The life of Enrico Berlinguer, the secretary of the PCI who took the distances from the USSR and promoted Eurocomunism

Enrico BerlinguerItalian politician born in Sassari in 1922 and died in Padua in 1984, he was a manager of Italian Communist Party (PCI). He found out from a young age in the national and international field, he showed an attitude critic to the Soviet systembelieving that socialism should be reached for democratic. By Secretary of the PCI, promoted the strategy of historical compromise and launched the idea ofEurocomunism Together with the French and Spanish communist parties. In 1984 he died of a stroke while holding a rally in Padua. His ideas are an important inheritance for progressive parties and movements.

Enrico Berlinguer and the beginning of political militancy

Enrico Berlinguer was born in Sassari on May 25, 1922. He belonged to a very sight family. In particular the father, Mario Berlinguerit was a anti -fascist lawyer and in 1924 he was elected deputy in the liberal list that was headed by Giovanni Amendola (he would have been elected again after the fall of the regime).

Enrico obtained his diploma in Sassari in 1940. Later he would graduate in Law in Turin. From a young man mature anti -fascist beliefs And in August 1943, one month after the fall of the regime, he enrolled in the PCI. He was very attentive to the conditions of the poorest population and in 1944 he took part in one event for bread In Sassari, degenerated in turmoil. It was for this arrested And he remained in prison from January 17th to April 23rd. A few weeks later, the father, who had joined the action party, took him with him to Salerno and presented him to Palmiro TogliattiSecretary of the PCI. The young Enrico He was hired by the partytaking the Career of officialand moved with his father and brother Giovanni (future deputy and senator) to Rome.

Berlinguer’s career in the PCI

Berlinguer immediately highlighted for his skills and soon obtained leading positions in the communist youth organizations. He became secretary of the youth front and, in 1949, of the Italian Communist Youth Federation. In 1953 he also obtained the secretariat of the World Federation of Democratic Youthinternational youth organization, retaining the assignment until 1956. The following year he married to Letizia Laurentifrom whom he will have four children.

Berlinguer followed the PCI in all its battles, also becoming part of the national organs of the party: from the early 1960s, it was highlighted for the criticisms of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (PCUS), who held power in Moscow and made funding to western communist parties, including the Italian one. In 1968 Berlinguer was elected deputy (although he had tried to refuse the candidacy), the assignment to which he would have been re -elected until his death, and in 1969 he was chosen to support the secretary of the PCI Luigi Longo (who took over from Togliatti in 1964) with the position of deputy. In fact, it became secretary in pectorebecause Longo’s precarious health conditions suggest that he should soon leave the assignment.

What Berlinguer did important: the tear with the USSR and Euroconsumism

The importance of Enrico Berlinguer in the Italian historical-political panorama lies in its push to the renewal of the PCI, proposing an alternative model to the Soviet one, which then became known as Eurocomunism.

In March 1972, The XIII National Congress of the PCI Elected Berlinguer National Secretary: a new season began for the party. In 1973, shortly after the coup in Chile (organized against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende), the secretary realized that, to get to the government, the party had to Allying with the DCbecause the United States would not have allowed the communists to govern a western country even if they had won the elections. He therefore elaborated the strategy of historical compromisethat is, the proposal to enter the government together with the DC and other parties, finding a bank in Aldo Moroone of the most visible Christian Democrats.

The relationship with Moscow and the eastern Europe regimes became more tense. In October 1973 Berlinguer went to Visit in Bulgaria To meet with the leader Todor Zivkov, lined up on Orthodox positions. The interviews proved to be a failure and, while the Italian manager was reaching the airport to return to Italy, the car he was traveling on was clashed with a truck. Berlinguer suspected, without being sure, that it had been a attack organized by the Bulgarian regime. The fact is that in 1975 the secretary launched the idea ofEurocomunismthat is, a form of non -autocratic communism, such as that of Eastern, but democratic Europe, agreeing with the communist parties of France and Spain. On the electoral level, the PCI reached its historic maximum in the 1976 political elections, obtaining more than 34% of the votes. Later a decrease in consensus went into mild.

The early 80s and the “democratic alternative”

The strategy of the historical compromise proved impractical, also because Moro was kidnapped and killed by the red brigades, and in the early 1980s Berlinguer launched the policy of the democratic alternative, that is, proposing himself to group the progressive forces around the PCI To subtract the guidance of the government from Christian democracy. He sided in favor of the social struggles and in 1980 He met the workers of Fiat who had come on strike against the layoffs, guaranteeing them the support of the party. In addition, in a famous interview with Eugenio Scalfari, he raised the problem of moral issuedenouncing the corruption of the ruling class and parties.

In the same period, the detachment from the USSR became more clear. He declared Berlinguer in 1981:

Our main “anomaly” compared to several other communist and workers’ parties is that we are convinced that in the process towards this goal we must remain – and we will remain – faithful to the method of democracy.

The secretary did not intend to abdicate the principles of communism, but believed that “free and equal society”, that is, socialism, should be established with democratic methods and not with the dictatorship of the proletariat:

We are communists. We are with originality and peculiarity, distinguishing us from all the other communist parties: but communists are, communists we remain.

He took a position against the intervention of the USSR in Afghanistan and supported i anti -colonial and liberation movements all over the world, including the struggle of the Palestinian people.

The death and funeral of Berlinguer

June 7, 1984 Berlinguer He held a Padua rally in the framework of the election campaign for the European elections. While he spoke, he was hit by a cerebral stroke. He tried to continue the speech, but he could not do it and shortly after, brought to the hotel, he entered coma. He died at the hospital in Padua on 11 June 1984without having taken knowledge back. The funeral, held in Rome on June 13, proved to be one of the greatest manifestations in the history of Italy, with the participation of about a million peopleincluding numerous foreign communist leaders and all Italian political leaders.