Fabio Mussi (born 22 January 1948) is an Italian politician, formerly Minister of University and Research in the

Prodi II Cabinet The second Prodi government was the cabinet of the government of Italy from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008, a total of 722 days, or 1 year, 11 months and 21 days. The 59th cabinet of the Italian Republic, it was the only cabinet of the XV Legislature ...

. A former member of the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...

and then

Democrats of the Left The Democrats of the Left ( it, Democratici di Sinistra, DS) was a social-democratic political party in Italy. The DS, successor of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) and the Italian Communist Party, was formed in 1998 upon the merger of th ...

, he became a lead founding member of the Democratic Left. Mussi was then a member of

Left Ecology Freedom Left Ecology Freedom ( it, Sinistra Ecologia Libertà, SEL) was a democratic socialist political party in Italy whose bulk was formed by former members of the Communist Refoundation Party. The party's leader was Nichi Vendola, a former Preside ...

(SEL), which the Democratic Left merged into in 2010, before becoming a member of the

Italian Left Italian Left ( it, Sinistra Italiana, SI) is a left-wing political 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 ...

(SI) after SEL was dissolved in 2017.

Career

Born in

Piombino Piombino is an Italian town and ''comune'' of about 35,000 inhabitants in the province of Livorno (Tuscany). It lies on the border between the Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea, in front of Elba Island and at the northern side of Maremma. Ove ...

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

, he joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1966, being initially active at university level whilst studying at the

Scuola Normale Superiore The Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a public university in Pisa and Florence, Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students. It was founded in 1810 wi ...

in Pisa. In 1973, he graduated in Philosophy at the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. History The Origins The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...

, (he never graduated at

Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa The Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a public university in Pisa and Florence, Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students. It was founded in 1810 w ...

) and soon joined its administrative staff. He also became a member of the PCI Central Committee in 1979, charged with cultural and propaganda tasks and bestowed with an editor's position at '' Rinascita''. He was regional secretary of the party in Calabria (1980–1984), and after that a member of the PCI National Directory. From 1986, he was co-editor of ''

L'Unità ''l'Unità'' (, lit. 'the Unity') was an Italian language, Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, ...

''. Favorable to the turn towards democratic socialism in the PCI, he joined the

Democratic Party of the Left The Democratic Party of the Left ( it, Partito Democratico della Sinistra, PDS) was a democratic socialist and social-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in February 1991 as the post-communist evolution of the Italian Communist Party, t ...

, direct successor of the PCI, which itself became

in 1998, also serving in the

Italian Parliament The Italian Parliament ( it, Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitio ...

from 1992 to 2008. Confirmed as deputy for his fourth time at the

2006 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2006. * Elections in 2006 * Electoral calendar 2006 * 2006 Acehnese regional election * 2006 American Samoan legislative election * 2006 Bahraini parliamentary election * 2006 Costa Rican president ...

, Mussi then served as senior vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies and Minister for the University and Research in the Italian government. During the 2007 Democrats of the Left convention, he headed the left-wing minority (the so-called ''correntone''), which was opposed the creation of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. During the convention he announced his opposition to join the Democratic Party once it was founded, and instead created a party called Democratic Left, of which he was the national coordinator. Mussi left the leadership of his party following the party's defeat in the 2008 general election, as part of

The Left - The Rainbow ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

alliance, being replaced by

Claudio Fava Claudio Fava (born 15 April 1957) is an Italian politician and writer. He is the Coordinator of the National Secretariat of Sinistra Ecologia Libertà ( Left Ecology Freedom). He was until 2009 Member of the European Parliament for the Italian ...

References

External links

"Q&A: Fabio Mussi"
''Nature'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Mussi, Fabio 1948 births Living people People from Piombino Italian Communist Party politicians 20th-century Italian politicians Democratic Left (Italy) politicians Democrats of the Left politicians Democratic Party of the Left politicians Left Ecology Freedom politicians Italian Left politicians University of Pisa alumni