by Mario Stanganelli

ABSTRACT: On the eve of the Radical Party's 32nd Congress, Marco Pannella outlines the objectives of the "new party": "Existing and operating as the first international party, to replace the obsolete party Internationals. The necessity for a European government. The value of a nonviolent choice: the former terrorists of Rebibbia. For the last time alone, then together with the lay movements. Will Verdiglione (1) run in the Radical Party?

(IL MESSAGGERO, 25 February 1987)

As of tomorrow afternoon, at the Hotel Ergife in Rome, the Radicals will reopen the 32nd Congress, interrupted last November to launch the membership campaign, whose success went beyond all expectations. In less than four months, the Radical Party has grown enormously: after the 11.000 members of 1986 we have already reached 10.000 members in 1987. A stronger party, but at the same time a party which feels "different" ,in terms of quality and quantity, with respect to the small group of two or three thousand members. It is a fact which opens vast horizons but also a series of political problems. We discussed this with Marco Pannella.

"What are the current objectives of the "new Radical Party?"

"Existing and operating as the first international party, to replace the obsolete 'party Internationals'. The solution of the problems of life, of its quality, of peace, justice, freedom; of the environmental, technological, financial and social problems calls for international structures and governments. We need a European government, a European federal State, now. People agree, but the political class and the particular interests don't. It is an immense work, but the question here is not telling us that the water is cold; the question is overcoming the river of difficulties or succumbing where we are".

"About internal policy: the Radical Party has preannounced a campaign for the continuity of the legislature. Don't you think you might soon be in the position of defending something which can no longer be defended?

"We are the only ones not to fear anything, whose success is widely predictable, as in 1979. However, the mutilation of the legislatures is one of the main causes for the decay of our institutional and social system. Thus, the major reforms of the public administration, of the public debt, of the situation of the territory and of the environment, of social security and assistance, of the justice system, have not been carried out, but simply postponed from one legislature to the other. In the end we are confronted with a subtle and constant coup. The rules must be respected again, as the rights of the institutions and of the citizens. The parties may even be driven to relinquish this habit: all it takes is that the President of the Republic leave Parliament the necessary time (a couple of months, as in the past), and there is no other possible vote than the one on the referendums".

"The consultation with the Socialist Party on this and on other subjects seems to have weakened lately, and the projects for institutional reforms advanced by your party and the ones illustrated in the congress document of the socialists seem to be considerably different".

"In a family difference are never bad. With the socialist comrades we know out of experience that it is fair to trust and confide in their capacity to listen to us. If they chose the Anglo-Saxon choice we would agree completely, as with the Liberals, the Social Democrats and the Republicans".

"You are proposing an Anglo-Saxon type of political system for Italy; however, in Great Britain, the uninominal system has long since been the object of discussions, and France has resumed the proportional system at the last elections; don't you think you are going against the current trend?"

"In England there has always been this discussion; in the U.S. and in Canada less. The system works. In France, the proportional system hasn't favoured the socialists much, who have reinstated it for tactical reasons. And now even France has resumed the majority system".

"Will the Radical Party compete at the upcoming elections?"

"With its symbol and name, this should be the last time, and only at the Chamber; the project is to create a single group with all the reformist, lay and socialist parties. At the Senate, on the contrary, I hope only four parties will compete: the reformist movement, DC, PCI and MSI. If the reformist group obtained 30 per cent (a realistic objective), its elected members should operate for the passage of the uninominal system by the next legislature, which should lead to "American" type of elections in 1993."

"This is a project which requires time. What if there are anticipated elections?"

In the event of anticipated elections, the above applies to the Senate. Otherwise, each one on his own, and the mistake for all."

"As far as the Radical Party's candidates are concerned, what surprises will there be? After Negri (2) and Tortora (3), Verdiglione?"

"That would not be a surprise, I believe."

"You said that at the elections the Radical Party expects to overtake the MSI, which detains almost 7%; don't you consider it too ambitious an objective?"

"The electorate will decide. Between 1976 and 1979 we increased from 1% to 3.4%. In 1984, six months after the escape of Toni Negri and with Tortora as a candidate, buried by the shame of his lynching, we obtained 3.4%. Since then there has been the battle for a "just justice system"; the acquittal of Enzo, our president; the explosion of Chernobyl made us all consider our reasons and honesty; the sensational acquittals in Padua of the persecuted of 7 April; our struggles for public morality; civil rights battles such as the one on hunting; and as far as civil and human rights are concerned, we have always represented the avant garde. The Radical Party has now decuplicated its forces and multiplied its prestige by a hundred. Why should doubling its share of consent be an unrealistic objective?"

"Many of your projects are linked to the Radical Party's utopian charisma, which remains one of its best characteristics; however, some of these objectives call for biting off more than one can chew, don't they?"

"People trust those who are capable of risking their entire lives in order to conceive, not consume, the possible. On the contrary, don't you think this last year has proven this? We ask for more strength, much more strength, to continue. We ask the readers of "Il Messaggero" to commit themselves with us once more, as in the years of divorce, with their newspaper. I invite them to join the party, to come to the Congress, which will take place as of Thursday at the Ergife. After that we shall see."

"What should the "new Radical Party" be, in your view?"

"If I had to make an example of what the Radical party is and should be, of that which it can -it alone, as the only party of nonviolence and legality - ensure the society of our time once again, this example is contained in the document which ten comrades of the area of the repented terrorists of Rebibbia have published, proposing the nonviolent and democratic choice as the most adequate one to pursue political and humanitarian ideals, the ideals of justice and freedom which have lead the terrorisms of the seventies to the violent choice, and which seem to be ignored by those who assassinate once more. Such document has been written with serious risks, of all kinds, for these militants and for the party. But once again I have to remark that the mass media privilege political texts accompanied by corpses, they privilege violence, and penalize nonviolence. But we shall insist, and not just in Italy. And a nonviolent and democratic leadership will probably arise and develop precisely in the prisons".

"One last question. You seem determined to run for head of the Radical Party: is it to give it greater momentum, or to assume a more direct control?"

"If anything, to make the party control me more directly! Otherwise, free from the demanding management of the radical struggles, I might devise too many of them. But we shall see: we might find more appropriate solutions."

(1) Armando Verdiglione: Italian psychoanalist, pupil of Lacan. He established a controversial school of psychoanalitical studies in Milan and a publishing firm. Accused of having extorted money from his patients, he was arrested and convicted. His defence counsel was the radical member of Parliament Mauro Mellini.

(2) Toni Negri: exponent of an political group of the extreme Left, he was arrested and kept in prison for five years without a trial. Released, he was elected member of Parliament for the Radical Party.

(3) Enzo Tortora (1928-1988): Popular Italian TV showman. In 1985 he was arrested for presumed Mafia connections and kept two years in prison without a trial. He was later acquitted, and died in 1988.