ABSTRACT: Marco Pannella, member of the European Parliament, and President of the Federal Council of the Radical Party, first at Ljubljana on 30 June 1991 while the people fought in the streets of Yugoslavia, and then at the European Parliament on 9 July 1991, made the following declaration:

(The Party New, n.3, August 1991)

In these troubled hours, the tragedy we predicted as inevitable is being enacted. The position adopted by the EC and, in particular, the blind, domineering arrogance displayed by the Italian Foreign Minister, Gianni De Michelis, amounted to nothing less than an invitation to conspire against Belgrade and the worst of the Serbian leaders. It was in fact the ultimate confirmation of the cynical attitude that the Italian Government and the various political parties have taken for years now, towards the Kosovo tragedy and the unrelenting progress of the diehard Communist President Milosevic and his authoritarian demagoguism. The Radical Party therefore denounces the responsibility of those people who have repeated for weeks that the independence of the Republics of Slovenia and Croatia, with their serious and responsible political attitude expressed in a desire to be part of the EC and their intention to officially create a confederalist as opposed to federalist Yugoslavia, could "never" be accepted under any ci

rcumstances.

In these troubled hours, I call urgently upon government and voters alike to do everything necessary to bring pressure to bear on Serbian leaders and their "puppets" to instil in them a respect for the people's right and the rights of the people within the boundaries of the Serbian Republic and, indeed, the whole of Yugoslavia. If the bloodshed continues in the next few hours, in the next few days, Brussels and Rome will be responsible. The first thing we have to do is prevent it from happening.

I call upon all nonviolent Radical Party workers to launch a democratic peace offensive, just like we did when the Romanian crisis was at its height.

At the session of the European Parliament held on 9 July 1991, Pannella went on to support a motion criticising the position taken by the European Commission, emphasizing the Radical Party's position and reminding those present of "how many times the need to expand the EC had been stressed, because a non-expansionist policy would give rise to the economic and structural contradictions provoked by current events. Besides, it is not true that Slovenia and Croatia are making a nationalistic claim for independence. They are asking for independence within a confederalist Yugoslavia, and within a European context, in order to resist the authoritarian chauvinism of the Serbs!