Italy's once mighty communist party flickers out http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL1782103820080417?sp=true
Thu Apr 17, 2008
By Robin Pomeroy
ROME (Reuters) - They survived the repression of Benito Mussolini's fascist dictatorship, the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. But Italy's communists, once the most influential leftist force in western Europe, are in disarray after a disastrous election that means the hammer and sickle will be unrepresented in parliament for the first time since World War Two. http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL1782103820080417?sp=true