Marco Rizzo

Marco Rizzo (born 12 October 1959 in Turin) is an Italian politician, who serves as leader of Sovereign Popular Democracy (DSP) since 2023. From 2009 to 2023, Rizzo also served as general secretary of the Communist Party (PC).

Biography

A graduate in political science in 1985, he was a lecturer in vocational guidance (1985–1994).

From 1986 to 1991, he was a member of the Turin Province party executive of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), and joined the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) in 1991, serving as its representative to the Council of the Turin Province until 1995. Between 1994 and 2004, he served in the Chamber of Deputies of Italy. From 1995 to 1998, he was coordinator of the National Secretariat of the PRC, then left to become a founding member and Italian Parliament group leader of the Party of Italian Communists (until 2004).

In July 2009, after his expulsion from the Party of Italian Communists (having supported the IdV's candidate Gianni Vattimo in the 2009 European election), he founded a new party called Communists – Popular Left (then renamed Communist Party). Marco Rizzo was a Member of the European Parliament for the North-West with the Party of Italian Communists, Member of the Bureau of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left and vice-chair of the European Parliament's Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection.

Political positions

Rizzo said that he declines his being Marxist in "popular sovereignism", and that would go to Europe (in the European Parliament) "with Sahra Wagenknecht, with Robert Fico [...], also with Orban".

Rizzo has often been critical of the LGBTQIA+ community and inclusivity, complaining about the excessive presence of gay and black characters in films and advertising.