In 2007–2008 the group had two senators (Gavino Angius and Accursio Montalbano) and three deputies (Valdo Spini, Franco Grillini and Fabio Baratella).
After the huge defeat of the PS in the 2008 general election, the group around Angius supported the candidacy for party secretary of Riccardo Nencini, who won.
Angius was joined also by Cinzia Dato, a former Liberal from Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL), while Spini decided not to leave the PS.
[3][4][5][6] In the 2009 Democratic Party leadership election the faction supported Pier Luigi Bersani.