ABSTRACT: Here follows the comment by Marco Pannella about the joined statement released after the meeting between the General Secretary of the Partito Comunista Italiano, Achille Occhetto, and the Chief Secretary of the Partito Radicale, Sergio Stanzani (text no. 1653)

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Roma, May 12, 1989 - Notizie Radicali -

Marco Pannella said:

"I believe to have some credibility to talk about the Partito Comunista Italiano (PCI) and its relationship with the Partito Radicale (Radical Party, PR).

The statement released today after the meeting between the Chief Secretary of the Partito Radicale, Sergio Stanzani, and the General Secretary of the Partito Comunista Italiano, Achille Occhetto, will most probably be more valuable than a simple event in the daily political scene.

The fact that from the PCI's main office in Via delle Botteghe Oscure (1) that hosted the meeting, both the Ventotene "Manifesto" by Ernesto Rossi (2) and Altiero Spinelli (3) and the European antifascism by the Rosselli (4) brothers are recognized as the source of a common federalist inspiration as well as of a common battle for the European Union - involving both radicals and Italian communists - carries a great value as a symbol and a choice that inevitably touches everyone who recalls the tragic hostility of those years, and of the decades to come.

The fact that the PCI recognizes the particular characteristics of the trans-national and trans-party so alive in the PR, and formally wishes that the responsible commitment of any democratic people could save its now threatened and even endangered life; the fact that yesterday evening from the public television, the PCI leader, facing the question whether the PCI has still to make its own way toward social democracy, stated that the PCI takes ideas from liberalism and liberal-democracy - [those facts] clearly show that the current PCI renewal process is precious heritage for all democratic individuals.

The fact that the Partito Radicale Chief Secretary wishes the Partito Comunista to find all the support and the strength it also deserves in this approaching election - in which Italian radicals have created several lists in competition with the PCI, which mirror the liberal-socialistic and European and secular great hopes of "justice and freedom", - appears to me a decision of great strength and of great hope."

Translator's notes:

(1) BOTTEGHE OSCURE. Street in the centre of Rome, seat of the Italian Communist Party. In a wider sense the name designates the party itself.

(2) ROSSI ERNESTO. (Caserta 1897 - Rome 1967). Italian journalist and politician. Leader of "Giustizia e Libertę", 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".

(3) 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".

(4) ROSSELLI CARLO. (Rome 1899 - Bagnoles de l'Orne, France 1937). Italian politician. An antifascist, together with Nenni he founded and directed the magazine "Quarto Stato" (1926). Exiled in Lipari (1927), whence he managed to escaped. In France he was among the founders of the movement "Giustizia e Libertę". In Spain he fought with the republicans in 1936. He was assassinated together with his brother (an historian) by members of the cagoule at the order of Italian secret services. Author of an outstanding work, "Socialismo liberale" (1928).