Enrico Berlinguer, Italian politician (born 1922)

Enrico Berlinguer was an Italian politician and statesman who was the most popular leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). He led the PCI as the national secretary from 1972 until his death during a tense period of Italian history, which was marked by the Years of Lead and social conflicts, such as the Hot Autumn of 1969–1970. Berlinguer was born into an upper-class family; his father was a socialist who became a deputy and later senator. After leading the PCI's youth wing in his hometown, he led the Italian Communist Youth Federation (FGCI) at the national level from 1949 to 1956. In 1968, he was elected to Italy's Chamber of Deputies, and he became the leader of the PCI in 1972; he remained a deputy until his death in 1984. Under his leadership, the number of votes for the PCI peaked. The PCI's results in 1976 remain the highest for any Italian left-wing or centre-left party both in terms of votes and vote share, and the party's results in 1984, just after his death, remain the best result for an Italian left-wing party in European elections, and were toppled, in terms of vote share in a lower-turnout election, in the 2014 European Parliament election in Italy.