In January 2019 Calenda, a member of the centre-left Democratic Party, launched a political manifesto named "We Are Europeans", with the aim of creating a joint list composed of the PD and other progressive and pro-Europeanist parties for the upcoming European Parliament election. His proposal was welcomed by new PD's leader, Nicola Zingaretti, but was rejected by the other parties within the centre-left coalition, like More Europe and Italy in Common, which decided not to join the alliance. in 2019 In the run-up to the European election, Zingaretti and Calenda presented a special logo including a large reference to "We Are Europeans" and the symbol of the Party of European Socialists. Additionally, they forged an alliance with Article One, a party established in 2017 by splinters from the PD led by Pier Luigi Bersani. In the election, the PD gained 22.7% of votes, coming second after the League, while Calenda, who ran in the North-East constituency, received more than 270,000 votes, becoming the most voted candidate of the list. In August 2019 tensions grew within the coalition supporting the Giuseppe Conte's first government, leading to the issuing of a motion of no-confidence by the League. During the following government crisis, the national board of the PD officially opened to the possibility of forming a new cabinet in a coalition with the M5S, based on pro-Europeanism, green economy, sustainable development, fight against economic inequality and a new immigration policy. The party also accepted that Conte might continue at the head of a new government, and on 29 AugustPresident Mattarella formally invested Conte to do so. Calenda strongly opposed the new government, stating the PD had renounced any representation of "reformists", so it became necessary to found a "liberal-progressive" movement. Calenda left the PD and on 5 September 2019, while Conte's second government was sworn in, and officially announced the transformation of SE into a full-fledged party. On 10 SeptemberMatteo Richetti, a prominent senator of the PD, announced his abstention from the vote of confidence on the new government and his subsequent exit from the party. He stated that he would join forces with Calenda. In November 2019 the new party was officially launched as "Action". After a few months, Calenda launched the "Action Groups", the party's local sections.
