Luciana Castellina (born 9 August 1929) is an Italian journalist, writer, politician, and feminist.

Biography

Luciana Castellina was born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

on 9 August 1929. She graduated in law from

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a Public university, public research university l ...

. In 1947, she joined 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). ...

. Castellina started her career in journalism in the 1950s, working for the daily newspaper ''

Paese Sera Paese ( Venetian: ''Paexe'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Treviso in the Italian region Veneto, located about northwest of Venice and about west of Treviso. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 19,898 and an area of ...

''. She later worked for several other newspapers, including L'Unità, Il Manifesto, and Liberazione. Her writings focused on issues such as workers' rights, feminism, and communism. In 1974, she was co-founder of the Proletarian Unity Party for Communism. She served four terms in the Italian

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

and twenty years in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

. In the European parliament, she served as chair of the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media and of the Committee on External Economic Relations. She was president of Italia cinema, an agency to promote Italian films abroad, from 1998 to 2003. She served as editor of ''Nuova Generazione'', a Communist youth magazine, and of '' Liberazione'', and also played an important role at '' Il Manifesto''. Castellina was named an Officier in the French

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

and a Comendadora (Commander) of the Republic of Argentina. With the 2015 presidential elections,

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 President ...

supported Castellina's name as possible successor of

Giorgio Napolitano Giorgio Napolitano (; born 29 June 1925) is an Italian politician who served as president of Italy from 2006 to 2015, the first Italian president to be re-elected to the presidency. Due to his dominant position in Italian politics, some critics ...

President of Italy The president of Italy, officially denoted as president of the Italian Republic ( it, Presidente della Repubblica Italiana) is the head of state of Italy. In that role, the president represents national unity, and guarantees that Italian poli ...

. She has been supported for the first three ballots, until the party decided to support for the fourth ballot

Sergio Mattarella Sergio Mattarella (; born 23 July 1941) is an Italian politician, jurist, academic and lawyer who has served as the president of Italy since 2015. A Christian leftist politician, Mattarella was a leading member of the Christian Democracy par ...

who was later elected president.

Personal life

She has been married to

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

leader Alfredo Reichlin. They had two children, Lucrezia and Pietro, both of them economists.

Selected books

* ''Cinquant'anni d'Europa (2007) * ''Eurollywood, Il difficile ingresso della cultura nella costruzione dell'Europa'' (2008) * ''La scoperta del mondo'', a finalist for the

Strega Prize The Strega Prize ( it, Premio Strega ) is the most prestigious Italian literary award. It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction written in the Italian language by an author of any nationality and first published ...

* ''Siberiana'', won the Letterario Vallombrosa Prize in 2012 * ''Guardati dalla mia fame'' (2014) with

Milena Agus Milena Agus (born 1959) is an Italian author from Sardinia. She is one of the leading novelists in the so-called Sardinian Literary Spring which began in the 1980s and which includes other international names such as Michela Murgia. Biography Mi ...

* ''Manuale antiretorico dell'Unione Europea'' (2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castelina, Luciana 1929 births Living people Italian women journalists Deputies of Legislature VII of Italy Deputies of Legislature VIII of Italy Deputies of Legislature IX of Italy Deputies of Legislature X of Italy Italian Communist Party MEPs Communist Refoundation Party MEPs MEPs for Italy 1979–1984 MEPs for Italy 1984–1989 MEPs for Italy 1989–1994 Candidates for President of Italy Sapienza University of Rome alumni Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Italian feminists Italian socialist feminists Italian Communist Party politicians Communist Refoundation Party politicians Left Ecology Freedom politicians Italian Left politicians Il manifesto editors Italian newspaper editors