Pietro Ingrao

Pietro Ingrao (born March 30, 1915) is an Italian politician, and was for many years a senior figure in the Italian Communist Party (PCI).

Political career

Ingrao was born at Lenola, in the province of Latina.

Ingrao joined the PCI in 1942 and took part in the anti-fascist resistance during the World War II. After the war, he led the Marxist-Leninist tendency in the party, representing its left wing. This led him to frequent political differences with Giorgio Amendola, leader of the social democratic tendency.

Ingrao was a Member of Parliament continuously from 1948 to 1994. During the 1950s, he was editor-in-chief of the party newspaper, L'Unità. He was the first Communist to become President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 1976 to 1979.

After the PCI split at the Bolognina Congress of 1991, to which he was opposed, he joined the reformist majority in the Democrats of the Left, but soon left the group; after the European elections of 2004 he surprised many by joining the more hardline successor to the old PCI, the Communist Refoundation Party. Nowadays, Ingrao is considered an elder statesman of the Italian left.

He has written a number of poems and political essays. His most important work is Appuntamenti di fine secolo ("Rendez-vous at the end of the century"), published in 1995 in collaboration with Rossana Rossanda.