ABSTRACT: Leonardo Sciascia (the prominent Italian writer, ed.), already elected to the Palermo City Council in the Communist Party lists, decides to become a candidate in the Radical Party lists. There is a scandal in the Communist intellectual spheres for whom the Radicals are either "qualunquisti" (1) or supporters of the terrorists and the "Autonomi" (2). Sciascia replies to all of this in the brief interview.

(L'Espresso, May 4, 1979

Question - How and when did your decision to become a candidate

on the Radical Party lists ripen?

Answer - Ripen is not exactly the word: it happened in the course of an hour and I wouldn't be able to say precisely how. It was more of a passionate decision, if not downright emotional, rather than reasoned. Which does not mean it wasn't rational. Perhaps what triggered it off in me was that all the reasons that advised me against refusing where so just, so perfect, so certain that I suddenly felt ashamed of them.

At a certain point I said to Pannella: It's like the God of Pascal says: "You wouldn't seek me if you hadn't already found me:" I wouldn't be so undecided if I hadn't already decided.

Q. These events of the last weeks - the BR (Red Brigades, ed.), the Negri case - did they in some way influence your decision?

A. I wouldn't know, perhaps they did.

Q. From the Palermo City Council to, very probably, the European one in Strasbourg - how do you see this transition.

A. There will be no transition. I mean in the sense of any change. It cannot be anything but a continuation.

Q. Aren't you afraid of being accused of "qualunquismo" (an attitude of diffidence towards parties and the party system, ed.)?

A. I have never feared that.

Q. What do you think of Montanelli's (3) editorial on Pannella?

A. I haven't read Montanelli's article. Sundays I am generally in the country and I don't see the newspapers. They tell me he practically invited people to vote Radical. I have had personal proof of Montanelli's honesty in regard to my book on the Moro (4) affair. Before reading it he indicated a certain aversion to it; afterwards he read it and had the courage to recant in front of his readers. So his agreement with the Radicals doesn't make in the least uneasy.

Q. What do you like most or least about Pannella?

A. There are many things about Pannella that I don't like. For example - I also wrote that in L'Espresso - his hunger strikes. But I like his non-politician way of making politics. Its the best way of making politics political.

Q. There are those who say that your candidacy will get the Radicals votes from the "Autonomi" (a violence-provoking group, ed.). What do you think about that?

A. I would like to know who says so. Perhaps the same ones who last year told Yevtushenko (5) that I am a terribly reactionary writer. However: I have been publishing books ever since 1950 and the first one was a book of little fables about dictatorship. They are all there for those who know how to read: a whole discourse against intolerance, violence, the death penalty. If my presence were to bring the Radicals votes from the "Autonomi" it would be a kind of conversion of the "un-named" - with reference to Manzoni (6). And I could not be other than pleased about it.

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(1) An Italian political movement arising in the first years after World War II that was disputatious and suspicious of all parties and ideologies, ed.

(2) Violence provoking groups

(3) Indro Montanelli, managing editor of the newspaper Il Giorno.

(4) The Assassination of DC leader Aldo Moro

(5) The Russian poet

(6) Alessandro Manzoni: Italian writer (1785 - 1873) in whose famous historical novel "I promessi sposi" (The Betrothed) there appears a figure known as "l'innominato" or "the un-named person" - un-nameable because of his social position - who at a certain moment receives enlightenment and repents of his evil actions.