The Bertinottiani were an Italian

political faction A political faction is a group of individuals that share a common political purpose but differs in some respect to the rest of the entity. A faction within a group or political party may include fragmented sub-factions, "parties within a party," ...

around

Fausto Bertinotti Fausto Bertinotti (born 22 March 1940) is an Italian politician who led the Communist Refoundation Party (''Partito della Rifondazione Comunista'') from 1994 to 2006. On 29 April 2006, after the centre-left coalition's victory in the Italian ...

, the leader of the

Communist Refoundation Party The Communist Refoundation Party ( it, Partito della Rifondazione Comunista, PRC) is a communist political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who replace ...

(PRC) from 1994 to 2006. In 1998, in the wake of the crisis of

Romano Prodi Romano Antonio Prodi (; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician, economist, academic, senior civil servant, and business executive who served as the tenth president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He served twice as Prime ...

's first government, Bertinotti convinced the majority of the party to stop supporting the cabinet, provoking the split of the faction led by

Armando Cossutta Armando Cossutta (2 September 1926 – 14 December 2015) was an Italian communist politician. Biography Born in Milan, Cossutta joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1943, and took part in the Italian resistance movement as a partisan. Aft ...

, PRC's founder, who launched the

Party of Italian Communists The Party of Italian Communists ( it, Partito dei Comunisti Italiani, PdCI) was a communist party in Italy established in October 1998 by splinters from the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC). The split was led by Armando Cossutta, founder and ...

(PdCI). That was when the Bertinottiani took the helm of the party. Bertinotti, who had been secretary since 1993, become the uncontested leader and the Bertinottiani would dominate the party for ten years. After Bertinotti unsuccessfully led the party (within the Rainbow Left list) in the 2006 general election, in the 2008 congress the Bertinottiani, led by Nichi Vendola and Franco Giordano, were defeated by

Paolo Ferrero Paolo Ferrero (born 17 November 1960) is an Italian politician. He is a leading member of the Communist Refoundation Party (''Partito della Rifondazione Comunista''; PRC), and served as Minister of Social Solidarity from 2006 to 2008 as part of ...

, After a few months, the pair led their Refoundation for the Left (RpS) faction outside the PRC and formed the Movement for the Left (MpS), which would be merged into

Left Ecology Freedom Left Ecology Freedom ( it, Sinistra Ecologia Libertà, SEL) was a democratic socialist political party in Italy whose bulk was formed by former members of the Communist Refoundation Party. The party's leader was Nichi Vendola, a former President ...

(SEL), which would finally be transformed into

Italian Left Italian Left ( it, Sinistra Italiana, SI) is a left-wing political party in Italy. SI was launched in November 2015 as a parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies (full name: Italian Left – Left Ecology Freedom), including Left Ecology F ...

(SI). In 2009 some Bertinottiani, led by Augusto Rocchi, remained within the PRC, as To the Left with Refoundation.

References

Communist Refoundation Party factions {{Communist-party-stub