Fabio Mussi died last night at Sant’Eugenio Hospital in Rome. The news was announced by Avs. The former Minister for Research in the second Prodi government, a long-standing figure on the left, was currently a leading member of Sinistra Italiana Avs. Mussi was born in Piombino, in the province of Livorno, on 22 January 1948. At a very young age, he joined the Central Committee of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), for which he later served as a Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2008 (PDS, DS). He served as leader of the PDS-Ulivo parliamentary group in 1996 and then as Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies in 2001. He was deputy editor of Rinascita and later co-editor of L’Unità. The former minister never joined the PD, and, during those years, he played a part in the formation first of SEL and then of Sinistra Italiana. In the coming hours – according to AVS – the family will release details so that people can pay their last respects.