Communist Refoundation Party - Factions

Factions

The majority of the party following the October 2004 congress was led by Fausto Bertinotti (59.2%) and it views itself as the party representing the anti-globalization movement in the Italian political scene. Nothwithstanding, during that congress the party included some recognised factions, which opposed the line imposed by Bertinotti: the hardline communists of Being Communists (26.2%), what remains of the late faction led by Armando Cossutta, and trotskyists of Critical Left, Communist Project and HammerSickle (14.6% altogether).

Communist Project left the party shortly after the 2006 general election because of its opposition to the participation of the party in The Union and the Prodi II Cabinet: a group led by Marco Ferrando formed the Communist Workers' Party, while others, led by Francesco Ricci formed the Communist Alternative Party. A tiny minority of the former Communist Project decided not to leave the party and gathered in a new faction named Countercurrent.

In February 2007 Senator Franco Turigliatto, one of the leaders of Critical Left along with Salvatore Cannavò, voted against two motions on the government's foreign policy, leading Romano Prodi to temporarily resign as Prime Minister. In April Turigliatto was expelled from the party and thus Critical Left was suspended from it. In December the group officially left PRC to be transformed into a party.

At that point Being Communists suffered a split by those who opposed the decision of leader Claudio Grassi to vote in favour of the expulsion of Senator Turigliatto from the party: a group, led by Fosco Giannini, left the faction and launched The Ernesto, without leaving the party itself.

In April 2008, following the severe defeat of the party in the 2008 general election, a group of former Bertinottiani, composed basically of former members of Proletarian Democracy and led by Paolo Ferrero and Giovanni Russo Spena, allied with the other minority factions to force Secretary Franco Giordano to resign. They criticized The Left – The Rainbow alliance and the political line of Fausto Bertinotti.

In the 24–27 July 2008 congress the Refoundation in Movement motion of Ferrero and Grassi (40.1%) faced the bulk of Bertinottiani, who organized themselves around the motion titled Manifesto for the Refoundation (47.6%) with Nichi Vendola as standard-bearer. The Ernesto of Giannini and Counter-current (7.7%), HammerSickle of Claudio Bellotti (3.2%) and a minor group of former Bertinottiani called "Disarm, Renew, Refound" (1.5%) decided to join forces with the Ferrero-Grassi group. Vendola, defeated by Ferrero, announced the creation of a new minority faction, Refoundation for the Left (RpS).

On 24 January 2009 that faction finally left the party to form the Movement for the Left. However several members of RpS led by Augusto Rocchi decided to stay in the PRC and launched To the Left with Refoundation.