first promotor of a motion for the alliance with Romano Prodi. That decision broke with the traditional attitude of the Italian Communist party to be an opposition movement. Bertinotti declared himself willing to see Prodi chosen without primary elections as the left's joint candidate for the post of prime minister, but when Prodi accepted that primary elections would be necessary, he proposed himself as a candidate. The elections were held on 16 October 2005 and apart from Bertinotti and Prodi, Antonio Di Pietro, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, Clemente Mastella, Ivan Scalfarotto and Simona Panzino were the candidates. Prodi won with an absolute majority, but Bertinotti ranked second with 16% of preferences. Bertinotti was elected member of the European Parliament in 2004 on the Rifondazione Comunista list, in which he was candidate in all five electoral districts, receiving some 380,000 votes in all Italy. He served as member of the European Left group in the parliament, sitting on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. He was a substitute for the Committee on Legal Affairs and a member of the Delegation to the EU-Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Joint Parliamentary Committee. After the general election held on 9 and 10 April 2006, which saw a narrow victory of The Union, Fausto Bertinotti was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies, and thus left the party leadership, being replaced on 7 May by Franco Giordano. After losing his deputy seat in the 2008 general election he announced his intention of renouncing to any future leadership positions. In December 2019 Bertinotti begun a collaboration with the Italian online journal Il Riformista. For the after the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Bertinotti suggested the Italian government to adopt a new Keynesianism against the economic recession and a higher level of public expenditure to reabsorb mass disoccupation after the private sectors' collective dismissals. Miscellaneous Bertinotti is an icon known to the Italian public for his "aristocratic" public image, mainly conveyed by his French R, his good manners and his elegant sweaters. His fascination with expensive cashmere is also part of his idiosyncrasy. This bourgeois look has often been seen as being in ironic contrast with his far left politics. Works Bertinotti has written a number of political, ideological and trade-union related works: La Camera dei lavori. Ediesse, Roma, 1987 La democrazia autoritaria. Datanews, Roma, 1991 Tutti i colori del rosso (edited by Lorenzo Scheggi Merlini). Sperling &