Lucio Magri (19 August 1932 – 28 November 2011) was an Italian journalist and politician.

Biography

Magri was born in

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

Emilia-Romagna egl, Emigliàn (man) egl, Emiglièna (woman) rgn, Rumagnòl (man) rgn, Rumagnòla (woman) it, Emiliano (man) it, Emiliana (woman) or it, Romagnolo (man) it, Romagnola (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title ...

, one of the most left-wing regions of Italy, but grew up in the strongly

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes C ...

, Lombardy. His first involvement in politics was as a member of the

Christian Democrats __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social te ...

, taking up positions firmly on the left wing of the party. However, in 1958 he was one of a number of Catholic intellectuals who joined 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). ...

(PCI). In 1969, he was one of the founders of the far-left newspaper '' il manifesto'', co-editing it with

Rossana Rossanda Rossana Rossanda (23 April 1924 – 20 September 2020) was an Italian communist politician, journalist, and feminist. Biography Rossanda was born in Pula, then part of Italy. She studied in Milan and was a student of philosopher Antonio Banfi. A ...

. The newspaper's work was controversial with the Communist Party's leadership, and by the end of the year Magri had been expelled from the Party. He was co-founder (in 1974) and secretary of the Proletarian Unity Party (or PdUP), which later merged with the PCI in 1984. When the latter renounced communism to become 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 ...

in 1991, Magri adhered to 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 ...

, founding an internal movement whose structure recalled that of PdUP. In 1995 his movement split, to form the

Movement of Unitarian Communists The Movement of Unitarian Communists (, MCU), or simply Unitarian Communists ( it, Comunisti Unitari), was a communist political party in Italy. History The party was founded in June 1995 as a split from the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) ...

, established to support a centrist cabinet led by

Lamberto Dini Lamberto Dini CGMG (born 1 March 1931) is an Italian politician and economist. He was the Director General of Bank of Italy from 1979 to 1994, Minister of Treasury from 1994 to 1996, the 51st Prime Minister of Italy from 1995 to 1996, and For ...

. When the Movement entered the newly formed

, Magri abandoned it, devoting himself only to ''il manifesto''. In 2009 he published an essay on the history of the Italian Communist Party, entitled "Il sarto di Ulm. Una possibile storia del PCI" ("The Tailor of Ulm. A possible history of the PCI"). In 2011, Verso Books published ''The Tailor of Ulm: Communism in the Twentieth Century''. Reviewing the book in

Review 31 A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a rating to ind ...

, John Green praised it as 'an invaluable platform for understanding the apparent impasse of the present global and systemic crisis'. In his later years, Magri suffered from depression, exacerbated by the death of his wife Mara in 2008. He chose to take up

assisted suicide Assisted suicide is suicide undertaken with the aid of another person. The term usually refers to physician-assisted suicide (PAS), which is suicide that is assisted by a physician or other healthcare provider. Once it is determined that the p ...

, passing away in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 443,037 inhabitants, the urban area 1.315 mill ...

, Switzerland. He was survived by a daughter, Jessica, and a granddaughter, Emma.

Gallery

File:Political graffiti in Rome.jpg, Pro-communist graffito in Rome commemorating Lucio Magri, 2013

References

Sources

'Retracing a Century', Review 31

External links

Official biography at Italian Parliament website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magri, Lucio 1932 births 2011 suicides Deaths by euthanasia Politicians from Ferrara Italian Communist Party politicians 20th-century Italian politicians Communist Refoundation Party politicians 20th-century Italian journalists Italian male journalists Italian politicians who committed suicide Suicides in Switzerland