Fabio Mussi

Fabio Mussi (born 22 January 1948) is an Italian politician, formerly Minister of University and Research in the Prodi II Cabinet. A former member of Italian Communist Party and then Democrats of the Left, he became a lead founding member of the Democratic Left. Currently Mussi is a member of Left Ecology Freedom, which the Democratic Left merged into in 2010.

Career

Born in Piombino, Tuscany, he joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1966, being initially active at university level whilst studying at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. In 1973, he graduated in Philosophy at the University of Pisa, (he never graduated at Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa) and soon joined its administrative staff. He also became a member of the PCI Central Committee in 1979, charged with cultural and propaganda tasks and an editor's position at Rinascita. He was regional secretary of the party in Calabria (1980–1984), and after that a member of the PCI National Directory. From 1986, he was co-editor of L'Unità.

Favorable to the turn towards democratic socialism in the PCI, he joined the Democratic Party of the Left, direct successor of the PCI, which itself became Democrats of the Left in 1998, also serving in the Italian Parliament from 1992 to 2008. Confirmed as deputy for his fourth time at the 2006 elections, Mussi then served as senior vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies and Minister for the University and Research in the Italian government.

During the 2007 Democrats of the Left convention, he headed the left-wing minority (the so-called correntone), which was opposed the creation of the Democratic Party. During the convention he announced his opposition to join the Democratic Party once it was founded, and instead created a party called Democratic Left, of which he was the national coordinator. Mussi left the leadership of his party following the party's defeat in the 2008 general election, as part of The Left - The Rainbow alliance, being replaced by Claudio Fava.