Democrats, Laicists, Socialists (Democratici, Laici, Socialisti, DLS) was a social-democratic

Social democracy

Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...

 faction within the Democratic Party

Democratic Party (Italy)

The Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy, that is the second-largest in the country. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected in the 2009 leadership election....

, a political party in Italy.

It was founded in April 2007 by those Democrats of the Left

Democrats of the Left

The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic Italian political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged with a number of centrist and leftist groups to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007...

 who supported the motion of Gavino Angius

Gavino Angius

Gavino Angius is an Italian politician.-Biography:Born at Sassari , after the degree in Political Sciences, he became a member of the Italian Communist Party , for which he was secretary of his city's section...

 at the party last congress, but decided not to follow their leader in the Democratic Left

Democratic Left (Italy)

Democratic Left was a democratic socialist political party in Italy.It was founded on 5 May 2007 by splinters of the Democrats of the Left centred around Fabio Mussi and Gavino Angius, who opposed the merger of the DS into the Democratic Party...

 and to participate to the foundation of the Democratic Party instead.

Leading members of the faction included Massimo Brutti, Sergio Gentili and Mauro Zani

Mauro Zani

Mauro Zani is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-East with the Democrats of the Left , part of the Socialist Group, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Development....

.

During the 2007 leadership election

Democratic Party (Italy) leadership election, 2007

The 2007 Democratic Party leadership election was held on 14 October 2007 in order to elect the first leader of the Democratic Party, the largest political party in Italy at the time. The election was conducted as an open primary, with all Italian citizens aged at least 16 and non-Italian legal...

 DLS took part of the list named To the Left

To the Left

To the Left is a social-democratic and democratic-socialist faction within the Democratic Party, a centre-left political party in Italy....

, along with Say Left

Say Left

Say Left was a democratic-socialist faction within the Democratic Party, a political party in Italy. Its leader was Vincenzo Vita....

and other groups. On 5 July 2005 it merged in into the faction, which became a united social-democratic and democratic-socialist faction within the Democratic Party.