Il primo comunista presidente della Camera: Pietro Ingrao tra "crisi della democrazia" e "centralità del Parlamento" (1976-1979)

The election of the communist Pietro Ingrao to the presidence of the Camera dei deputati is usually considered as a turning point in Italian political history, because it marked the start of the season of the «compromesso storico» between Democrazia Cristiana and Partito Comunista Italiano. At the same time, the election of Ingrao was also full of meaning with respect to the evolutionary dynamics of Italian parliamentary institutions. Both within the PCI and beyond the borders of the party, Ingrao had for years been one of the leaders and facilitators of the debate on the need to relaunch the role of Parliament, within the more general context of crisis in Italian representative democracy, affirming its "centrality". The paper analyses the main guidelines of Ingrao presidency, looking at the concrete acts he performed as president with the general desire to realise an innovative project of renewal of the parliamentary institution. In this way, Pietro Ingrao certainly accelerated some evolutionary trends already underway, and also promoted some important transformations that would find a definitive consecration in the following years.