ABSTRACT: [Long interview]. The author says Emma Bonino (2) is "the only woman who has been charged...with the task of leading a party". A few bibliographical notes are followed by a description of the situation of the "quarrelsome radical army". Emma Bonino explains why she accepted the "odd" task offered to her by Pannella during the Congress, and says she is fully geared to reaching the target. She then recalls the various stages of her political activity since the time when she worked as a language teacher in Milan; it was only at 27, "having to face an abortion", that she started to approach the subject. She was arrested "for instigating women to abort". In 1976 she was elected to Parliament and now she has to face this "difficult" task of being secretary. She then talks about her foster children, Aurora and Rugiada, of how she had to give up the idea of having children of her own, of her favourite hobby, underwater diving. She says she has no "special advice" for women who want to engage in the politic

al activity, because the only training, in this field, is "militant activity". Lastly she renews her appeal to join the party.

(GENTE, March 1st, 1993)

Elected secretary of the Radical Party, Emma Bonino is now head of the party at a particularly delicate moment: if 30,000 new members do not join the party by February 28th, the party will have to close. Emma Bonino did not lose her faith, and immediately after the elections she put a rescue plan into practice. Let's see which.

She's the only woman to have been charged with leading a political party. Emma Bonino is 44. She was born in Bra, near Cuneo, and was elected secretary of the Radical Party during the last congress which closed on February 10th. She isn't the first woman in the world to become head of a political formation. Fifteen years ago, another radical, Adelaide Aglietta (2), covered the prestigious position. But Emma Bonino refuses to use the words prestige and congratulations for her appointment. The radical leader is in the difficult position of heading the party at a particularly delicate moment. She has to rescue the radical party from a huge amount of debts. And she has very little time to do so. If 30,000 new members do not join the party by the end of the month, Bonino will have no other solution but closing her party.

But she has lost no time: the day after her election, Emma Bonino immediately started to work at the party's headquarters in Via di Torre Argentina, in the heart of Rome. This is where we met her, while she was busy preparing a plan to rescue the small, rowdy and quarrelsome radical party, the centre of so many battles and controversies. The atmosphere in the radical headquarters is very tense. A notice placed in the hall of the old building informs that the countdown has started, and that over 26,000 memberships are missing for the target to allow the party to survive.

Mrs Bonino, why did you find yourself involved in such a difficult position? Why did your fellow party members choose you to be the political secretary?

Bonino: Actually, it is an odd position I have accepted. In practice I am a secretary on the waiting list. The congress charged me with the task of reaching at least 30,000 members in Italy or the equivalent in terms of financial resources by February 28th. If I reach that objective by that date, my position as political secretary will become effective. If not, I will find myself in the disagreeable position of liquidating the party or whatever remains of it. Regretfully, judging from how things are going, the second hypothesis is rather more likely to occur.

The congress' invitation to accept this odd position of secretary "on the waiting list" was made two days before the end of the congress. Until then I had been president of the party. The following day I explained why I didn't want to accept. I didn't feel up to it because I'm really very tired. I have been working in the party for four years, at a hectic pace. I can't even remember the last time I went to the movies. I wanted to take a break at last. But my friends and Marco Pannella (3) himself, the leader of the radicals, insisted. And in the end I said yes.

What lead you to accept: a sense of obedience to the party, your friendship with Pannella or the fascination of a "mission impossible"?

Bonino: Let's say I was influenced by all three. But what really made me say yes is the warmth with which the congress urged my candidacy.

Mrs Bonino, how do you feel in these difficult circumstances?

Bonino: Now that the emotional stress of the congress is over I feel calm. This state of mind is helping me to concentrate all my efforts. I am doing my very best to reach the target of 30,000 memberships. At the same time, I realize that mine is a very difficult feat, impossible perhaps. But the destiny of the radical party at this point doesn't depend on me alone. If we were to miss the target by the end of the month the entire party would have to acknowledge a political defeat. No one will have an alibi.

Q:What are you doing to avoid the funeral of your party?

Bonino: we have set up many "stands" in the streets and squares of Italy where people are invited to join the radical party. I take part in these operations myself. People are not used to seeing a political secretary walk in the streets with forms in her hand for collecting memberships. Many know it takes a long bureaucratic process to join a party. One needs to present a curriculum vitae which is examined by the peripheral officials and lastly by the party's central control organs, the so-called "probi viri". To join the radical party, instead, all it takes is sending a postal order. Regretfully many people ignore this.

Q:Which milieus do you think will most support your survival campaign?

Bonino: We have received a great many adhesions from the show business; many actors and directors have joined the Radical Party.

But we have received support also by exponents of other parties. The former minister of justice, the socialist Claudio Martelli, endorsed out initiative. But also the christian democrat Bruno Nicolosi, the socialist Paris Dell'Unto, Tiziana Maiolo from the refounded communist party, and the socialdemocrat Antonio Pappalardo. We were very pleased by their support. But we mean to address especially ordinary people.

Q:Mrs Bonino, let's think of the most optimistic hypothesis: that your party will reach 30,000 new members and continue to exist. In this case, how would you imagine your future as secretary of the radical party?

A:Bonino: My task would not be easy. The radical party is a peculiar party: in contrast to the others, it is present not only in Italy, but in thirty countries of the world. Thus, I would have to administer a movement whose members are scattered throughout east Europe, Africa and Asia. I'm thinking, for instance, of the organizational effort it would take to answer all those who ask questions or who request our intervention, There is no doubt about it: being secretary of a "transnational" party is an arduous feat.

Q:But how did you come to this position as political secretary of such a complex party as the radical party? When did you start believing in a career in politics?

Bonino: Until 1974 I would never even have dreamt of militating in a party. At the time I taught languages at the Bocconi University in Milan. I graduated in 1971 and spent two years studying in the United States. In addition to attending University, I taught in the middle schools outside Milan. I was engaged to a boy of my age, whom I planned to marry. There was no space in my life for political activity. I barely remember voting in 1974 for the referendum on divorce.

At 27 something happened that completely changed my life. I had to face an abortion. I went to my gynaecologist who had told me I was sterile two month earlier. To perform the abortion he asked me for one million lire, an exorbitant amount at that time. It was a shock for my boyfriend and myself. We felt we were faced with blackmail. Also, we just couldn't afford spending that much money.

Friends of mine then told me there was a gynaecologist in Florence who was willing to perform an abortion for 30,000 lire. He was a supporter of the Radical Party. One day I took the train and went to Florence to see him. The operation was very short, but It was traumatic nonetheless. During the return trip I kept thinking about that dreadful experience. "I have to do something", I thought, "to solve the scandalous problem of clandestine abortion".

I heard of the existence of a number of centres for sexual education, called AIED. I joined one of these centres as a voluntary worker. From there on, without realizing it, my political career started. Militating in the Aied centres I met Adele Faccio, a famous radical exponent. I started to help her in the campaign for the depenalization of abortion. And with her and the then secretary Gianfranco Spadaccia I was arrested one day for instigating women to abortion. I landed in jail for the simple fact of committing a crime of opinion.

In 1976 I was elected to Parliament. And now, after 18 years of sacrifices, of hard civil rights battles, of street demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience, here I am as secretary of the party, such a difficult task.

Mrs Bonino, how much did your political activity influence your life? What did you have to give up?

Bonino: I had to give having a child. Sixteen years ago, during my experience as a voluntary worker for AIED, I adopted two children, Aurora and Rugiada, who had been born of different families. Aurora and Rugiada lived with me until 1984. That year their parents turned up to have them. Losing them was very painful. That was when I began to conceive the desire to have a child of my own. Unfortunately both me and my companion Roberto Cicciomessere (4), who is also a radical militant, started to be increasingly busy with our political activity. In 1982 Roberto was elected secretary of the Party. Since then we have both had to set aside our desire to have children. That was the one important thing I gave up for politics.

Q:But is there anything in your private life you haven't had to give up for politics?

Bonino: I am very keen on underwater diving. I started diving in 1984 to recover from a severe depression. In 1984, as a member of the European Parliament I visited Africa, where I contracted a tropical disease that caused a major physical breakdown. I weighed 38 kilos. Marco Pannella, a great friend of mine as well as the historical leader of the radical party, suggested that I go on a long holiday. Roberto and I decided to go to the Caribbean. We took courses in sailing and diving. And we discovered wonderful submerged wonders. Since then every summer for at least ten days I practice my favourite sport in the most beautiful places of Italy and of the world.

Mrs Bonino, what would you suggest women who want to engage in politics to do? What qualities should they have? What should they study?

Bonino: I have no special advice to give to women who want to engage in politics, except that of feeling citizens every day and every moment of their lives.

Being citizens means demanding the respect of one's rights and accomplishing one's duties. I don't think it takes any special studies to engage in politics. The only training is the experience of a militant activity. But in these remarks I include men too: I don't think women represent a special category within a party.

Q:One last question, What will you do if you don't manage to rescue your party?

Bonino: It would be a bitter disappointment to acknowledge a political defeat. And I think I'd quit, I'd stay out of politics for a while. I'd like to go to the sea, and dive. That way I could make up for the many times I got angry and for years of hard work. But I think one should never say never. And that we are always open to contradictions.

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A NUMBER TO WIN

Emma Bonino

Sir,

I read the interview by Paolo Scarano on our initiative to save the radical party from dissolution. I would like to seize on the opportunity to thank you for the space you have granted me, but also because the interview helped radical and non-radical readers understand the reasons for the radical party's existence. The target of 30,000 memberships is still remote, and yet a great many people, including some you have never been radical, have joined the radical party lately and sent a contribution with a postal order sent to Via di Torre Argentina 76, 00186 ROME, or a money order with the following indications.A 01015 03200 100050419, or by calling 689791 to pay with credit card. With these simple operations, a lot of personalities in the show business, the political and cultural fields, such as Vittorio Gassman, Paolo Villaggio, Renzo Arbore, Mario Monicelli, Carla Gravina, Giorgio Albertazzi, MPs Claudio Martelli and Renato Nicolini, the mayor of Rome, Franco Carraro, have decided to make this act of materia

l and tangible support to the radical party. It is to be hoped that many will follow their example. The time left to save the radical party is running short.

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) AGLIETTA ADELAIDE. (Turin 1940). Currently President of the Green Group at the European Parliament. Former member of the Italian Parliament, Secretary of the radical Party in 1977 and in 1978, year in which she was chosen to be part of the popular jury at the trial in Turin against the Red Brigades and Renato Curcio. Promoter of the Turin-based CISA (Information Centre on Abortion and Sterilization).

(3) 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.

(4) 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.