Aldo Tortorella (born 10 July 1926) is an Italian journalist, former politician and partisan. He was a historical member of the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...

(''Partito Comunista Italiano'', or PCI).

Biography

Tortorella was born in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, but spent his youth in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

and

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. When he was a university student, he became a member of the Milanese resistance movement against

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

. He was imprisoned, but he was later able to escape to Genoa. After the liberation of Northern Italy, Tortorella became journalist (and eventually vice-director) for the Genoese edition of PCI's newspaper, ''

L'Unità ''l'Unità'' (, lit. 'the Unity') was an Italian language, Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, ...

''. In 1958-1962 he was vice-director of the Milanese edition and director of the national edition from 1970 to 1975. Tortorella was elected to the

Italian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies ( it, Camera dei deputati) is the lower house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Senate of the Republic). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical funct ...

for the first time in 1972, a position he held until 1994. A follower of national secretary

Enrico Berlinguer Enrico Berlinguer (; 25 May 1922 – 11 June 1984) was an Italian politician, considered the most popular leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), which he led as the national secretary from 1972 until his death during a tense period in Ital ...

, he was the party's responsible for culture. In the late 1970s he was against Berlinguer's move towards the so-called Historic Compromise (''Compromesso storico''), which aimed to a government alliance between PCI and the other Italian main party of the period, ''

Democrazia Cristiana Christian Democracy ( it, Democrazia Cristiana, DC) was a Christian democratic political party in Italy. The DC was founded on 15 December 1943 in the Italian Social Republic (Nazi-occupied Italy) as the ideal successor of the Italian People's ...

''. In 1989 Tortorella was one of the main opponents of the ''Svolta della Bolognina'', the change of PCI's name supported by new secretary Achille Occhetto. However, when PCI became the

Democratic Party of the Left The Democratic Party of the Left ( it, Partito Democratico della Sinistra, PDS) was a democratic socialist and social-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in February 1991 as the post-communist evolution of the Italian Communist Party, t ...

(Partito Democratico della Sinistra, PDS), he remained in the party as member of the left-current led by

Giovanni Berlinguer Giovanni Berlinguer (; 9 July 1924 – 6 April 2015) was an Italian politician, humanist and professor of social medicine. Life and career He was born in Sassari, Sardinia, the son of Mario Berlinguer. A physician and professor of public health ...

. In 1999, at the outbreak of the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the wa ...

, Tortorella abandoned PDS in polemics with the then-prime minister and party leader,

Massimo D'Alema Massimo D'Alema (; born 20 April 1949) is an Italian politician and journalist who was the 53rd prime minister of Italy from 1998 to 2000. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008. D'Alema also serv ...

, who had Italy take an active part in the conflict. Tortorella in the following year dedicated to his leftist magazine, ''Critica Marxista'', and organized cultural activities dealing with Enrico Berlinguer's figure and politics.

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tortorella, Aldo 1926 births Possibly living people Politicians from Naples Italian Communist Party politicians 20th-century Italian politicians Democratic Party of the Left politicians Journalists from Naples Italian male journalists Italian resistance movement members L'Unità editors