Mario Capanna (born 10 January 1945) is an Italian politician and writer. Born in

Città di Castello Città di Castello (); "Castle Town") is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of Umbria. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain along the upper part of the river Tiber. The city is north of ...

, he studied Philosophy at the

Catholic University of Milan The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, and was the leader of the Italian students' movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1969 he was attacked by exponents of the

neo-Fascist Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration sent ...

Italian Social Movement The Italian Social Movement ( it, Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national ...

. In 1975 he entered politics, adhering to the Proletarian Unity Party (PdUP), which later merged with

Proletarian Democracy Proletarian Democracy ( it, Democrazia Proletaria, DP) was a far-left political party in Italy. History 1970s DP was founded in 1975 as a joint electoral front of the Proletarian Unity Party (Italy), Proletarian Unity Party (PdUP), Workers Vangua ...

(DP). Capanna was charismatic leader of the latter until 27 June 1987, when he resigned, succeeded by

Giovanni Russo Spena Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

. Capanna was elected for the DP to the

Italian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies ( it, Camera dei deputati) is the lower house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Senate of the Republic). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical funct ...

(1983–1987), and to 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 ...

(1979). In 1989 he broke away from the Proletarian Democracy to form the Rainbow Greens party. Capanna is currently President of the Committee for Genetical Rights, an independent association devoted to information on

Biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

. Capanna is a supporter of the

Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme *Bli ...

, an organisation which advocates for democratic reformation of the United Nations.

Works

*''Formidabili quegli anni'' (1988) *'' Arafat'' (1989) *''Speranze ''(1994) *''Il fiume della prepotenza ''(1996) *''Lettera a mio figlio sul '68'' (1998) *''L'Italia viva ''(2000) *''Verrò da te'' (2003)

References

1945 births Living people People from Città di Castello Proletarian Democracy politicians Rainbow Greens politicians Federation of the Greens politicians Deputies of Legislature IX of Italy Deputies of Legislature X of Italy Politicians of Umbria Proletarian Democracy MEPs MEPs for Italy 1979–1984 Italian male writers {{Italy-MEP-stub