The Left – The Rainbow
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| The Left – The Rainbow | |
|---|---|
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|
| Leader | Fausto Bertinotti |
| Founded | 8 December 2007 |
| Headquarters | none |
| Newspaper | none |
| Membership | unknown |
| Ideology | Communism, Eurocommunism, Green politics, Anti-globalization, Democratic socialism, Pacifism |
| International | not yet decided |
| European party | not yet decided |
| European Parliament Group | not yet decided |
| Website | http://www.sinistrarcobaleno.it/ |
The Left – The Rainbow (La Sinistra – L'Arcobaleno, SA), frequently referred as Rainbow Left (Sinistra Arcobaleno, SA), is a left-wing federation of parties in Italy.
The federation, defined by its members as the sinistra radicale[1] (which can be translated in English as both "radical left" and "far left"), is composed of four parties:
- the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC, communist, leader: Franco Giordano);
- the Party of Italian Communists (PdCI, communist, leader: Oliviero Diliberto);
- the Federation of the Greens (FV, green, leader: Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, Minister of the Environment);
- the Democratic Left (SD, socialist, leader: Fabio Mussi, Minister of University and Research).
Contents |
[edit] History
The federation was officially launched on 8–9 December 2007[2][3] with the goal of uniting Italian communist, socialist and ecologist parties in a united bloc, somewhat similar to what the center-left forces have done with the Democratic Party.
The four parties tended to disagree on a number of issues, including the support for the Prodi II Cabinet[4][5], the symbol and the name of the federation with the Greens wanting the word "ecologist" and the Italian Communists the hammer and sickle to be included[6], but in the end they formed a joint list for the 2008 general election.
In the election The Left – The Rainbow gained a disastrous 3.1% of the vote (down from 10.2%, combined result of the three parties in 2006 general election) and failed to gain any seats in the Italian Parliament. Since then the future of the federation is unclear as each party, or rather each faction of each of the parties, holds a different view about the defeat and the future of the left in Italy.
[edit] Popular support
The electoral results of The Left – The Rainbow in the 10 most populated Regions of Italy are shown in the table below. As The Left was founded in 2007, the electoral results from 1994 to 2006 refer to the combined result of three of the four founding parties (Democratic Left never took part in an election): the Communist Refoundation Party (1994-2006), the Party of Italian Communists (1999-2006) and the Federation of the Greens (1994-2006).
| 1994 general | 1995 regional | 1996 general | 1999 European | 2000 regional | 2001 general[7] | 2004 European | 2005 regional | 2006 general | 2008 general | |
| Piedmont | 8.6 | 12.0 | 12.8 | 9.1 | 9.6 | 9.2 | 11.9 | 11.8 | 11.2 | 3.4 |
| Lombardy | 7.3 | 10.8 | 9.2 | 7.7 | 8.3 | 8.3 | 9.7 | 11.0 | 9.3 | 2.9 |
| Veneto | 8.2 | 9.0 | 7.8 | 5.9 | 6.3 | 7.2 | 8.3 | 8.0 | 7.2 | 2.2 |
| Emilia-Romagna | 9.3 | 10.8 | 10.8 | 8.8 | 10.6 | 9.2 | 11.9 | 12.1 | 10.0 | 3.0 |
| Tuscany | 12.5 | 13.8 | 14.5 | 12.3 | 11.9 | 11.2 | 14.9 | 15.3 | 13.4 | 4.5 |
| Lazio | 9.2 | 12.8 | 12.9 | 8.7 | 10.7 | 8.3 | 12.0 | 10.8 | 12.2 | 3.3 |
| Campania | 10.8 | 12.1 | 12.1 | 7.7 | 8.2 | 10.6 | 9.9 | 10.3 | 11.1 | 2.7 |
| Apulia | 10.1 | 10.7 | 9.2 | 6.2 | 7.1 | 8.5 | 11.0 | 9.0 | 9.5 | 3.0 |
| Calabria | 11.3 | 8.7[8] | 11.8 | 8.2 | 7.7 | 8.7 | 11.1 | 12.7 | 11.5 | 3.2 |
| Sicily | - (1996)[9] | 5.3 | 9.7 | 4.1 | 3.6 (2001)[10] | 6.2 | 7.0 | - (2006)[11] | 6.9 | 2.6 |
| ITALY | 8.8 | - | 11.1 | 8.1 | - | 8.9 | 11.0 | - | 10.2 | 3.1 |
[edit] References
- ^ Bertinotti, beato oppositore Corriere della Sera
- ^ La Cosa Rossa? Sinistra e Arcobaleno. Corriere della Sera
- ^ Sinistra Arcobaleno, «puntiamo al 15%». Corriere della Sera
- ^ Welfare, spaccatura nella "Cosa Rossa". Corriere della Sera
- ^ Bertinotti: «Il governo Prodi ha fallito». Corriere della Sera
- ^ Cosa rossa: I Verdi e i Comunisti italiani litigano sul simbolo
- ^ The result for the Greens includes the result of the Italian Democratic Socialists, as the two parties formed a joint-list.
- ^ The Greens failed to present a list and most of the Green voters voted for the Party of the Democratic Left.
- ^ PRC failed to present a list and most far-left voters voted for Movement for Democracy – The Net, while the Greens took the 0.7%.
- ^ The Greens formed a joint-list with the Italian Democratic Socialists.
- ^ PRC, PdCI and the Greens formed a joint-list with SDI, IdV and UDEUR 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.
