Federation of the Left

Italian political party

Federation of the Left

Federazione della Sinistra

Founded| 9 April 2009
Dissolved| 24 July 2015
Ideology| Communism
Socialism
Political position| Left-wing to far-left
European affiliation| Party of the European Left (PRC, PdCI)

* Politics of Italy
* Political parties
* Elections

The Federation of the Left (Italian: Federazione della Sinistra, FdS) was an electoral alliance of communist political parties in Italy. The coalition was the evolution of the Anticapitalist and Communist List.

## History

[edit]

In the run-up to the 2009 European Parliament election, in order to overcome the 4% threshold introduced by the new electoral law,[1][2] it was formed the so-called Anticapitalist and Communist List (Italian: Lista Comunista e Anticapitalista). At the start, in May 2009, the list included four distinct parties:[3][4]

* Communist Refoundation Party (PRC, communist, leader: Paolo Ferrero)
* Party of Italian Communists (PdCI, communist, leader: Oliviero Diliberto)
* Socialism 2000 (democratic-socialist, leader: Cesare Salvi)
* Labour–Solidarity (socialist, leader: Gian Paolo Patta)

The formation of the list marked the first time that the PRC and the PdCI presented a joint list since the 1998 split, let alone The Left – The Rainbow in the 2008 general election. The list may be the start of a process of re-union of the two major communist parties of Italy, that had been anyway reduced in their electoral strength since then.

The Workers's Communist Party and Critical Left, two more break-away groups from the PRC, declined the invitation to take part to the list, while Salvi and his group left Democratic Left in order to join. Democratic Left and the reformist wing of the PRC took part in Left and Freedom along with the Federation of the Greens and the Socialist Party, while the Worker's Communist Party and Critical Left chose to run their own lists.[2]

The list finally received 3.4% of the national vote and failed to return any MEPs. Its strongholds were in Central and Southern Italy: Calabria (6.7%), Umbria (6.2%), Tuscany (5.1%), Basilicata (4.5%), Abruzzo (4.3%) and Marche (4.2%).[5] The support for FdS followed a similar pattern in the 2010 regional elections, despite losing votes to Left Ecology Freedom.[6]

In December 2009 the list was transformed into the Federation of the Left.[7][8] The coalition held its first congress on 20–21 November 2010.[9]

In September 2012 Socialism 2000 and Labour–Solidarity were merged into the Movement for the Labour Party.[10]

In November 2012 the FdS was de facto suspended as its two main constituents, the PRC and the PdCI, did not agree on how to participate to the 2013 general election,[11] and the PdCI chose to take part to the primary election organized by Italy. Common Good.

In December 2012, the PRC and the PdCI supported the new list led by Antonio Ingroia called "Civil Revolution", with the aim to create a new political pole.[12]

## Election results

[edit]

### European Parliament

[edit]

European Parliament

Election year  | Votes  | %  | Seats  | +/−  | Leader
2009 | 1,038,247  | 3.4  |

0 / 72

Paolo Ferrero

### Regional councils

[edit]

Region  | Election year  | Votes  | %  | Seats  | +/−

|
|
|
|
|

Lombardy | 2010 | 87,221  | 2.05  |

0 / 80

Piedmont | 2010 | 50,191  | 2.65  |

1 / 60

Veneto | 2010 | 35,028  | 1.56  |

1 / 51

Emilia-Romagna | 2010 | 58,943  | 2.79  |

1 / 50

Liguria | 2010 | 29,148  | 3.91  |

1 / 31

Tuscany | 2010 | 80,017  | 5.27  |

3 / 53

Marche | 2010 | 27,975  | 3.87  |

1 / 41

Umbria | 2010 | 28,331  | 6.87  |

2 / 30

Lazio | 2010 | 67,386  | 2.75  |

1 / 71

Campania | 2010 | 43,097  | 1.56  |

0 / 60

Apulia | 2010 | 64,441[a] | 3.26  |

0 / 70

Basilicata | 2010 | 6,904  | 2.15  |

0 / 30

Calabria | 2010 | 41,520  | 4.03  |

2 / 50

1. ^ In a joint list with the Federation of the Greens.

## Leadership

[edit]

Spokesmen were Paolo Ferrero (2009–2010), Cesare Salvi (2010), Oliviero Diliberto (2010–2011) and Massimo Rossi (2011–2012).

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Presentazione della lista unica e del simbolo per le elezioni europee che riunisce il PRC, il PDCI, Socialismo 2000 e i Consumatori Uniti" (in Italian). RadioRadicale.it. 2009-03-28. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
2. ^ a b "Pdci e Prc, lista unitaria il 6 giugno "Anticapitalisti, con la sinistra europea" - Politica". Repubblica.it. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
3. ^ "Per un nuovo inizio: costruiamo insieme la federazione della sinistra di alternativa" (in Italian). RadioRadicale.it. 2009-07-18. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
4. ^ "[Esplora il significato del termine: Al via la nuova Federazione della sinistra] Al via la nuova Federazione della sinistra". Corriere della Sera Archivio Storico (in Italian). RCS Mediagroup S.p.a. 19 July 2009. p. 16. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
5. ^ "ARCHIVIO STORICO DELLE ELEZIONI – Consultazione dati". Ministero dell'Interno (in Italian). Ministero dell'Interno. 7 June 2009. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
6. ^ "ARCHIVIO STORICO DELLE ELEZIONI – Consultazione dati". Ministero dell'Interno (in Italian). Ministero dell'Interno. 28 March 2010. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
7. ^ "Per un nuovo inizio: costruiamo insieme la federazione della sinistra di alternativa" (in Italian). RadioRadicale.it. 2009-07-18. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
8. ^ "Al via la nuova Federazione della sinistra". Archiviostorico.corriere.it. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
9. ^ "Comunisti riuniti". Affaritaliani.it (in Italian). Uomini & Affari S.r.l. 22 November 2010. Archived from the original on 15 October 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
10. ^ "Nasce il "Partito del lavoro" Quante sigle a sinistra del Pd". Repubblica.it. 2011-09-25. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
11. ^ "La relazione del portavoce della FdS e l'esito del Consiglio Politico Nazionale del 3 Novembre". Federazione della Sinitra. federazionedellasinistra.com. Archived from the original on 2012-11-11. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
12. ^ "Nasce il Quarto Polo. Prc: "Siamo con Ingroia per far nascere una nuova speranza" – Politica La Spezia". Citta della Spezia. 2013-12-17. Retrieved 2014-07-15.

* v
* t
* e

Communist Refoundation Party

Secretaries|

* Sergio Garavini (1991–1994)
* Fausto Bertinotti (1994–2006)
* Franco Giordano (2006–2008)
* Paolo Ferrero (2008–2017)
* Maurizio Acerbo (2017–present)

General|

* Italian Communist Party
* Proletarian Democracy
* Communist Party of Italy (Marxist–Leninist)
* Prodi II Cabinet
* Eurocommunism
* Liberazione
* Young Communists
* International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties
* Party of the European Left
* European United Left–Nordic Green Left

Factions and splits|

| Current factions|

In the 2017 congress, two motions were presented: the majority one led by Paolo Ferrero and the minority one led by Eleonora Forenza.

|

Former factions|

* Bertinottiani
* Refoundation in Movement
* To the Left with Refoundation

Splintered factions|

* Movement of Unitarian Communists (1995)
* Party of Italian Communists (1998)
* Communist Alternative Party (2006)
* Communist Project / Communist Workers' Party (2006)
* Critical Left (2007)
* Refoundation for the Left / Movement for the Left (2009)
* The Ernesto (2011) / Italian Communist Party (2016)
* Countercurrent (2013)
* HammerSickle / Left Class Revolution / Revolutionary Communist Party (2016)
* Being Communists (2016)

Alliances|

* Alliance of Progressives (1994)
* The Union (2005–2007)
* The Left – The Rainbow (2007–2008)
* Anticapitalist and Communist List (2008–2009)
* Federation of the Left (2008–2012)
* Civil Revolution (2012–2013)
* The Other Europe (2014)
* Power to the People (2017–2018)
* The Left (2019–present)

* v
* t
* e

Political parties in Italy

Chamber of Deputies|

* Brothers of Italy (117)
* Democratic Party (71) (incl. DemoS and CD)
* Lega (66)
* Five Star Movement (50)
* Forza Italia (48) (incl. NPSI)
* Action (10)
* Italia Viva (7)
* Greens and Left Alliance
* Green Europe [5]
* Italian Left [4]
* Progressive Party [1]
* Us Moderates (5)
* South Tyrolean People's Party (3)
* More Europe (2) (incl. RI)
* Animalist Movement (1)
* Associative Movement of Italians Abroad (1)
* Coraggio Italia (1)
* Liberal Democratic Party (1)
* South calls North (1)
* Union of the Centre (1)
* Valdostan Union (1)

Senate of the Republic|

* Brothers of Italy (66)
* Democratic Party (37)
* Lega (29) (incl. Fassa)
* Five Star Movement (26)
* Forza Italia (20)
* Italia Viva (7)
* Action (2)
* Greens and Left Alliance
* Italian Left [2]
* Green Europe [1]
* Us Moderates
* Union of the Centre [1]
* South Tyrolean People's Party (2)
* Associative Movement of Italians Abroad (1)
* Campobase (1)
* Coraggio Italia (1)

European Parliament|

* Brothers of Italy (24)
* Democratic Party (21)
* Five Star Movement (8)
* Forza Italia (8)
* Lega (8)
* Greens and Left Alliance (6)
* South Tyrolean People's Party (1)

Other parties in Regional councils|

* Aosta Valley
* Civic Network
* Edelweiss
* For Our Valley
* For Autonomy
* Mouv'
* Valdostan Alliance
* Piedmont
* Moderates
* Lombardy
* Renaissance
* Trentino
* Autonomy House
* La Civica
* Futura Trentino
* Popular Autonomists
* Trentino Project
* Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party
* Union for Trentino
* South Tyrol
* Team K
* Greens
* Die Freiheitlichen
* For South Tyrol with Widmann
* JWA List
* South Tyrolean Freedom
* La Civica
* Vita
* Veneto
* Liga Veneta Repubblica
* Friuli-Venezia Giulia
* Pact for Autonomy
* Slovene Union
* Abruzzo
* Political Action
* Molise
* Building Democracy
* Populars for Italy
* Campania
* Italy Is Popular
* Italian Socialist Party
* Us of the Centre
* Apulia
* Popular Apulia
* Basilicata
* Identity and Action
* Sicily
* Christian Democracy Sicily
* Movement for Autonomy
* Sicilia Vera
* Sardinia
* Civic Sardinia
* Sardinia 20Twenty
* Sardinian Action Party
* Sardinian Reformers
* Possible

* Historical Italian political parties
* 19th-century Italian political groups
* Early 20th-century Italian political parties
* 1950s–1990s Italian political parties

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