Mario Capanna is an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 politician and writer.

Biography

Born in Città di Castello

Città di Castello

Città di Castello is a city and comune in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of the Umbria region of Italy. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain of the river Tiber. The city is north of Perugia and south of Cesena on the S3bis. It is connected to the A1...

, he studied Philosophy at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore is a privately-owned Catholic university founded in 1921 by Agostino Gemelli. Its main campus is located in Milan, Italy with satellite campuses in Brescia, Piacenza, Cremona, Rome, and Campobasso...

 in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, and was the leader of the Italian students' movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1969 he was attacked by exponents of the neo-Fascist

Neo-Fascism

Neo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. The term neo-fascist may apply to groups that express a specific admiration for Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism or any other fascist leader/state...

 Movimento Sociale Italiano.

In 1975 he entered politics, adhering to the Proletarian Unity Party (PdUP), which later merged with Proletarian Democracy

Proletarian Democracy

Proletarian Democracy was a political party in Italy.-1970s:DP was founded in 1975 as a joint electoral front of the Proletarian Unity Party , Workers Vanguard and the Workers Movement for Socialism...

 (DP). Capanna was charismatic leader of the latter until June 27, 1987, when he resigned, succeeded by Giovanni Russo Spena.

Capanna had been elected for the DP to the Italian Chamber of Deputies

Italian Chamber of Deputies

The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...

 (1983–1987), and to the European Parliament

European Parliament

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

 (1979).

In 1989 he broke away from the DP to form the Rainbow Greens

Rainbow Greens

Rainbow Greens was a green Italian political party.It was founded in 1989 by splinters of Proletarian Democracy and some leading Radicals .It took part in the 1989 European Parliament elections,...

.

Capanna is currently President of the Committee for Genetical Rights, an independent association devoted to information on Biotechnology

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...

.

Selected works

• Formidabili quegli anni (1988)
• Arafat
  Yasser Arafat
  Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
  
  (1989)
• Speranze (1994)
• Il fiume della prepotenza (1996)
• Lettera a mio figlio sul '68 (1998)
• L'Italia viva (2000)
• Verrò da te (2003)