ON TUESDAY evening, the Rifondazione Communista leader, Mr Fausto Bertinotti, dropped into Rome's Foreign Press Club to take tea, shaking hands and introducing himself with unfailing politeness and grace.
Dressed in a handsome corduroy suit, Mr Bertinotti lived up to his reputation for elegant good manners. Recently, the editors of Italy's leading fashion magazines voted him the country's best dressed politician, while his soft spoken, highly articulate Italian, complete with a slightly aristocratic sounding soft "r", have made him a much sought after guest on TV chat programmes.
At first glance Mr Bertinotti (56) is an unlikely candidate to lead the ultra left Rifondazione, which picked up 35 seats in the lower house and 8.6 per cent of the vote at last weekend's elections. The party may now have a decisive say in the life expectations of the new centre left government of Prof Romano Prodi.
Rather than sermonising about the downfall of capitalism, Mr Bertinotti consistently talks about the loss of wage and purchase power by his voters. Rather than quote Marx, he argues that his party will tight for economic strategies based on salary protection rather than company profit.
Such talk, however, is only normal for a man who, until taking over the party two years ago, had been a trade union activist for almost all his working life.
His party was formed as a secessionist movement from the Italian Communist Party (PCI) at a historic Rimini conference in 1991. When the PCI under Mr Achille Occhetto opted to go the way of social democracy, renounce communism and call itself the Party of the Democratic Left (PDS), a small group of hardliners said No and formed Rifondazione Communista (Communist Refoundation).
At that time, Rifondazione represented only 8 per cent of the party and seemed doomed to disappear. But it held on in the 1992 election, taking 5.6 per cent of the vote, proving it had a loyal following among state employees, trade unionists and left wing sympathisers. Mr Amedeo D'Aosta, a member of Italy's royal lineage, this week admitted he had voted for Rifondazione.
Under Mr Bertinotti, Rifondazione did even better two years later in the election which swept media tycoon Mr Silvio Berlusconi into power.
Those who wonder if Mr Bertinotti will pull the rug on Dr Prodi, especially when it comes to the 1997 budget, should remember that despite an obvious loathing for Mr Lamberto Dini's economics, Mr Bertinotti never played into the hands of Mr Berlusconi and the extreme right by voting Mr Dini out of office.
It could be that the elegant Mr Bertinotti will leave his hammer and sickle where they currently are, as symbols on the party's logo.