Leader Famiano Crucianelli Dissolved 14 February 1998 Ideology Communism | Founded 14 June 1995 Merged into Democrats of the Left | |
Split from Communist Refoundation Party | ||
The Unitarian Communists (Italian: Comunisti Unitari, CU), officially Movement of Unitarian Communists (Movimento dei Comunisti Unitari), was a communist political party in Italy.
It was founded in June 1995 as a split from the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) by Communist MPs who had voted the vote of confidence in the government of Lamberto Dini, (also supported by the Democratic Party of the Left, the Italian People's Party and the Northern League) in March 1995.
Most members of CU were from the Proletarian Unity Party (PdUP). This party left Proletarian Democracy in 1984 and merged with the Italian Communist Party (PCI), only to leave it when the PCI became the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) in 1991. At that time most ex-PdUP members joined the PRC.
The leading politicians who formed the CU included Sergio Garavini, Lucio Magri, Luciana Castellina, Famiano Crucianelli, Luciano Pettinari, Ersilia Salvato, Rino Serri, Marida Bolognesi and Walter Bielli. 16 out of 57 PRC parliamentarians and 2 MEPs joined the CU. In the 1996 general election, the CU was part of The Olive Tree, and presented some candidates in the electoral lists of the PDS as PDS – European Left.
In February 1998 CU and other small parties merged with the PDS to form the Democrats of the Left (DS).