Saddam Hussein in 1957 at the age of 20 to join the revolutionary pan-Arab Ba'ath Party, of which his uncle was a supporter. During this time, Saddam apparently supported himself as a secondary school teacher. Revolutionary sentiment was characteristic of the era in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. In Iraq progressives and socialists assailed traditional political elites (colonial era bureaucrats and landowners, wealthy merchants and tribal chiefs, and monarchists). Moreover, the pan-Arab nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt profoundly influenced young Ba'athists like Saddam. The rise of Nasser foreshadowed a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s
Reactions to the execution of Saddam Hussein European leaders has been Romano Prodi, the Prime Minister of Italy, who announced that his government would be campaigning at the UN for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty. A number of Italian political figures and parties have expressed disgust at the execution, and Prodi plans to use Italy's recent admission as a temporary member of the UN Security Council to campaign the General Assembly to adopt a moratorium. In Turkey, the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party, Deniz Baykal, expressed sorrow over the execution of Saddam Hussein, saying, "It is impossible to understand the rejoicing of