VI.

THE RADICAL PARTY, THE ENVIRONMENT AND A POLICY FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE ECOSYSTEM

ABSTRACT: In the sixth part of his report to the Radical Party Congress in Budapest, First Party Secretary Sergio Stanzani describes the contents and goals of the party's ecological policy.

(The 35th Congress of the Radical Party, Budapest, April 22-26, 1989)

The strong development everywhere in Europe of the green and ecological movements and their successes even in the elections of many countries would seem to give the lie to pessimistic predictions. By now such movements have appeared even in Central and Eastern Europe, and governments and parties are paying attention and homage, at least nominally, to environmental problems more and more often. Let us not underestimate these movements. We feel ourselves involved with them. To all effects we are a "green" party. More so, we were the first green party to be represented in the chambers of Parliament. For a long time, in Italy, by our opposition and even obstructionism in Parliament, by promoting referendums, we played the leading role in a fundamentally victorious fight against the nuclear energy policy as well as being continuously active against the systematic destruction of the environment, against pollution, against hunting.

Recently, in 1985 and 1987, we showed that we had no selfish interests to defend and no competition to fear by favouring and contributing to the accelerated formation of an independent green group and its running in the elections, first the regional and then the national ones.

These movements and the electorate they represent are important factors, because they testify to a widespread fear and protest among the public and the younger generations. But the climate of opinion, often unpolitical or diffident towards the politics of the green movements, is very far from being able to make a positive contribution to the solution of the great ecological questions. To keep these from turning into great nuclear catastrophes and in order to achieve an "ecologically plausible kind of development" - as the Bruntland report demanded twenty years after the studies of Aurelio Peccei, Mansholt and the Club of Rome on the "limits of development" - political initiatives, trans-national civil mobilisation, and new supra-national powers are indispensable.

Less than three years ago, when we opened our 32nd Congress with the report of a scientist on the ozone hole, we were, as usual, considered to be sensationalists. Today we have been able to begin this Congress of ours with a communal demonstration against the ozone hole. And this is testimony to how far we have come. But on the institutional level the gap to be filled is still enormous. The international agreements which in the meantime have been achieved are not only frightfully inadequate but are slow to be ratified and put into effect. Investments in research are non-existent and the time required for industrial conversion is very long. On this question the Third World countries have put across their opposition and the governments of the Communist countries, excepting Hungary, are aligned with those of the Third World.

The declarations of the various governments and international conferences threaten to distract the public's attention by spreading the illusion that the problem is being solved, whereas the solution is only being put off.

On the other great questions (deforestation, desertification, pollution, acid rain) the situation is still more serious.

Today we need an ecological world consciousness and a trans-national capacity to deal with it.

The twenty-one Heads of State and of Government (and among these we salute with great appreciation the presence of the Hungarian Prime Minister), who last March signed an appeal against the decay of the planet, declared their willingness to give up part of their national sovereignty in order to contribute constructively to our common destiny.

This is a declaration of the greatest importance, even if the best solution may perhaps be to give real power to the UN Security Council or for the European Community to try an effective communal environmental policy by means of new, more rigorous and binding norms. And it is indispensable that one should be able to count on highly accelerated co-operation and mutual responsibility between Western and Eastern Europe.