Of all the Italian parties, none has changed more dramatically in the course of the postwar period than the Socialists. It is indeed no exaggeration to speak of a genuine mutation. From being a vacillating, faction-ridden, Marxist-Leninist party subordinate to the Communists at the outset of the postwar period, the party had transformed itself by the early 1980s into a unified, self-confident, moderate-left party in the mainstream of European social democracy. By then it was not only in the hands of the youngest group of political leaders in the country, its organization had been completely revamped and its ideological program thoroughly revised. This veritable transfiguration culminated with Bettino Craxi's inauguration in 1983 as the first Socialist prime minister in Italian history.

The resurrection and glory of the party was celebrated at the forty-third Socialist congress in Verona in May 1984. Shortly before the event Luciano Pellicani, editor of the party monthly, Mondoperaio, commented that the occasion marked the first time in history when the party would hold a congress with a unified leadership, a clear program of reforms, and a plainly liberal-socialist platform. This novel development, combined with Craxi's qualities as a great “political impresario,” according to Pellicani, were what had made the Socialist party the axis around which the country's politics turned.

This flattering self-portrait was symptomatic of the Socialist party of the early 1980s: aggressive, pragmatic, highly self-conscious, and to a great extent a one-man show.