Italian Communism After the Fall

The Berlin Wall falls down, and the electoral fortunes of the Italian Communist party (PCI) come tumbling after. The party plummeted by 6.2 percent in regional elections in May. The drop was massive, from a regional average of 30.2 percent in 1985 to 24 percent. In the northern industrial zones of Lombardy and Piedmont, the Communists lost one-third of their 1985 electorate; in the “red fortress” of Emilia Romagna, the party slid by 10.4 percent.

Italians aren’t cas...