Communist Refoundation Party
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| Communist Refoundation Party | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Leader | Fausto Bertinotti |
| Secretary | Franco Giordano |
| Founded | 12 December 1991 |
| Headquarters | Via del Policlinico, 131 00161 Rome |
| Newspaper | Liberazione |
| Membership (2006) | 93,196[1] |
| Ideology | Communism, Eurocommunism, Anti-globalization |
| Coalition | The Left – The Rainbow |
| International | none |
| European party | Party of the European Left |
| European Parliament Group | European United Left–Nordic Green Left |
| Website | http://www.rifondazione.it |
The Communist Refoundation Party (Partito della Rifondazione Comunista, PRC) is a communist Italian political party. It is led by Franco Giordano, however its practical leader is Fausto Bertinotti, who led the party from 1994 to 2006.
The party participates both in the Party of the European Left (of which Bertinotti is President) and the European Anticapitalist Left, and its members in the European Parliament sit in the European United Left - Nordic Green Left group.
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[edit] History
In 1991, when the Italian Communist Party (PCI), led by Achille Occhetto, became the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), dissidents led by Armando Cossutta launched the Communist Refoundation Party. In the same year Proletarian Democracy, a far left outfit, merged into the new party, which was aimed to unite all Italian communists.
The first secretary of PRC was Sergio Garavini, who was replaced in 1994 by Fausto Bertinotti, a long-time CGIL trade union leader, who had left PDS only some months before. The leadership of Bertinotti was a turning point for the party, which jumped to 8.6% of vote in the 1996 general election.
The party supported the first government of Romano Prodi until 1998, when Bertinotti's Communists turned to opposition and the government lost its majority in Parliament. However this decision was divisive also in Bertinotti's camp, where a group of dissidents, led by President of the party Armando Cossutta, split off and founded a rival communist outfit, the Party of Italian Communists (Partito dei Comunisti Italiani, PdCI), which joined Massimo D'Alema's government.
In October 2004 PRC joined the centre-left opposition and in April 2005, Nichi Vendola, an openly gay politician who is one of the emerging leaders of the party, was elected President of traditionally conservative Apulia Region, due to the support of the whole centre-left and after a primary election, which saw Vendola beat a centrist opponent. He is the only regional President belonging to the Communist Refoundation Party.
After the 2006 general election in which centre-left The Union coalition only narrowly won, party leader Fausto Bertinotti was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies, and thus resigned from secretary. The party joined Prodi II Cabinet, in which PRC was represented by Paolo Ferrero, Minister of Social Solidarity, and Franco Giordano was elected new party secretary.
The decision to participate in the centre-left coalition government, and in particular the party's decision to vote to refinance the Italian military presence in Afghanistan and send troops to Lebanon have attracted criticism from other sections of the European radical left[2] and provoked the splits of many groups, notably the Communist Workers' Party, the Communist Alternative Party and Critical Left.
In December 2007 the party participated in the creation of The Left – The Rainbow with the Party of Italian Communists, the Federation of the Greens and Democratic Left. The coalition was severely defeated in the 2008 general election: it won only 3.1% of the vote, compared to 10.2 won by the two communist parties and the Greens two years before.
[edit] Factions
The majority of the party following the October 2004 congress was led by Fausto Bertinotti (59.2%) and it views itself as the party representing the anti-globalization movement in the Italian political scene. Nothwithstanding, during that congress the party included some recognzed factions, which opposed the line imposed by Bertinotti: the hardline communists of Being Communists (26.2%), what remains of the late faction led by Armando Cossutta, and trotskyists of Critical Left, Communist Project and HammerSickle (14.6% altogether).
Communist Project left the party shortly after the 2006 general election because of its opposition to the participation of the party in The Union and Prodi II Cabinet: a group led by Marco Ferrando formed the Communist Workers' Party, while others, led by Francesco Ricci formed the Communist Alternative Party. A tiny minority of the former Communist Project decided not to leave the party and gathered in a new faction named Counter-current.
In February 2007 Senator Franco Turigliatto, one of the leaders of Critical Left along with Salvatore Cannavò, voted against two motions on the government's foreign policy, leading Romano Prodi to temporarily resign as Prime Minister. In April Turigliatto was expelled from the party and thus Critical Left suspended from it. In December the group officially left PRC in order to be transformed into a party.
At that point Being Communists suffered a split by those who opposed the decision of leader Claudio Grassi to vote in favour of the expulsion of Senator Turigliatto from the party: a group, led by Fosco Giannini, left the faction and launched The Ernesto, without leaving the party itself.
In April 2008, following the severe defeat of the party in the 2008 general election, a group of former Bertinottiani, composed basically of former members of Proletarian Democracy and led by Paolo Ferrero and Giovanni Russo Spena, allied with the other minority factions in order to led Secretary Franco Giordano to resign. They criticized The Left – The Rainbow alliance and the political line of Fausto Bertinotti.
In the July congress the so-called Movementist faction of Ferrero, supported by all the minority factions, will try to win the majority of party delegates and thus the leadership of PRC. There are rumors that Bertinottiani will candidate Nichi Vendola for Secretary in opposition to Paolo Ferrero.
[edit] Popular support
The electoral results of the Communist Refoundation Party in the 10 most populated Regions of Italy are shown in the table below.[citation needed]
| 1994 general | 1995 regional | 1996 general | 1999 European | 2000 regional | 2001 general | 2004 European | 2005 regional | 2006 general | |
| Piedmont | 5.9 | 9.3 | 10.3 | 4.6 | 5.5 | 5.9 | 6.6 | 6.4 | 5.9 |
| Lombardy | 5.1 | 7.7 | 6.8 | 4.0 | 6.4 | 5.0 | 5.6 | 5.7 | 5.5 |
| Veneto | 4.4 | 5.0 | 5.3 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 3.9 | 3.9 | 3.5 | 3.9 |
| Emilia-Romagna | 6.6 | 7.6 | 8.3 | 5.0 | 5.8 | 5.5 | 6.3 | 5.7 | 5.6 |
| Tuscany | 10.1 | 11.1 | 12.5 | 7.4 | 6.7 | 6.9 | 9.1 | 8.2 | 8.2 |
| Lazio | 6.6 | 9.2 | 10.4 | 4.9 | 5.4 | 5.2 | 7.1 | 5.9 | 7.4 |
| Campania | 6.9 | 9.2 | 9.1 | 4.0 | 3.8 | 4.8 | 6.0 | 4.1 | 6.1 |
| Apulia | 7.0 | 8.1 | 7.5 | 3.3 | 3.6 | 4.7 | 6.0 | 5.1 | 5.7 |
| Calabria | 9.3 | 8.7 | 10.0 | 4.3 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 5.8 | 5.1 | 6.0 |
| Sicily | - | 4.3 (1996) | 7.0 | 2.2 | 2.4 (2001) | 3.2 | 3.6 | - (2006)[3] | 3.2 |
| ITALY | 6.1 | - | 8.6 | 4.3 | - | 5.0 | 6.1 | - | 5.8 |
[edit] Leadership
- Secretary: Sergio Garavini (1991–1994), Fausto Bertinotti (1994–2006), Franco Giordano (2006–...)
- Coordinator: Walter De Cesaris (2005–...)
- President: Armando Cossutta (1991–1998)
- Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: Lucio Magri (1992–1994), Famiano Crucianelli (1994–1995), Oliviero Diliberto (1995–1998), Franco Giordano (1998–2006), Gennaro Migliore (2006–...)
- Party Leader in the Senate: Lucio Libertini (1992–1993), Ersilia Salvato (1993–1995), Fausto Marchetti (1995–1996), Luigi Marino (1996–1998), Giovanni Russo Spena (1998–2001), Giorgio Malentacchi (2001–2002), Luigi Malabarba (2002–2006), Giovanni Russo Spena (2006–...)
- Party Leader in the European Parliament: Luigi Vinci (1994–1998), Lucio Manisco (1998–2004), Roberto Musacchio (2004–...)
[edit] Notes
- ^ Il partito in numeri (Italian). Rifondazione. Retrieved on 2007-01-09.
- ^ Trudell, Megan (2007-01-04). Rifondazione votes for war. International Socialism. Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
- ^ PRC formed a joint-list with SDI, IdV, UDEUR, the Greens and PdCI in order to surpass the 5% threshold. The list, named Uniti per la Sicilia, scored 5.1% and 4 regional deputies were elected, 3 SDI and 1 IdV.
