Armando Cossutta

Armando Cossutta (born September 2, 1926 in Milan , † December 14, 2015 in Rome ) was an Italian communist politician .

Political activity

In the former Partito Comunista Italiano (PCI), Cossutta, who maintained close contacts with the leadership of the CPSU , was at the head of the traditional wing that was “loyal to Moscow”. From the mid-1970s onwards, Cossutta opposed the eurocommunist course of the then PCI General Secretary Enrico Berlinguer mainly because he considered the growing criticism of the Soviet Union to be wrong and harmful; later he judged his turn to democracy positively. The internal opposition responded to the transformation into the Partito Democratico della Sinistra (PDS), from 1998 Democratici di Sinistra (DS), carried out by the PCI at its last congress in February 1991, by founding the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (PRC), the one recorded a surprisingly strong influx of almost 100,000 members. Armando Cossutta became chairman.

In 1997/98, however, Cossutta came into conflict with Fausto Bertinotti , who was the national secretary next to him at the head of the PRC, and who found it unacceptable to continue the parliamentary toleration of the center-left government under Romano Prodi because of the policies that were viewed as neoliberal Nevertheless, Cossutta considered the alliance of the L'Ulivo coalition to be the lesser evil that needed further support. In doing so, Cossutta found the support of most of the PRC parliamentarians, but was only able to get a part of his historical following on his side on the grassroots and in the apparatus. After losing the vote in the National Political Committee of the PRC in November 1998, he left the party and founded the Partito dei Comunisti Italiani (PdCI), which is estimated to be a good 20,000 PRC members (about a fifth). The PdCI and its MPs directly joined the Ulivo government . From 1999 to 2004 Cossutta was a member of the European Parliament , where he belonged to the Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left .

Armando Cossutta died on December 14, 2015 after a long hospital stay in Rome at the age of 89.

Web links

Commons : Armando Cossutta - collection of images, videos and audio files

Entry on Armando Cossutta in the Members' database of the European Parliament

Individual evidence

↑ Alberto Custodero: Morto Cossutta, il più filosovietico dei Comunisti italiani. In: repubblica.it. La Repubblica , December 15, 2015, accessed December 15, 2015 (Italian).

personal data
SURNAME	Cossutta, Armando
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian politician, MEP
DATE OF BIRTH	September 2, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH	Milan , Lombardy , Italy
DATE OF DEATH	December 14, 2015
Place of death	Rome , Lazio , Italy

[1] Alberto Custodero: Morto Cossutta, il più filosovietico dei Comunisti italiani. In: repubblica.it. La Repubblica , December 15, 2015, accessed December 15, 2015 (Italian).