Italian Communist Party
Which political party did Fausto Bertinotti belong to in late 1970s?
Fausto Bertinotti Fausto Bertinotti ( born 22 March 1940 ) is an Italian politician who led the Communist Refoundation Party ( Partito della Rifondazione Comunista ) from 1994 to 2006 . On 29 April 2006 , after the centre-left coalitions victory in the Italian general election , he was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies ( the lower House of Parliament ) , a position he held until 2008 . Trade unionist . Bertinotti was born to Enrico Bertinotti , a railroad engineer , and Rosa Bertinotti . After completing his education in Milan , he joined the CGIL ( General Confederation of Italian Labour ) in 1964 , becoming secretary of the local organisation of the Federazione Italiana degli Operai Tessili ( Italian Textile Workers Federation ) . Three years later , he became president of the labour chamber of Novara . From 1975 to 1985 he was regional secretary of the CGIL in Piedmont . In 1972 he joined the Italian Communist Party ( PCI ) , and soon afterwards became the leader of the most left-wing tendency in the CGIL , called Essere Sindacato ( to be a union ) , which harshly criticised the consensus politics of the majority . In this role he took part in the great workers struggles of the time , including that of the Fiat workers which ended with a 35-day occupation of the car manufacturers factory . A committed and hardline trade unionist , Bertinotti affirmed the need for the working class to strike against the injustices of the boss class , thereby attracting the anger of more moderate trade unionists . At that time he first disagreed with Sergio Cofferati , beginning a polemic which has continued , albeit in different forms , until the present . In 1994 , the year in which he was elected to the secretariat of the Rifondazione Comunista and to the Italian and European parliaments , Bertinotti resigned all his trade union positions . He remains interested in economics and workers rights , and has been offered the position of Minister for Labour on several occasions by leaders of the Italian centre-left , but he has always declined it . Political career . Bertinotti did not readily find a political party during the First Italian Republic which conformed to his principles . He was a member of the Italian Socialist Party and then the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity before joining the Italian Communist Party , in which he was a member of Pietro Ingraos tendency . Fausto Bertinotti was opposed to the dissolution of the PCI in 1991 and the creation by its reformist majority of the Democratic Party of the Left ( PDS ) . Nevertheless , he did not immediately join the radical minority in the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista ( PRC ) . He finally broke with PDS leader Achille Occhetto in 1994 and became secretary of the PRC , replacing Sergio Garavini who had led the party since its foundation . Bertinottis accession to the leadership was organised by Armando Cossutta , who probably wished to increase his own prestige and power within the party . In time , however , Bertinotti succeeded in winning over the majority of the party base , aided in this by his charismatic oratory . He was confirmed in the position of party secretary at the third , fourth , fifth and sixth congresses of Rifondazione . At the last , however , his final document received less support than usual , gaining only 52% of delegates votes . This close result has led many political commentators to suggest that he may be replaced as secretary of Rifondazione Comunista by Nichi Vendola . As an ally of the progressives alliance in the 1994 general election , he agreed the withdrawal pact with the Ulivo coalition : Rifondazione would refrain from running candidates in certain electoral districts and advise its voters to support the candidates of the centre-left . The centre-left would reciprocate in other constituencies . Thanks to this tactic , the Ulivo coalition won the elections in 1996 and Prodi became prime minister . Bertinottis relationship with the centre-left leader was not an easy one , and in 1998 , when Prodi proposed a new budget , incorporating a vote of confidence in his government , Bertinotti and the Rifondazione voted against it , causing the fall of the government . Cossuttas faction refused to vote against the government and left the party . They subsequently established a new party , the Party of Italian Communists ( Partito dei Comunisti Italiani , PdCI ) . The PRC , weakened by this split , had a poor result in the 1999 European elections , but Bertinotti was nevertheless elected to the European Parliament . Since 2001 , Bertinotti has led the party to take more radical , mass-movement positions close to those of the growing alternative globalisation movement , a stance which is opposed by the partys Trotskyist factions . From 2002 on , there has been some reconciliation between Rifondazione and the centre-left . The two tendencies have concluded alliances for both local and European elections in 2004 ( in which latter the PRC gained 6.1% of the vote ) , as well as the regional elections of 2005 , in which the centre-left coalition , rechristened LUnione gained a clear victory . Bertinotti declared himself willing to see Prodi chosen without primary elections as the lefts joint candidate for the post of prime minister , but when Prodi accepted that primary elections would be necessary , he proposed himself as a candidate . The elections were held on 16 October 2005 and apart from Bertinotti and Prodi , Antonio Di Pietro , Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio , Clemente Mastella , Ivan Scalfarotto and Simona Panzino were the candidates . Prodi won with an absolute majority , but Bertinotti ranked second with 16% of preferences . Bertinotti was elected member of the European Parliament in 2004 on the Rifondazione Comunista list , in which he was candidate in all five electoral districts , receiving some 380,000 votes in all Italy . He served as member of the European Left group in the parliament , sitting on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs . He was a substitute for the Committee on Legal Affairs and a member of the Delegation to the EU-Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Joint Parliamentary Committee . After the general election held on 9 and 10 April 2006 , which saw a narrow victory of The Union , Fausto Bertinotti was elected Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies , and thus left the party leadership , being replaced on 7 May by Franco Giordano . After losing his deputy seat in the 2008 general election he announced his intention of renouncing to any future leadership positions . Miscellaneous . Bertinotti is an icon known to the Italian public for his aristocratic public image , mainly conveyed by his French R , his good manners and his elegant sweaters . His fascination with expensive cashmere is also part of his idiosyncrasy . This bourgeois look has often been seen as being in ironic contrast with his far left politics . Works . Bertinotti has written a number of political , ideological and trade-union related works : - La Camera dei lavori . Ediesse , Roma , 1987 - La democrazia autoritaria . Datanews , Roma , 1991 - Tutti i colori del rosso ( edited by Lorenzo Scheggi Merlini ) . Sperling & Kupfer , Milano , 1995 - Il nostro nuovo Comunismo ( ripartendo da Marx ) ( edited by Carlo and Norberto Valentini ) . Carmenta , Milano , 1996 - Le due sinistre ( with Alfonso Gianni ) . Sperling & Kupfer , Milano , 1997 - Pensare il 68 per capire il presente . Con una riflessione sul movimento no global ( with Alfonso Gianni ) . Ponte alle Grazie , Milano , 1998 - Le idee che non muoiono ( with Alfonso Gianni ) . Ponte alle Grazie , Milano , 2000 - Per una pace infinita ( with Alfonso Gianni ) . Ponte alle Grazie , Milano , 2002 - Nonviolenza . Le ragioni del pacifismo , ( with Lidia Menapace e Marco Revelli ) . Fazi , Milano , 2004 - Il ragazzo con la maglietta a strisce ( with Wilma Labate ) . Aliberti , Milano , 2005