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Communist Refoundation Party Partito della Rifondazione Comunista
Italian National Party
Leader	Franco Giordano
Founded	1991
Headquarters	Via del Policlinico, 131 00161 Rome
Coalition	The Union
Political ideology	Communism, Eurocommunism, Anti-globalization
International affiliation	none
European affiliation	Party of the European Left
European Parliament Group	European United Left–Nordic Green Left
Membership	93,196 (2006, [1])
Official newspaper	Liberazione
Website	http://www.rifondazione.it
See also	Politics of Italy Political parties in Italy Elections in Italy

The Communist Refoundation Party (Partito della Rifondazione Comunista, PRC) is an Italian reformed communist party. It is led by Franco Giordano, however its most famous member is Fausto Bertinotti, who led the party from 1994 to 2006.

The party participates both in the Party of the European Left (of which Bertinotti is President) and the European Anticapitalist Left, and its members in the European Parliament sit in the European United Left - Nordic Green Left group.

Contents 1 History 2 Factions 3 Popular support 4 Leadership 5 References 6 External links

In 1991, when the Italian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI), led by Achille Occhetto, became the Democratic Party of the Left (Partito Democratico della Sinistra, PDS), dissidents, led by Armando Cossutta, launched the Communist Refoundation Party. In the same year Proletarian Democracy, a far-left outfit, merged in the new party, which was aimed to unite all Italian Communists.

The first secretary of PRC was Sergio Garavini, who was replaced in 1994 by Fausto Bertinotti, a long-time CGIL trade union leader, who had left PDS only some months before. The leadership of Bertinotti was a turning point for the party, which jumped to the 8.6% of votes in 1996 general elections.

The party supported the first government of Romano Prodi until 1998, when Bertinotti's Communists turned to opposition and the government lost its majority in Parliament. However this decision was divisive also in Bertinotti's camp, where a group of dissidents, led by President of the party Armando Cossutta, split off and founded a rival communist outfit, the Party of Italian Communists (Partito dei Comunisti Italiani, PdCI), which joined Massimo D'Alema's government.

In October 2004 PRC joined the centre-left opposition and in April 2005, Nichi Vendola, an openly gay politician who is one of the emerging leaders of the party, was elected President of traditionally conservative Apulia Region, due to the support of the whole centre-left and after a primary election, which saw Vendola beat a moderate-left opponent. He is the only regional President belonging to the Communist Refoundation Party.

After the April 2006 general election which led the centre-left coalition The Union to a very narrow win, party leader Fausto Bertinotti was elected Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, and thus resigned the secretarship. The party joined Romano Prodi's II cabinet, in which PRC is represented by Paolo Ferrero, Minister of Social Solidarity.

In May 2006, MP Franco Giordano was elected new party secretary.

The decision to participate in the centre-left coalition government, and in particular the party's decision to vote to refinance the Italian military presence in Afghanistan and send troops to Lebanon have attracted criticism from other sections of the European radical left.

The Communist Refoundation Party leader until 2006 was Fausto Bertinotti (59.2% in last Congress), and it views itself as the party representing the anti-globalization movement in the Italian political scene. It has within it some recognized tendencies, like hardline communists of Being Communists - L'Ernesto (26.2%) and Trotskyists of Critical Left - Erre, HammerSickle or Communist Project (14.6%). Communist Project quit the party in 2006.

The electoral results of the Communist Refoundation Party in the 10 most populated Regions of Italy are shown in the table below.

	1994 general	1995 regional	1996 general	1999 European	2000 regional	2001 general	2004 European	2005 regional	2006 general
Piedmont	5.9	9.3	10.3	4.6	5.5	5.9	6.6	6.4	5.9
Lombardy	5.1	7.7	6.8	4.0	6.4	5.0	5.6	5.7	5.5
Veneto	4.4	5.0	5.3	2.8	3.0	3.9	3.9	3.5	3.9
Emilia-Romagna	6.6	7.6	8.3	5.0	5.8	5.5	6.3	5.7	5.6
Tuscany	10.1	11.1	12.5	7.4	6.7	6.9	9.1	8.2	8.2
Lazio	6.6	9.2	10.4	4.9	5.4	5.2	7.1	5.9	7.4
Campania	6.9	9.2	9.1	4.0	3.8	4.8	6.0	4.1	6.1
Apulia	7.0	8.1	7.5	3.3	3.6	4.7	6.0	5.1	5.7
Calabria	9.3	8.7	10.0	4.3	3.0	3.4	5.8	5.1	6.0
Sicily	-	4.3 (1996)	7.0	2.2	2.4 (2001)	3.2	3.6	- (2006)[1]	3.2
ITALY	6.1	-	8.6	4.3	-	5.0	6.1	-	5.8

• Secretary: Sergio Garavini (1991–1994), Fausto Bertinotti (1994–2006), Franco Giordano (2006–...)
  • Coordinator: Walter De Cesaris (2005–...)
• President: Armando Cossutta (1991–1998)
• Party Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: Lucio Magri (1992–1994), Famiano Crucianelli (1994–1995), Oliviero Diliberto (1995–1998), Franco Giordano (1998–2006), Gennaro Migliore (2006–...)

• Party Leader in the Senate: Livio Libertini (1992–1993), Ersilia Salvato (1993–1995), Fausto Marchetti (1995–1996), Luigi Marino (1996–1998), Giovanni Russo Spena (1998–2001), Giorgio Malentacchi (2001–2002), Luigi Malabarba (2002–2006), Giovanni Russo Spena (2006–...)
• Party Leader in the European Parliament: Luigi Vinci (1994–1998), Lucio Manisco (1998–2004), Roberto Musacchio (2004–...)

• Official website

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