Italian Left (Italian: Sinistra Italiana, SI) is a left-wingpolitical 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 Freedom (SEL), dissidents from the Democratic Party like Future to the Left, and splinters from the Five Star Movement.[3] At its launch, SI included 32 deputies,[4] who were soon followed by eight senators (who formed a sub-group within the Mixed Group of the Senate in February 2016), and two MEPs. SI was officially formed as a full-fledged party in February 2017, after SEL had chosen to merge into it in December 2016.
In November, one senator (Corradino Mineo)[7] and three more deputies (Alfredo D'Attorre [it], Carlo Galli [es; it] and Vincenzo Folino [it])[8][9] left the party in protest against Renzi. D'Attorre, who holds a doctorate in philosophy from the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies,[10] wrote a manifesto for a new "labour" party, which was signed also by the other five MPs and, which read: "The genetic mutation of the PD, born as central force of the Italian centre-left, is unfortunately already completed. The Renzi experience and the introduced mutations won't be a parenthesis. They have already altered in a irreversible way the perception of the PD and its function in the collective imagination".[11] Subsequently, a parliamentary group under the banner of Italian Left was formed in the Chamber of Deputies, whose core was formed by SEL.[12][13]
Several lists named after SI participated in the 2016 local elections. The party did particularly well in Sesto Fiorentino, a medium-sized city in the metropolitan area of Florence, where it won 17.5% of the vote and its candidate for mayor was elected in the run-off with 65.5%, by beating his Democratic opponent.[20][21]
In December 2016, SEL was dissolved, to merge it into SI in early 2017.[22]
On 3 December 2017, SI established Free and Equal (LeU), a left-wing joint list for the 2018 general election, together with the MDP and Possible, and chose the president of the Senate and former anti-Mafia prosecutor Pietro Grasso as its leader and candidate for Prime Minister.[35]
In the election, SI obtained three deputies (Fratoianni, Fassina and Erasmo Palazzotto [arz; it]) and one senator (De Petris).
In January 2019, after the MDP's departure,[38] SI returned into LeU's fold and, under the leadership of senator Francesco Laforgia and deputy Luca Pastorino (dissenting members of the MDP and Possible, respectively), the two organisations initiated a collaboration with the goal of forming a joint party at some point.[39][40]
In August 2019, tensions grew within the coalition supporting the government, leading to the issuing of a motion of no-confidence by the League.[43] During the following government crisis, the M5S and the PD agreed to form a new cabinet together, under outgoing Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.[44] SI, along with the MDP and the entire LeU, joined Conte's second government, in which SI's Giuseppe De Cristofaro [Wikidata] was appointed undersecretary of University.
In January 2021, Fratoianni was re-elected secretary of the party during an online congress.[45][46][47]
In February, after the collapse of the government led by Conte, Mario Draghi was sworn in at the head of a government comprising the main parties of the centre-left and the centre-right. Fratoianni voiced concerns over SI's participation in the government and the party's national assembly voted against the cabinet. However, two out of three MPs, senator De Petris and deputy Palazzotto, announced their intention to vote in favour anyway, splitting the party.[48] Subsequently, Palazzotto left the party.[49]
Nicola Fratoianni at the final election rally in Pisa before the 2022 legislative election. Ilaria Cucchi is also on stage.
In July 2022, SI and EV held a joint convention in Rome named "New Energies", promoting their cooperation and a unitary electoral program.[54] The alliance deliberately took inspiration from the New Ecologic and Social People's Union, the left-wing list formed in the run-up of the 2022 French legislative election.[55] Following the fall of Draghi's government, the early dissolution of the Italian Parliament and the calling of the 2022 general election, the AVS was officially launched and its logo presented.[56] On 6 August 2022, the alliance formalised an electoral agreement with the PD.[57][58] AVS elected 12 deputies and four senators, including four deputies and two senators from SI.
The November 2023 congress, in which Fratoianni was re-elected secretary, marked the return to active politics by Nichi Vendola, former SEL leader, who was elected president.[59][60][61][62]
According to its statute, "Sinistra Italiana is an association that is formed to represent work [...] and it is inextricably linked to the movement for peace and anti-fascism. It fights for a society founded on social equality, on respect for the environment. Its objectives are the full implementation of the Constitution and a democratic and social State of law, in the belief that the freedom of all is the condition and not the limit of everyone's freedom".[70]
Work and social policies
The party strongly supports the reduction of working hours for equal pay,[71][72] the introduction of a minimum wage (of at least 10 euros per hour)[73][74] to combat "poverty, social despair and precariousness"[75] (such as the citizenship income to which it's in favour),[76]and the introduction of a representation law to combat exploitation and promote good employment, with the aim of rebuilding a relationship and political representation of labour.[77]
It supports a greater investment in public health[78][79] and public education (from preschool to university),[80] and condemns their strong privatization.[71][81][82]
It proposes the establishment of a free basic psychologist for all, psychological support services in schools, awareness campaigns and structural investments for the protection of mental health, so that psychological well-being will be "a guaranteed and accessible right for all".[83][84]
It also proposes a salary increase for teachers, policies to combat precariousness,[81] free public nursery schools,[85] a reduction in the number of students per class,[86] free textbooks for schoolchildren,[87] free public university (with the gradual abolition of student fees and a remodulation of the regional tax on the right to study),[88][89] the ban of unpaid internships,[90] policies to combat the emigration of young people abroad[91] and a greater investment in research.[91][92]
To reduce deaths in the workplace, it proposes more inspections and controls, constant training for safety at work, contracts that guarantee stability, and fewer working hours.[93]
To counter gender stereotypes, gender-based violence and homotransphobia, it proposes specific information campaigns, the introduction in schools of courses on sex and sentimental education and education to respect and differences; funding for a "freedom income", investments in anti-violence associations and centres, in order to "build a society free from patriarchy and imposed religious legacies".[94][95][96]
It also supports compulsory and equal parental leave for both parents in order to ensure greater gender equality in work.[97][98]
Economy and taxation
The party proposes the introduction of a wealth tax on large assets ("tax on the rich") to redistribute wealth so that "those who have a lot pay a lot and those who have little pay less".[99][100] This is done through the elimination of the IMU and stamp duty, replacing them with a single and progressive tax on large net assets per natural person, in order to obtain tens of billions of euros to be used for health, education, free nurseries, pensions and public transport.[101][102][103]
It also supports the introduction of an anti-relocation law,[104] the fight against tax havens,[105] the lowering of the threshold limit for the use of cash and the gradual replacement of the use of cash with electronic payment methods (eliminating bank commissions) in order to fight tax evasion (recovering hundreds of billions of euros) and mafias.[106]
The party, in addition to being in favor of granting citizenship to minor children of legal foreigners born and raised in Italy (ius soli),[121] supports the timely rescue of migrants in the sea, their reception and integration,[122] their regularisation for the recognition of the "invisible"[123] and the establishment of humanitarian corridors.[124][125]
The party proposes a ban on private funding of political parties and associations in order to prevent them from becoming "politically weak, susceptible to blackmail and permeable to the demands of the rich financier of the moment".[128][129] It's also against foreign states financing of politicians.[130] It proposes a proportional electoral law[131][132] and the right for 'out-of-office' citizens to vote in their homes.[133][134]
