Enrico Berlinguer (Italian: [enˈriːko berliŋˈɡwɛr] ; 25 May 1922 – 11 June 1984) 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.
During his leadership, Berlinguer distanced the party from the influence of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and pursued a moderate line, repositioning the party within Italian politics and advocating accommodation and national unity. This strategy came to be termed Eurocommunism, and he was seen as its main spokesperson. It came to be adopted by Western Europe's other significant like-minded parties, such as the Communist Party of Spain and later the French Communist Party; its significance as a political force was cemented by a 1977 meeting in Madrid between Berlinguer, Georges Marchais, and Santiago Carrillo. Berlinguer described his alternative model of socialism, distinct from both the Soviet bloc and the capitalism practised by the Western bloc during the Cold War, as terza via (third way, with no relation to the centrist liberal Third Way movement and the politics practised by subsequent prime ministers Romano Prodi and Matteo Renzi), or terza fase (third phase), after the legacy of the Second International and the Comintern had been exhausted.
Under Berlinguer, the PCI reached the height of its success, winning significant victories in the regional and local elections in 1975, and 34% of the vote in the 1976 Italian general election, its highest share of the vote and number of seats. With these gains, he negotiated the Historic Compromise with the DC, lending support to their government in exchange for consultation on policy decisions, as well as social reforms. He took a firm stand against terrorism after the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, and used the PCI's influence to steer Italian labour unions towards moderating wage demands to cope with the country's severe inflation rate after the 1973 oil crisis. These stands were not reciprocated with sufficient concessions from Giulio Andreotti's government, leading the PCI to leave the coalition in 1979. The combination of austerity advocacy, hard line against the Red Brigades, and attempts at an accommodation with the DC affected the PCI's vote at the 1979 Italian general election and the compromise was ultimately ended in 1980. The PCI remained in national opposition for the rest of Berlinguer's tenure, retaining a solid core of support at the 1983 Italian general election; its main strength from that point would remain at the regional and local level. Also a member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982, the PCI became the largest party for the first and only time in the 1984 European Parliament election in Italy, which was held a week after his premature death.
One of the most important figures of the First Italian Republic, Berlinguer had an austere and modest but charismatic personality, and despite the difficulties that confronted the PCI during the Historic Compromise, he remained a popular politician, respected for his principles, conviction, and bold stands. He characterised the PCI as an honest party in Italy's corruption-ravaged politics, an image that preserved the party's reputation during the Mani pulite corruption scandals in the 1990s. He was characterised by Patrick McCarthy as "the last great communist leader in Western Europe", and remains identified with the causes of Eurocommunism, opposition to Soviet repression in Eastern Europe, and democratic change in Italy.
The son of Mario Berlinguer and Maria "Mariuccia" Loriga, Enrico Berlinguer was born in Sassari on 25 May 1922, five months before the March on Rome orchestrated by Benito Mussolini and Italian fascists, to a noble Sardinian family in a notable cultural context, with family ties and political contacts that would heavily influence his life and career. On 29 March 1777, the family had obtained from Vittorio Amedeo III, the then King of Sardinia, the concession to Giovanni and Angelo Ignazio of the noble titles of Cavaliere and Nobile with the honorific of Don and Donna; it was also registered in the Stamenti nobiliari della Sardegna, Sardinia's Italian nobility register, and was linked by a dense network of relatives to other families of the Sardinian aristocracy and bourgeoisie.
Berlinguer's father was a socialist and anti-fascist; as many of his ancestors, he belonged to the Italian Freemasonry and was Great Master (33rd Scottish Rite Mason) of the regular lodge of Sassari. His cousin, Luigi Berlinguer, followed this tradition of left-wing members of Freemasonry. Another cousin of his was Sergio Berlinguer, who was a diplomat. His brother, Giovanni Berlinguer, was a medician and politician who died in 2015. His surname is of Catalan language origin, a reminder of the period when Sardinia was part of the dominions of the Crown of Aragon. He was a second cousin of Francesco Cossiga, who was a leader of Christian Democracy (DC) and later became president of Italy, and both were relatives of Antonio Segni, another DC leader and president of Italy.
Giovanni Loriga and Cossiga's maternal grandfather, Antonio Zanfarino, were half-brothers on their mother side; Loriga was Berlinguer's maternal grandfather. His paternal grandfather, Enrico Berlinguer Sr., was a co-founder of the Sardinian newspaper La Nuova Sardegna and a personal friend of Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini, whom he had helped in his attempts, through his parliamentary work, to improve the sad conditions on the island. Berlinguer's grandmother, Giuseppina Satta Branca, had a brother, Pietro Satta Branca, who was an Italian Republican Party (PRI) member and progressive mayor of Sassari during an era marked by Giovanni Giolitti's rule; Berlinguer Sr. also took part in Satta Branca's administration. Pietro Sanna, one of Berlinguer's childhood friends, recalled: "The Berlinguers, we called them Piringhieri because for us ordinary people a difficult name like theirs was difficult to pronounce. Giovanni, very open and carefree, played boccette, carambola, and sometimes cards, Enrico instead preferred to read."
About his adolescence, Berlinguer recalled the feeling of rebellion that was in him. He was against everything: the state, religion, clichés, and social customs. Politically, he felt anarchist when in the library of one of his uncles, a humanitarian socialist, he found a book of Mikhail Bakunin. As a member of the bourgeoisie, he was attracted to the world of the workers and craftsmen, who were followers of Amadeo Bordiga and kept their ideals even under Fascist Italy. He said: "They exerted a strong attraction on me ... there was, in their stories, a lot of suggestion." When meeting Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I), Berlinguer revoked the importance of Sardians to the PCd'I, citing Antonio Gramsci, Velio Spano, and Togliatti, the latter having moved to the Sardianian island.
In 1937, Berlinguer had his first contacts with Sardinian anti-fascists and formally entered the renamed Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1943, soon becoming the secretary of the Sassari section. The following year, a riot exploded in the town, and he was involved in the disorders and arrested but was discharged after three months of prison. Immediately after his detention ended, his father brought him to Salerno, the town in which the House of Savoy, Italy's royal family, and the government had taken refuge after the armistice of Cassibile between Italy and the Allies of World War II. In Salerno, his father introduced him to Togliatti, the most important leader of the PCI. Togliatti sent Berlinguer back to Sardinia to prepare for his political career; he also met Benedetto Croce, and said that for a period he was a follower of his.