ABSTRACT: After the crisis of Maastricht, the European federalism is agonizing. There are places, such as Yugoslavia, where the very word "federalism" is "covered with shame and sarcasm". "The only federalist project that remains is the radical one". The party that urged the access of Yugoslavia into the EEC assumes its responsibilities to keep within Europe what "remains or originates" from the dismemberment of the Balkans. Today it is necessary to hoist the flag of Martin Luther King, "I have a dream", and place it where the crisis of "civil rights" is "most virulent": in the Balkans, therefore. Otherwise, there is the risk that the federalism that failed in Sarajevo could produce the secessionism of the Northern League.

(1994 - IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, 23 November 1993)

The Europe of Maastricht is agonizing. The recent Brussels summit has done nothing more than propose a tardy and inadequate remedy. The federalism of Spinelli (2) and Rossi (3) is defeated in 1993, the year in which Europe was to be launched. The very word, dignified by the political culture of Hamilton, Jefferson and Jay, is now covered with shame and sarcasm, or at best sounds ambiguous. In Eastern Europe, from the former U.S.S.R. to the former Yugoslavia, the word "federalism" brings to the mind oppression and dictatorship; in Italy, the Northern League seems to mistake "federation", which means union, and "separation" which expresses the exact contrary.

The only remaining federalist project is the radical one, as usual stubborn and farseeing. When Yugoslavia had not yet been dissolved in its thousands of peoples, ethnic groups and religions, Pannella (4) had urged the access of Yugoslavia into the EEC: if taken in time, the decision would have injected into that country - which was already agonizing - the additional resources that would perhaps have been sufficient to avert the crisis. Even today the party is doing all it can to urge the Community Europe, the EEC, to assume its responsibilities, to keep within Europe what remains or originates from the dismemberment of Yugoslavia and the Balkans. The "exit" of these countries could have negative and incalculable consequences.

"I have a dream", was Martin Luther King's motto, and the motto of the civil rights movements. In the difficult political and civil moment we are passing through, that motto must again be raised and placed where the crisis of civil rights, of the rights of man, is most virulent: in Yugoslavia and in the Balkans, therefore.

Should it spread, it would ultimately invade us all. Even in Italy, perhaps unconsciously, perhaps beyond the intentions; the federalism that has failed in Sarajevo could originate an odd offspring: "secessionism" in Italy.

Translator's notes

(1) BANDINELLI ANGIOLO. (Chianciano 1927). Writer. Former member of the Partito d'Azione; secretary of the Radical Party in 1969, 1971 and 1972; he was also treasurer of the party for five years. In 1979 local councillor in Rome, deputy in the ninth legislature. For many years, editor of several radical publications ("La Prova Radicale", "Notizie Radicali", etc), author of essays and articles relative to the history and the theory of the party, many of which are contained in the book "Il radicale impunito". Writes for newspapers and magazines and for Radio Radicale with notes and editorials.

(2) SPINELLI ALTIERO. ( Rome 1907 - 1982). Italian politician. During fascism, from 1929 to 1942, he was imprisoned as leader of the Italian Communist Youth. In 1942 co-author, with Ernesto Rossi, of the "Manifesto of Ventotene", which states that only a federal Europe can remove the return of fratricide wars in the European continent and give it back an international role. At the end of the war he founded, with Rossi, Eugenio Colorni and others, the European federalist Movement. After the crisis of the European Defence Community (1956), he became member of the European Commission, and followed the evolution of the Community structures. In 1979 he was elected member of the European Parliament on the ticket of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), becoming the directive mind in the realization of the draft treaty adopted by that parliament in 1984 and known as the "Spinelli Project".

(3) ROSSI ERNESTO. (Caserta 1897 - Rome 1967). Italian journalist and politician. Leader of "Giustizia e Libertà", in 1930 he was arrested by the fascist regime and remained in prison or exiled until the end of the war. Author, together with Spinelli, of the "Manifesto di Ventotene", and leader of the European Federalist Movement and of the battle for a united Europe. Among the founders of the Radical Party. Essayist and journalist, from "Il Mondo" he promoted vehement campaigns against clerical interference in the political life, against economic trusts, industrial and agrarian protectionism, private and public concentrations of power, etc. His articles were collected in famous books ("I padroni del vapore", etc). After the dissolution of the Radical Party in 1962, and the consequent split from the editor of "Il Mondo", M.Pannunzio, he founded "L'Astrolabio", whence he continued his polemics. In his last years he joined the "new" radical party, with which in 1967 he launched the "Anticlerical Year".

(4) PANNELLA MARCO. Pannella Giacinto, known as Marco. (Teramo 1930). Currently President of the Radical Party's Federal Council, which he is one of the founders of. At twenty national university representative of the Liberal Party, at twenty-two President of the UGI, the union of lay university students, at twenty-three President of the UNURI, national union of Italian university students. At twenty-four he advocates, in the context of the students' movement and of the Liberal party, the foundation of the new radical party, which arises in 1954 following the confluence of prestigious intellectuals and minor democratic political groups. He is active in the party, except for a period (1960-1963) in which he is correspondent for "Il Giorno" in Paris, where he established contacts with the Algerian resistance. Back in Italy, he commits himself to the reconstruction of the radical Party, dissolved by its leadership following the advent of the centre-left. Under his indisputable leadership, the party succeeds in

promoting (and winning) relevant civil rights battles, working for the introduction of divorce, conscientious objection, important reforms of family law, etc, in Italy. He struggles for the abrogation of the Concordat between Church and State. Arrested in Sofia in 1968 as he is demonstrating in defence of Czechoslovakia, which has been invaded by Stalin. He opens the party to the newly-born homosexual organizations (FUORI), promotes the formation of the first environmentalist groups. The new radical party organizes difficult campaigns, proposing several referendums (about twenty throughout the years) for the moralization of the country and of politics, against public funds to the parties, against nuclear plants, etc., but in particular for a deep renewal of the administration of justice. Because of these battles, all carried out with strictly nonviolent methods according to the Gandhian model - but Pannella's Gandhi is neither a mystic nor an ideologue; rather, an intransigent and yet flexible politician - h

e has been through trials which he has for the most part won. As of 1976, year in which he first runs for Parliament, he is always elected at the Chamber of Deputies, twice at the Senate, twice at the European Parliament. Several times candidates and local councillor in Rome, Naples, Trieste, Catania, where he carried out exemplary and demonstrative campaigns and initiatives. Whenever necessary, he has resorted to the weapon of the hunger strike, not only in Italy but also in Europe, in particular during the major campaign against world hunger, for which he mobilized one hundred Nobel laureates and preeminent personalities in the fields of science and culture in order to obtain a radical change in the management of the funds allotted to developing countries. On 30 September 1981 he obtains at the European parliament the passage of a resolution in this sense, and after it several other similar laws in the Italian and Belgian Parliament. In January 1987 he runs for President of the European Parliament, obtaini

ng 61 votes. Currently, as the radical party has pledged to no longer compete with its own lists in national elections, he is striving for the creation of a "transnational" cross-party, in view of a federal development of the United States of Europe and with the objective of promoting civil rights throughout the world.