The Left – The Rainbow (, SA), frequently referred as Rainbow Left (), was a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

federation of parties in Italy that participated in the 2008 general election.

History

The federation was officially launched on 8–9 December 2007 with the goal of uniting Italian communist, socialist and ecologist parties in a united bloc, somewhat similar to what the

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

forces have done with the Democratic Party and before that The Olive Tree. The four parties tended to disagree on a number of issues, including the support for 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 Legislatur ...

, the symbol and the name of the federation, with the Greens wanting the word "ecologist" and the Italian Communists the

hammer and sickle The hammer and sickle (Unicode: ) is a communist symbol representing proletarian solidarity between industrial and agricultural workers. It was first adopted during the Russian Revolution at the end of World War I, the hammer representing wo ...

to be included, but in the end they formed a joint list for the 2008 general election. In the election The Left – The Rainbow gained a disastrous 3.1% of the vote (down from 10.2%, combined result of the three parties in 2006 general election) and failed to gain any seats in the

Italian Parliament The Italian Parliament () is the national parliament of the Italy, Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861), the Parliament of the Kingd ...

. Shortly after, the

Party of Italian Communists The Party of Italian Communists (, PdCI) was a communist party in Italy established in October 1998 by splinters from the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC). The split was led by Armando Cossutta, founder and early leader of the PRC, who oppos ...

announced it would leave the federation, and the

Communist Refoundation Party The Communist Refoundation Party (, PRC) is a Communism, communist List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who r ...

did the same soon after. These groups went on to launch the Anticapitalist and Communist List, which later became the

Federation of the Left The Federation of the Left (, FdS) was an electoral alliance of communist political parties in Italy. The coalition was the evolution of the Anticapitalist and Communist List. History In the run-up to the 2009 European Parliament election, in ...

. Meanwhile, the Greens and Democratic Left, together with the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

, Movement for the Left and Unite the Left, formed

Left Ecology Freedom Left Ecology Freedom (, 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 of Apulia. On 17 December 201 ...

Composition

The federation, defined by its members as the ''sinistra radicale''Bertinotti, beato oppositore Corriere della Sera
/ref> (which can be translated in English as both "radical left" and "

far left Far or FAR may refer to: Government * Federal Acquisition Regulation, US * Federal Aviation Regulations, US * Florida Administrative Register, US Military and paramilitary * Rebel Armed Forces (Spanish: '), a defunct guerilla organization ...

"), was composed of four parties:

Electoral results

Italian Parliament

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Left The Rainbow 2007 establishments in Italy 2008 disestablishments in Italy Communist organisations in Italy Defunct political party alliances in Italy History of the Communist Refoundation Party Left-wing politics in Italy Political parties disestablished in 2008 Political parties established in 2007