ABSTRACT: Extract from the book "Karl Popper. La lezione di questo secolo" by Giancarlo Bosetti, assistant editor of "L'Unità".

(THE NEW PARTY, MARCH 1993)

The issues you would like to see given top priority on political agendas are: upholding peace; controlling the population explosion; awakening people to nonviolence. According to you, are these leftist or rightist priorities?

POPPER - They are neither. These are priorities which stand for something that could replace both Right and Left, and eliminate this split. (...) The truth is that we should oust this dreadful party system. I am of the opinion that it must be replaced and we must go back, if possible, to a State in which elected members are able to stand up and declare in Parliament: I represent you but I do not belong to any party. I believe that the failure of Marxism offers us an opportunity to proceed in this direction. Regarding the priorities I mentioned earlier, I truly hope that in the meantime some party, it doesn't matter which one, will accept them, and openly state that it accepts them for what they are. In this way, it would encourage others to adhere to them, thus creating a new situation.

What type of political model do you consider most appropriate for these times?

POPPER - Democracy is essentially the right model, but the kind of democracy that, when all is said and done, does not set itself the task of establishing a cultural leadership.

Nationalism seems to be one of the most serious causes of violence and war these days. How do you interpret the growing aspirations to create independent republics, also in Europe?

POPPER - The fundamental question here is that in a world as densely populated as ours all problems arising from nationalism must be seen as dangerous. They endanger rule of law. Here, it is necessary to point out something which is not given enough attention in the European debate on nationality, and which is the substance of the political problem concerning nationality: the fact that ethnic minorities must be protected. The idea of a nation-state cannot be realized when it is not founded on this principle.