Founder Armando Cossutta Dissolved 11 December 2014 | Founded 11 October 1998 | |
 | ||
Leaders Armando Cossutta
Oliviero Diliberto
Cesare Procaccini Split from Communist Refoundation Party Succeeded by Communist Party of Italy | ||
The Party of Italian Communists (Italian: Partito dei Comunisti Italiani, PdCI) was a communist party in Italy.
Contents
Foundation and early years
The PdCI was founded in October 1998 as a split from the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) by Armando Cossutta, the original leader of the PRC. The main reason for the split was the unwillingness of the majority of the PRC to participate in the operation that toppled the Prodi I Cabinet.
Fausto Bertinotti had kept the party in alliance with The Olive Tree coalition-in-government for two years, but declared the intention to leave because of his disagreement over social policy. Leaving would have left the government without a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. The issue was hotly debated within the Refoundation party, and in the end a few votes, coming from the Trotskyist factions, finally decided. Soon after, the PRC joined the D'Alema I Cabinet with Oliviero Diliberto serving as Minister of Justice. Refoundation obtained two ministries in the subsequent Amato II Cabinet.
Most PRC MPs followed Cossutta into the new Party of Italian Communists, but the PRC secured more voters: in the 1999 European Parliament election the PdCI won 2.0% of the vote, while the PRC 4.3%.
Oliviero Diliberto
Diliberto, who had been elected Party of Italian Communists general secretary in 2000, led the party to continue its alliance with the other parties of the centre-left coalition for the 2001 general election, in which The Olive Tree lost to Silvio Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition. The PdCI won 1.7% of the vote and a handful of deputies and senators.
In the 2006 general election the party was a member of the victorious The Union coalition, and won 16 out of 630 deputies. The Together with the Union electoral list consisting of the PdCI, Federation of the Greens (FdV) and United Consumers won 11 out of 315 senators. Since 2001, Diliberto had become the undisputed leader of the party; since 2005, clashes between him and Cossutta became frequent. In April 2007 the party president and founder finally left the party.
Later in 2006 the PdCI proposed to the PRC, the FdV and other left-wing forces (among them the recently founded Democratic Left) the formation of a "United Left", "a left without adjectives". On 8–9 December 2007 the PdCI participated in the foundation of The Left – The Rainbow. In the 2008 general election the Rainbow list obtained 3.1% of the vote, failing to win any seats in the Italian Parliament and, consequently, it was disbanded soon after.
Out of Parliament
In July 2008 Diliberto was re-elected secretary during a national congress, during which he declared as "ended" the experience of a "united left" and proposed to the PRC a re-unification of the two parties and a "communist constituent assembly".
For the 2009 European Parliament election, the PdCI formed a joint list known as Anticapitalist and Communist List with the PRC, Socialism 2000. United Consumers Originally Critical Left was also set to join, but finally chose not to. The list received 3.4% of the national vote and failed to return any MEPs.
Soon after the election, Marco Rizzo, a leading member of the party, was expelled from the party after disagreements with Diliberto and launched a new grouping called Communists – Popular Left.
Federation of the Left
In December 2009 the Anticapitalist and Communist List was transformed into the Federation of the Left (FdS). The FdS held its first congress on 20–21 November 2010. Diliberto was elected spokesperson of the group by the national council.
In the 2013 general election the PdCI was part of the Civil Revolution coalition, which obtained 2.2% of the vote and no seats.
In July 2013 Diliberto stepped down from secretary after 13 years and was replaced by Cesare Procaccini, a 65-year-old former metalworker from Marche.
The PdCI did not contest the 2014 European Parliament election, withdrawing its early support for The Other Europe electoral list.
Communist Party of Italy
In December 2014 the party was transformed into Communist Party of Italy, taking the name of the late Communist Party of Italy.
European Parliament
°The PdCI was part of Anticapitalist and Communist List.