The Fading of Italy’s Left – Who or What “Screwed” the Left, and When?

October 2019  (Wall Street International)*   —  It is difficult to know if there is an Italian left today, in the country where the Communist Party of Italy (PCI) founded in 1921 by Antonio Gramsci in the 70s of the past century became the largest in the Western world and a reference for the renewal of socialism.

It lived through the rise and consolidation of Mussolini’s fascism which it fought with weapons, as well as resisted the country’s Nazi occupation during World War II.

With the Liberation in 1945 and the first elections in 1946, the PCI was fully incorporated into the democratic life reaching 18.6% of the votes, while the Italian Christian Democracy (DC) reached 35.2%. In the elections of 1948, it rose to 30%, and the DC added to 48.5% of the votes.

From then on, it is possible to follow its path through the classic characters of Don Camillo, the priest of the town, and Peppone, the communist mayor whose relationship reflect the tolerance, respect and complicity that existed between the two main post-war parties.