Giorgio Amendola

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Giorgio Amendola (21 November 1907 - 5 June 1980) was an Italian writer and politician.

Born in Rome in 1907, he was son of Giovanni Amendola, a liberal anti-fascist beaten by killers hired by Benito Mussolini and successively dead in 1926 in Cannes, consequently to that attack. After this episode, Amendola secretly joined the Italian Communist Party in 1929 and, after having been graduated in law, started to propagandize opposition against the Mussolini regime.

Arrested and brought in exile in France, and successively banished to Santo Stefano Island, in the Pontine archipelago, he was freed in 1943 by the resistance troops, which he then joined.

After the World War II, Amendola served, from 1948 to his death, in 1980, as deputy for the Italian Communist Party, becoming known especially in the 1970s as one of the leaders of the party right wing, which claimed graudal removal of marxist ideals, and supported the opportunity to make alliances with the more moderate parties, especially the Italian Socialist Party. One of his main allies was Giorgio Napolitano, the current President of the Italian Republic.

From 1967, Amendola also started to work as a writer; his most notable books include Comunismo, antifascismo e Resistenza ("Communism, anti-fascism and resistance", 1967), Lettere a Milano ("Letters to Milan", 1973), Intervista sull'antifascismo^[1] ("Interview on anti-fascism", 1976, with Piero Melograni), Una scelta di vita^[2] ("A choice of life", 1978), and Un'isola ("An island", 1980), considered his best work.

Amendola died in Rome, aged 73, after a long illness. For a trick of fate, his wife Germaine Lecocq, first met during his French exile in Paris, who helped him to write his last work, died a few hours after Amendola.

Today, Giorgio Amendola is regarded and often cited as one of the main precursors of the Olive Tree. The President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, is an avowed disciple and follower of Amendola.

[edit] Sources

1. ^ Amendola, Giorgio (1976). Intervista sull'antifascismo (in Italian). Laterza. ISBN 88-420-4487-3. 
2. ^ Amendola, Giorgio (1978). Una scelta di vita (in Italian). Rizzoli. ISBN 88-17-12610-1.