“Forse nei momenti difficili si accende la fantasia”

The Party of the European Left expresses its deep sorrow at the death of the extraordinary Italian politician and intellectual Pietro Ingrao.

For a century, Italy had the privilege to host the comrade Pietro Ingrao, the Writer, intellectual and poet, the prominent figure of the history of communist movement in Italy, who left this world yesterday.

Pietro Ingrao joined the Italian communist Party in 1940 and took part in the anti-fascist resistance during World War II. After the war, Ingrao was a Member of Parliament continuously from 1948 to 1994. In 1947-1957, he was editor-in-chief of the party newspaper, L'Unità. He was the first Communist to become President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, a position he held from 1976 to 1979. He was the speaker of the PCI fraction in the Italian Parliament since 1968.

Since the demonstration at Porta Venezia in Milan the 25 July 1943 to celebrate the fall of Benito Mussolini where he had the first long speech, through the peace demonstration against the war in Iraq in 2003 and a lot more, he always took the streets and has been partisan in each step of his life.

Besides the active political militancy, Pietro was an authentic and precious intellectual.

Together with political essays, he wrote wonderful poems on the single life, on the collective action and the endless nature. 

The Party of the European Left joins the Italian comrades in this deep sorrow for the loss of this extraordinary example of leftist integrity and sharp intelligence.

The EL echoes a phrase from Pietro that summarizes his view of the man: "I have learned in this century the unspeakable human, of each of us and of the relationship with each other that we can never grasp the deep way. My fear is that I'll be taken not so much the bread, nor the Constitution, but this idea of humanity. Please, do not let the question on the human being be canceled"

Addio Pietro, che la terra ti sia lieve.