ABSTRACT: The proceedings of the 2nd Session of the XXXVI Radical Party Congress began in the presence of the Italian Prime Minister and the Speakers of the Chamber and of the Senate; 150 foreign parliamentarians from 27 countries; 50 Italian parliamentarians, exponents of all political groups with the exclusion of the extreme right, and members of the Radical Party Federal Council.

Non-parliamentarians - 280 in all - attended from 38 countries. 1,380 Italians were present.

In their opening speeches, the Party leaders described the general situation, which was marked by an extraordinary response to the Radical Party project from Eastern Europe compared to a completely inadequate reaction from the rich, Western world, and Italy in particular. 30,000 Italian members constituted the "technical requirement" for the Party's survival. Congress was called upon to decide on the continued existence of the new transnational and transdivisional Party.

Six commissions were set up for the Congress, which can be summarized as follows: "Federalism, Nationality, a Right to Language", "Parliamentary Campaign against the Death Penalty", "Democratic Development, Human Development, Environment", "Antiprohibitionism with regard to Drugs, "New International Law, Peace and Security", "New Statutory Regulations".

The draft Statute presented by the Secretary, Sergio Stanzani, was approved. It constitutes a new precept of liberty and democracy, which caters to the needs of a new transnational and transdivisional dimension. The motion was approved. The Radical Party had to reach a target of 30,000 Italian members to survive.

Congress elected Emma Bonino and Paolo Vigevano as Secretary and Treasurer, respectively. They will take office in mid-May. The Assembly of Parliamentarians who are members of the Radical Party, and the General Council, organs provided for by the new Statute, must be convened by this date.

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The 2nd Session of the XXXVI Radical Party Congress was held in Rome from 4 to 8 February '93.

The Italian Prime Minister, Giuliano Amato, and the Radical Party itself had done everything they could to bring the Mayor of Sarejevo, Muhamed Kresevljakovic, a member of the Radical Party, out of his besieged city, so that he could open the Congress. Emma Bonino and Sergio Stanzani actually went to Sarejevo for this purpose. The Mayor of Sarejevo had remained a "prisoner of politics", as he later commented.

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(THE NEW PARTY, MARCH 1993)

Participants at the Congress

The proceedings were opened with reports from Party Secretary, Sergio Stanzani, and the Treasurer, Paolo Vigevano, in the presence of the Italian Prime Minister, Giuliano Amato, the Speakers of the Chamber and of the Senate, Giovanni Spadolini and Giorgio Napolitano respectively, the Macedonian Prime Minister, Branko Crvenkovski, Franco Carraro, Socialist and member of the Radical Party, and representatives from the embassies of Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Croatia, France, Greece, Lithuania, Mozambique, Peru, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, the U.S.A, South Africa, Switzerland and Hungary. There were 150 non-Italian parliamentarians present, exponents of more than 80 national parties - whom the Mayor of Rome honoured by receiving them at the Capitol on the morning of 7 February - and 50 Italian parliamentarians, members of all political groups, excluding the extreme right. All the members of the Radical Party Federal Council were present.

There were non-Italian parliamentarians from the following countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Bosnia Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Czech Republic, Ivory Coast, Croatia, Estonia, France, Georgia, Holland, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mali, Moldavia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Serbia and the Ukraine.

As well as from the above countries, non-parliamentarians (280), members and non-members, arrived from: Austria, Belgium, Byelorussia, Germany, Kirghiz, Iran, Israel, Portugal, Spain, U.S.A. and Hungary. 1360 Italian non-parliamentarians attended the Congress.

The Party Situation

The motion passed at the 1st Session of the Congress jointly entrusted the Party organs, namely the Secretary and the Treasurer, and the Presidents of the Party and the Federal Council, Emma Bonino and Marco Pannella respectively, with the task of the re-constitution of the Radical Party and, therefore, of verifying the possibility of re-structuring and strengthening the New Party in regard to its recently acquired transnational and transdivisional dimension.

Regarding this resolution, the reports of Sergio Stanzani and Paolo Vigevano, and the relative congressional documents, explained the main problem to Congress: the vast and ever-increasing response from parliamentarians and citizens in Eastern Europe - 7,778 members in 1992, including 300 parliamentarians, exponents of 80 national parties - is not matched by an adequate response in the West, especially not in Italy. In fact, there were only 1,500 Italian members at the beginning of the Congress. A totally insufficient number, in the light of the Party debt (approximately $4,000,000 at the end of January '93) and the necessity of making the Party's objectives autonomous and self-financing. If the situation does not change rapidly - affirmed Stanzani and Vigevano - we will have sell the Rome Headquarters in order to pay our creditors, and to avoid failing at a both an economic and political level.

More than a year previously, the Party organs had deduced that if they could meet the "technical requirement" of 30,000 Italian members, there was a real possibility of being able to realize transnational actions, Radical Party projects, and a number of precise objectives in a specified period of time by mobilizing parliamentarians and citizens of the democratic world. This "technical requirement" -which is only an initial requirement - with all its dramatic connotations, was re-proposed to Congress, and to Italian public opinion.

New Statutory Regulations

Sergio Stanzani, amongst other people, emphasized another point: the necessity for the Party to establish new statutory regulations. The new transnational and transdivisional dimension of the Radical Party made it necessary to review the Statute drawn up in 1967.

While maintaining the principles that had governed the political life of the Party in Italy, it was necessary to bear in mind the new requirements of a political organization wishing to operate regardless of national frontiers, by crossing them and going beyond them; to communicate with people in every continent; to equip itself with the instruments and the means to undertake joint actions simultaneously in as many parliaments as possible; to ensure that all members are able to participate in party life, and to conserve the rules of liberty and democracy which form the basis of the "agreement" entered into upon joining. For these reasons, the Secretary presented the draft of a new Statute for the Transnational Party to Congress, which was discussed during the proceedings of a Commission set up specifically for this purpose, and subsequently approved by Congress.

The Six Commissions

After the proceedings had been opened, six Commissions went to work for two days, including the one above and five others: "Federalism and Nationality: Civil and Political Rights, Ethnic Minority Rights, a Right to Language"; "The World Parliamentary Campaign for the Abolition of the Death Penalty by the Year 2000"; "Democratic Development, Human Development, and the Environment"; "New Prohibitionist Regulations with regard to Drugs"; "New International Law, Peace and Security". Many people, especially non-Italians, spoke during the debates held by the Commissions, and their comments were communicated to the Congress by Marino Busdachin, Sergio D'Elia, Olivier Dupuis, Danilo Quinto, Maurizio Turco, all of whom sit on the Federal Council, and Mario Signorino, President of the Italian branch of "Friends of the Earth".

The Decisions

The general debate, which was interrupted on Saturday morning by the "Convention for the Foundation of the International League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty". was extremely lively, intense and, at times, dramatic, because of the decision that Congress had been called upon to take, that is, whether the Radical Party should continue or cease its activities.

The last day of the proceedings - 8 February - was in fact dedicated to this decision and other decisions. These were characterized, first of all, by the motion approving the draft Statute presented by the Secretary. Next, the approval of the Party's 1992 accounts, and finally the motion reprinted here in full. Emma Bonino and Paolo Vigevano were elected Secretary and Treasurer, respectively. The motion passed provides for their taking office in mid-May, in the event of the target of 30,000 Italian members' being reached by the end of February. The Assembly of parliamentarians belonging to the Radical Party should be convened before that date, to elect its own President. The Assembly and the General Council will be responsible for electing the President of the Radical Party.

At the end of the proceedings, the congress participants elected the 60 members of the General Council; 40 other members will be elected at the joint meeting of the two new organs of the Party.