Eleonora Forenza | |
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 Official portrait, 2014 | |
| Member of the European Parliament forSouthern Italy | |
| In office 1 July 2014 – 1 July 2019 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1976-11-10)10 November 1976 (age 49) Bari, Italy |
| Political party |
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| Alma mater | |
| Committees | VIII legislature
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| Website | eleonoraforenza.it[dead link] |
Eleonora Forenza (born 10 November 1976) is an Italian politician who served as anMEP in the8th European parliament forSouthern Italy.
She's the current spokesperson for culture and communications in theCommunist Refoundation Party and also a member of the collectiveFemministe Nove and the board of the International Gramsci Society of Italy.[citation needed]
Eleonora Forenza was born and raised inBari. In 2002 she graduated in Literature from theUniversity of Bari, where she also got herPhD in 2006 onItalian Studies with a thesis on the literary criticGiacomo Debenedetti. In 2016 she obtained a PhD in History of Women and Gender Identities from theUniversity of Naples "L'Orientale" with a thesis onfeminism and theItalian Communist Party. She was a fixed-term researcher inhistory of political thought at theUniversity of Roma Tre.[1]
Forenza has been active in student and protest movements since the mid-1990s. As a precarious researcher, she joined mobilizations against the university reform by theBerlusconi IV government. In 1996, she joined theCommunist Refoundation Party (PRC), remaining an active member.
She participated in the2001 anti-G8 protests inGenoa,European and World Social Forums, peace and feminist movements, theZapatista caravan, and campaigns for a basic income. After her time with thePRC’s youth wing, in 2006 she joined the party’s national political committee and later the leadership. She contributed toLiberazione and the PRC Women’s Forum.
Following theChianciano Congress, she joined the PRC national secretariat, leading the "Culture and Knowledge" area. She supported the motion “Rifondazione in movimento” and opposed dissolving the party. At the Naples Congress, she proposed amendments against theFederation of the Left and opposed alliances with theDemocratic Party (PD) underPier Luigi Bersani.
In the2013 general elections, she ran withCivil Revolution but was not elected due to the list failing to reach the 4% threshold. After the PRC joinedThe Other Europe with Tsipras, she ran in the2014 European elections from theSouthern Italy constituency. The list surpassed 4%, and with 22,685 votes, she was elected afterBarbara Spinelli opted for another constituency.
She joined theEuropean Parliament, working inThe left group on the Committees for International Trade, Women's Rights, and Environment. In 2017, she was nominated forPresident of the European Parliament but lost toAntonio Tajani.
After the PRC’s 2017 Congress, she became a leader of the “Revolution and Refoundation” document, promoting unity in joining alliances with traditional parties.[2] She criticized the "Brancaccio project" for lacking clarity on opposing the PD andPES, and left its first assembly in solidarity withViola Carofalo, who had been denied the floor.[3]
In 2018, she ran for theChamber of Deputies withPower to the People! but was not elected due to the list's 3% shortfall. The PRC later withdrew from the project.[4]
In September 2018, she was attacked inBari by members of theneo-fascist organisation,CasaPound during a protest opposing the visit ofMatteo Salvini, a far-right figure and the thenMinister of Interior. Her assistant suffered a serious head injury during the assault.[5][6] Later in June 2025, 17 member of Casapound were convicted for the assault.[7]
In the 2019 European elections, she ran as lead candidate forLa Sinistra in the South, receiving 24,443 votes, but was not elected due to the list failing to meet the threshold.[8]
In the2022 general elections, she ran from a constituency inLazio forUnione Popolare but was not elected due to the list not reaching the threshold.
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