ABSTRACT: In an interview with "Panorama", after having accepted to run for Parliament in the lists of the Radical Party, asked whether he feels "used", Sciascia replies: "I can assure you that no will ever succeed in using me". He hopes to be part of the committee of inquiry on the Moro (1) case. He says he doesn't agree with Pannella on a variety of issues, but he believes Rodotà is wrong when he accuses Pannella of being an anti-communist. He criticizes the Communist party and the Socialist Party.

(RADICAL NEWS, 3 May 1979)

Rome, 3 May '79 - R.N. - Leonardo Sciascia gave an interview to the weekly magazine "Panorama". "Radical News" republished the unabridged text.

Question: "Your name will represent a major attraction for the electors: don't you think you have been invited to run with the Radical Party just for this reason? Aren't you afraid of being used?"

Answer: "I cannot imagine a reader who turns into an elector. In any case, my name might obviously attract some people, but it won't draw special attention. I'm saying this not to be modest, but by experience and belief. As to the fact of using me, let me assure you that no one will ever succeed in that.

Q: "What do you hope to do in the Italian parliament if you are elected?

A: "If Parliament is like the local council of Palermo, little or nothing. I would like to be part of the committee of inquiry on the Moro case: I believe I could give some contribution".

Q: "What do you like about the Radical Party?"

A: "The fact that it has no activity in terms of a bureaucratic party, but that it does in terms of passion. It is a party of independents, and therefore I think there is more freedom there than elsewhere. On the other hand, I have been a radical for a long time, and my choice is simply a continuation".

Q: "How do you judge Pannella, his recent interventions on the Resistance (2), his slightly anti-socialist stance in favour of combining the European and the national elections?"

A: "I don't agree with Pannella on a variety of issues. However, I consider it a base speculation to accuse him of offending the Resistance. As far as the elections are concerned, I think the European ones should have been held before the national ones, and I opposed the hypothesis of combining the two. I ignore Pannella's position on the subject. If his position reflected the decisions that were later taken, then I think he made a mistake, and he damaged himself in the process".

Q: "Stefano Rodotà, the jurist and political commentator who has always belonged to the radical-socialist area, is not running with the Radical Party because, in his words, the radicals have made the controversy and the conflict with the communists into one of the first points of their platform..."

A: "I believe this is oversimplifying things. In any case, I think it is fair to oppose part of the PCI, not the PCI as a whole".

Q: "What let you down in the communists? And what in the socialists?"

A: "I wrote 'Il Contesto' in 1972, and then I worked as a local councillor in Palermo, elected in the lists of the PCI, for 18 months. Perhaps, as a candidate in the communist lists, I deceived myself in some ways. But the deception was more of a confirmation than a laceration. As to the PSI, there is no deception: I simply think the socialists made a very serious mistake when they dropped the Moro case".

Q: "What type of government would you like after the elections?"

A: "A government capable of coming to terms with a solid, reasonable and intelligent opposition, and of being very strict with regard to any violation of the law and of the Constitution".

Translator's notes

(1) MORO ALDO. (Maglie 1916 - Rome 1978). Italian politician. Secretary of the Christian Democratic Party (1959-65), mastermind of the Centre-Left policy. Several times minister as of 1956, Prime Minister (1963-68, 1974-76) president of the Christian Democratic Party as of 1956, he favoured the participation of the Communist Party (PCI) in the government, outlining the hypothesis of a so-called "third stage" (after those of "centrism" and "centre-left") of the political system. He was kidnapped by the Red Brigades on 16 March 1978 in Rome and found dead on 9 May of the same year.

(2) RESISTANCE. Name which designates the popular, political and military struggle which developed in the regions of Europe occupied by the German Nazis during World War II.