Since the end of the Second World War, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) featured a constant electoral growth while developing a national union strategy intended to recreate the 1945 alliance among communists, socialists and catholics. However, after 1979 the PCI was unable to adapt itself to a different national and international context and had to face a considerable electoral decline. This paper argues that the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), instead of coping with PCI's heritage and the causes of its crisis, chose to pursue a re-foundation, based on repression.
Keywords: Italian Communist Party (PCI); National solidarity; Historic compromise; Italian Second Republic; Italian Democratic Party of the Left (PDS).