After the departure of Veltroni from party leadership in February 2009, Veltroniani talked about organizing their faction,[1][2] but finally there was a split between the staunch supporters of the new leader Dario Franceschini and those who soon started to criticize him. The latter, led by Goffredo Bettini and Michele Meta, who were mainly social democrats coming from the Italian Communist Party launched Democrats in Network.[3][4]