Rome founding conference of the European Left Party

On May 8-9, 2004, the founding conference of the European Left Party was held in Rome. The slogan of the conference originated from the slogan of the May 1968 Paris storm: "This is only the beginning." ***15 left-wing parties have become the first official members of the European Left Party. They are: German Democratic Socialist Party, Estonian Social Democratic Labor Party, French Communist Party, Greek Left Movement and Ecological Union, Italian Reconstruction** Communist Party of Austria, Communist Party of Austria, Socialist Union of Romania, Communist Party of Reconstruction of San Marino, Swiss Labor Party, Communist Party of Slovakia, Communist Party of Spain, United Left of Spain, Catalonia The United Left Party, the Czech Democratic Socialist Party, and the Hungarian Workers' Party; there are three other left-wing parties that maintain observer status: the Italian Communist Party, the Progressive Party of the Working People of Cyprus, and the Luxembourg Left Party. As of the end of November 2004, three political parties, including the Communist Party of the Czech Republic and Moravia, the Portuguese Left Group, and the Communist Party of Slovakia, had also become observer parties. The European Left Party has more than 500,000 members. Fausto Bertinotti, general secretary of the Italian Communist Party of Reconstruction, was elected as the party's first president. The congress also adopted the program and charter of the European Left Party and decided to locate the party's headquarters in Brussels. The first congress of the party will be held in Barcelona on October 8-9, 2005.