The Left – The Rainbow

Political party in Italy

Politics of Italy
Political parties
Elections

The Left – The Rainbow (Italian: La Sinistra – L'Arcobaleno, SA), frequently referred as Rainbow Left (Italian: Sinistra Arcobaleno), was a left-wing federation of parties in Italy that participated in the 2008 general election.

History

The federation was officially launched on 8–9 December 2007^[2]^[3] with the goal of uniting Italian communist, socialist and ecologist parties in a united bloc, somewhat similar to what the centre-left forces have done with the Democratic Party and before that The Olive Tree.

The four parties tended to disagree on a number of issues, including the support for the Prodi II Cabinet,^[4]^[5] the symbol and the name of the federation, with the Greens wanting the word "ecologist" and the Italian Communists the hammer and sickle to be included,^[6] but in the end they formed a joint list for the 2008 general election.

In the election The Left – The Rainbow gained a disastrous 3.1% of the vote (down from 10.2%, combined result of the three parties in 2006 general election) and failed to gain any seats in the Italian Parliament. Shortly after, the Party of Italian Communists announced it would leave the federation, and the Communist Refoundation Party did the same soon after. These groups went on to launch the Anticapitalist and Communist List, which later became the Federation of the Left. Meanwhile, the Greens and Democratic Left, together with the Socialist Party, Movement for the Left and Unite the Left, formed Left Ecology Freedom.

Composition

The federation, defined by its members as the sinistra radicale^[7] (which can be translated in English as both "radical left" and "far left"), was composed of four parties:

	Ideology	Leader
Communist Refoundation Party (PRC)	Communism	Franco Giordano
Party of Italian Communists (PdCI)	Communism	Oliviero Diliberto
Federation of the Greens (FdV)	Green politics	Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
Democratic Left (SD)	Democratic socialism	Fabio Mussi

Electoral results

Italian Parliament

Election year	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of overall seats won	+/–	Leader
Chamber of Deputies
2008	1,124,298 (#6)	3.08	0 / 630	–	Fausto Bertinotti

Election year	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of overall seats won	+/–	Leader
Senate of the Republic
2008	1,053,228 (#6)	3.21	0 / 315	–	Fausto Bertinotti

References

^ ^a ^b Nordsieck, Wolfram (2008). "Italy". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 15 June 2012.
^ La Cosa Rossa? Sinistra e Arcobaleno. Corriere della Sera
^ Sinistra Arcobaleno, «puntiamo al 15%». Corriere della Sera
^ Welfare, spaccatura nella "Cosa Rossa". Corriere della Sera
^ Bertinotti: «Il governo Prodi ha fallito». Corriere della Sera
^ Cosa rossa: I Verdi e i Comunisti italiani litigano sul simbolo Archived 2007-12-01 at the Wayback Machine
^ Bertinotti, beato oppositore Corriere della Sera

Communist Refoundation Party

Secretaries

Sergio Garavini (1991–1994)
Fausto Bertinotti (1994–2006)
Franco Giordano (2006–2008)
Paolo Ferrero (2008–2017)
Maurizio Acerbo (2017–present)

General

Italian Communist Party
Proletarian Democracy
Communist Party of Italy (Marxist–Leninist)
Prodi II Cabinet
Eurocommunism
Liberazione
Young Communists
International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties
Party of the European Left
European United Left–Nordic Green Left

Factions and splits

Current factions	In the 2017 congress, two motions were presented: the majority one led by Paolo Ferrero and the minority one led by Eleonora Forenza.
Former factions	Bertinottiani Refoundation in Movement To the Left with Refoundation
Splintered factions	Movement of Unitarian Communists (1995) Party of Italian Communists (1998) Communist Alternative Party (2006) Communist Project / Communist Workers' Party (2006) Critical Left (2007) Refoundation for the Left / Movement for the Left (2009) The Ernesto (2011) / Italian Communist Party (2016) Countercurrent (2013) HammerSickle / Left Class Revolution (2016) Being Communists (2016)

Alliances

Alliance of Progressives (1994)
The Union (2005–2007)
The Left – The Rainbow (2007–2008)
Anticapitalist and Communist List (2008–2009)
Federation of the Left (2008–2012)
Civil Revolution (2012–2013)
The Other Europe (2014)
Power to the People (2017–2018)
The Left (2019–present)

v t e Historical political parties in Italy
Communist	Proletarian Unity Party (1972–1984) Italian Communist Party (1921–1991) Proletarian Democracy (1978–1991) Party of Italian Communists (1998–2014)
Democratic socialist	Italian Revolutionary Socialist Party (1881–1893) Italian Workers' Party (1882–1892) Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (1964–1972) Democratic Party of the Left (1991–1998) Democratic Left (2007–2010) Left Ecology Freedom (2010-2016)
Social-democratic	Italian Reformist Socialist Party (1912–1926) Unitary Socialist Party (1922–1930) Action Party (1929–1947) Unitary Socialist Party (1949–1951) Unified Socialist Party (1966–1969) Italian Socialist Party (1892–1994) Italian Democratic Socialist Party (1947–1998) Democrats of the Left (1998–2007) Italian Democratic Socialists (1998–2007) Article One (2017–2023)
Green	Rainbow Greens (1989–1990) Federation of Green Lists (1986–1990) Federation of the Greens (1990–2021)
Radical and social-liberal	Action Party (1853–1867) Italian Radical Party (1904–1922) Democratic Party (1913–1919) Constitutional Democratic Party (1913–1919) Italian Democratic Liberal Party (1919–1926) Social Democracy (1922–1926) Labour Democratic Party (1943–1948) Republican Democratic Concentration (1946) Radical Party (1955–1989) Democratic Alliance (1993–1997) The Network (1991–1999)
Centrist and liberal	Liberal Union (1913–1922) Democratic Union for the Republic (1998–1999) Union for the Republic Italian Renewal (1996–2002) The Democrats (1999–2002) Segni Pact (1993–2003) Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (2002–2007) Civic Choice (2013–2019) Liberal Popular Alliance (2015–2018)
Regionalist and federalist	Movement for the Independence of Sicily (1943–1951) Federalists and Liberal Democrats (1994–1996) Federalist Italian League (1995–1996) Great South (2011–2013)
Christian-democratic	Italian Catholic Electoral Union (1906–1919) Conservative Catholics (1913–1919) Italian People's Party (1919–1926) Christian Democracy (1943–1994) Italian People's Party (1994–2002) Christian Democrats for the Republic (1998) Christian Democratic Centre (1994–2002) United Christian Democrats (1995–2002) European Democracy (2001–2002) Christian Democracy for Autonomies (2005–2009) Union of Democrats for Europe (1999–2013)
Liberal-conservative	Economic Party (1919–1924) National Democratic Alliance (1953–1954) Italian Liberal Party (1922–1994) Forza Italia (1994–2009) The People of Freedom (2009–2013) Future and Freedom (2010–2014) New Centre-Right (2013–2017) Conservatives and Reformists (2015–2017) Direction Italy (2017–2019) Cambiamo! (2019–2022)
National-conservative	Common Man's Front (1946–1949) Monarchist National Party (1946–1959) People's Monarchist Party (1954–1959) Italian Democratic Party of Monarchist Unity (1959–1972) National Democracy (1977–1979) National Alliance (1995–2009)
Nationalist	Italian Nationalist Association (1910–1923) Combatants' Party (1919–1923) National Fascist Party (1921–1943) Republican Fascist Party (1943–1945) Italian Social Movement (1946–1995)
List of political parties in Italy 19th-century Italian political groups Early 20th-century Italian political parties 1950s–1990s Italian political parties Current Italian political parties