ABSTRACT [Interview] Emma Bonino (1) outlines some aspects of her life, both private and public. As the journalist says, it is a life rich in "passion", albeit Bonino recalls that, unlike Pannella (2), she prefers to keep part of her time to herself. Bonino then tells episodes and moments of her life, and expresses her views on children, marriage, etc. She reminds readers of the meaning and the conditions of the ongoing membership campaign and confesses to having a few movie "idols", first and foremost Gene Hackman, who expresses the "lack of sentimental education" typical of men.

(NOVELLA 2000, February 27th 1993)

Passion, like power, undermines those who lack it. And for Emma Bonino, secretary-elect of the Radical Party and first woman elected secretary of a party, passion--political passion--still means vitality, warmth, joy of living, enthusiasm and even fun, so much so that seventeen years after she started her political activity her eyes still have that sparkle that makes her almost more beautiful than she was then. But what is the personal, emotional, sentimental price for these political battles, for this relentless hunting after those who "robbed" or trampled civil rights, this constant denouncing a widespread corruption of ideals and resources?

This is the answer of Emma Bonino, who could not hide the tears for having been elected secretary at such a difficult moment in the life of her party. "All this has given me much more than it has deprived me of. For instance, a great interior growth. Obviously I have had less time to devote to myself. I am not like Marco Pannella, who lives his political militancy 24 hours a day. I need a break, I live to have free evenings, for my private life. The rest went as I wanted it to, as it is in my nature. For instance, I have always had trouble doing the things other people do normally, like living together. That's why I don't live with anyone and I never got married. I regard this daily exercise of mutual tolerance so difficult, and that it requires such a great control of one's sensitivity, that I've never dared try. There are other things I also neglect at home. One thing I do like to do instead is cook, shop and look after my plants. Like any good Piemontese I'm quite a good cook.

Children...I thought about having a baby in 1984. I had health problems, I received treatment and I got a hormone intoxication. At that point I said enough and called it a day. Also, I have been a mother to some extent, with the two girls I fostered, Aurora, from '75 to '80, and Rugiada from '77 to '81. Both came from broken-up families. Now the girls have grown up, they don't live with me any more, but we still have a very deep relationship. Personally speaking this separation was very painful, but being a foster-parent involves this possibility.

She has an age-long love affair which is almost a marriage with Roberto Cicciomessere (3), another exponent of the radical party, but she has had other important and lasting love affairs. "Democracy", she underlines, "is also conquered day after day, and has a cost, in terms of energies and money. That is why we relaunched the ultimatum: either we gather 30,000 new memberships by the end of the month or we shall close the party. I realize we are asking a lot: the membership fee could appear to be a lot of money, 270,000 or 365,000 lire, but it amounts to about one cappuccino a day. But people need to realize that politics has a price, and we have never set ours with kickbacks, meddling or corruption. Leonardo Sciascia (4) once told me something, the importance of which I have understood only now. We were in the middle of one of the usual national scandals, and I was very angry and upset by these robberies. He made a comparison: this isn't the most serious problem. The most serious problem is the corruption o

f the consciences which deprives citizens of their dignity. That's why it will take so long. But in dark periods we need to keep our eyes on a point of reference. A candle is a precarious light, but it burns on, and it is essential to keep it burning. Today it has become clear how much our candle can bring light. Nonetheless, we need to look ahead. We cost little, and those who believe in us need to give us that much. Call our number in Rome, 690791. Send us a non-transferrable cheque by mail. Go to your bank and send a money order, giving this information: A01025 03200 100050419. Go the post office and send a postal order made payable to us, and specify that it is your membership fee. If you quite rightly take some political rights for granted, rights which have become part of our daily lives, then you need to help us go on, help us pay the bills, (incidentally we are the only ones who pay the bills). Obviously, Emma Bonino can be so convincing that many famous show business personalities have endorsed the

appeal: Vittorio Gassman, Renzo Arbore, Paolo Villaggio, even Vittorio Sgarbi. It is to be underlined that this is thanks to the social campaigns Emma has always been very active in promoting, but also thanks to her style that makes her consistently credible.

Even if she no longer wears the jeans "outfit" and clogs with which she first made her entry in Parliament 28 years ago (Ingrao (5) kept a meeting on the dignity of the place we were in, and it took me an hour to realize he was referring to my clogs. But I stopped wearing them because they're bad for my feet"). Even if she has learned to master low as well as high tones, her energy is the same when she attacks Milosevic, whom she calls Yugoslavia's new Hitler.

Would she like anyone in particular to join the Radical Party? Yes, Paola Borboni, for instance. "Extraordinary, indestructible. Or Katherine Hepburn, who looks so fragile and steely at the same time.

And among the men? "My idol is Gene Hackman. He still looks natural, he looks so plain, so normal. Another actor I really like is Massimo Troisi. Yes, I like both of them because they express that lack of sentimental education which is typical of men. They are so real in their clumsiness, in never knowing what's going on. While the thing I hate most in women is that sense of superiority, what I really dislike in men is the scarce attention for feelings, this iciness. They don't realize how much they're missing out on.

Translator's notes

(1) BONINO EMMA. (Bra 1948). President of the Radical Party, former member of the European Parliament, as of 1976 member of the Italian Parliament. Among the promoters of the CISA (Information Centre on Sterilization and Abortion) and active militant in the campaign against clandestine abortion. She was tried and acquitted in Florence. Participated in the conduction, on a national and international scale, of the campaign on World Hunger. Among the founding members of "Food and Disarmament International", promoted the circulation of the Manifesto of Nobel Laureates.

(2) PANNELLA MARCO. Pannella Giacinto, known as Marco. (Teramo 1930). Currently President of the Radical Party's Federal Council, which he is one of the founders of. At twenty national university representative of the Liberal Party, at twenty-two President of the UGI, the union of lay university students, at twenty-three President of the UNURI, national union of Italian university students. At twenty-four he advocates, in the context of the students' movement and of the Liberal party, the foundation of the new radical party, which arises in 1954 following the confluence of prestigious intellectuals and minor democratic political groups. He is active in the party, except for a period (1960-1963) in which he is correspondent for "Il Giorno" in Paris, where he established contacts with the Algerian resistance. Back in Italy, he commits himself to the reconstruction of the radical Party, dissolved by its leadership following the advent of the centre-left. Under his indisputable leadership, the party succeeds in

promoting (and winning) relevant civil rights battles, working for the introduction of divorce, conscientious objection, important reforms of family law, etc, in Italy. He struggles for the abrogation of the Concordat between Church and State. Arrested in Sofia in 1968 as he is demonstrating in defence of Czechoslovakia, which has been invaded by Stalin. He opens the party to the newly-born homosexual organizations (FUORI), promotes the formation of the first environmentalist groups. The new radical party organizes difficult campaigns, proposing several referendums (about twenty throughout the years) for the moralization of the country and of politics, against public funds to the parties, against nuclear plants, etc., but in particular for a deep renewal of the administration of justice. Because of these battles, all carried out with strictly nonviolent methods according to the Gandhian model - but Pannella's Gandhi is neither a mystic nor an ideologue; rather, an intransigent and yet flexible politician - h

e has been through trials which he has for the most part won. As of 1976, year in which he first runs for Parliament, he is always elected at the Chamber of Deputies, twice at the Senate, twice at the European Parliament. Several times candidates and local councillor in Rome, Naples, Trieste, Catania, where he carried out exemplary and demonstrative campaigns and initiatives. Whenever necessary, he has resorted to the weapon of the hunger strike, not only in Italy but also in Europe, in particular during the major campaign against world hunger, for which he mobilized one hundred Nobel laureates and preeminent personalities in the fields of science and culture in order to obtain a radical change in the management of the funds allotted to developing countries. On 30 September 1981 he obtains at the European parliament the passage of a resolution in this sense, and after it several other similar laws in the Italian and Belgian Parliament. In January 1987 he runs for President of the European Parliament, obtaini

ng 61 votes. Currently, as the radical party has pledged to no longer compete with its own lists in national elections, he is striving for the creation of a "transnational" cross-party, in view of a federal development of the United States of Europe and with the objective of promoting civil rights throughout the world.

(3) CICCIOMESSERE ROBERTO. (Bolzano 1948). Radical deputy belonging to the European Federalist Group. Conscientious objector, arrested and convicted; following his initiative, in 1972 this civil right was recognized in Italy. In 1970 treasurer of the Radical party, which he was also secretary of in 1971 and 1984. In 1969 secretary of the LID (Italian League for Divorce), member of the European Parliament from 1984 to 1989. Architect and organizer of "AGORA' telematica", multilingual computer communications system.

(4) SCIASCIA LEONARDO. (Racalmuto 1921 - Palermo 1990). Writer, author of well-known novels ("Le parrocchie dor Regalpetr", 1956; "Il giorno della civetta" 1961; Todo modo, 1974), but also known as a polemist, he took active part in the Italian civil life for at least twenty years. During one legislature (1979-1983) he was also radical member of Parliament, actively intervening in civil rights campaigns (Tortora case, etc.).

(5) INGRAO PIETRO. (Lenola 1915). For many years chief exponent of the Italian Communist Party. After militating in the fascist university organizations, leader of the party's "Left", open to the so-called "dialogue with the Catholics" and to a grass roots conception of politics, perceived as struggle of the "masses" against capitalist exploitation on a world scale. President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1976 to 1979, at the time of the "compromesso storico" and of "national unity".