Italy marks 40th death anniversary of Eurocommunist leader Enrico Berlinguer

It was 7 June 1984, when the leader of the infamous "historic compromise", Enrico Berlinguer, who had recently turned 62, suddenly left the podium of a rally in the city of Padua, in the northern region of Veneto, after suffering a brain hemorrhage, and died four days later. 

The 11th June marked the 40th death anniversary of the Eurocommunist leader and Italy's bourgeois leadership praised his merits. Sergio Mattarella, the President of the Republic, pointed out that Berlinguer, who served as General Secretary of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) from 1972 until his death in 1984, “was an esteemed and popular political personality, capable of taking brave decisions".

Berlinguer: A good man, but not a communist

The following article was written by Marco Rizzo, General Secretary of the Communist Party, Italy (Partito Comunista) and published in "l'Unità" newspaper in November 11, 2015 under the title "Berlinguer, un brava persona ma non comunista". 

The article is a reminder of the deeply reactionary and reformist nature of Eurocommunism, a prominent founder and promoter of which was Enrico Berlinguer.

By Marco Rizzo.

There is always a beginning. We ask ourselves: What brought to consumption the great historical and political experience of Italy’s communists? What led Antonio Gramsci’s party to become today’s party of Matteo Renzi?

Italian communist leader Marco Rizzo blasts Berlinguer's eurocommunist legacy

Marco Rizzo (left), General Secretary of the CC of the
Communist Party, Italy. Right: Enrico Berlinguer.

In a very interesting speech delivered at the 20th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties, which is taking place in Athens, the General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Italy (Partito Comunista) Marco Rizzo strongly criticized the ideological and political legacy of the so-called "Euro-communism".

The intervention of Rizzo marks a break-up with the traditional reformist line of the - once powerful- Italian Communist Party. "We reject with extreme firmness any hypothesis of political alliances between parties, both for electoral purposes, which, even worse, in support of self-styled "left "governments. The Italian labor movement has paid heavily for the lines of collaboration and compromise with the reformist parties" said Rizzo and added: