An interview with Emma Bonino by Violetta Grigorova, published on the Bulgarian daily newspaper "Zemia" of July 9 1993

ABSTRACT: Emma Bonino (1) mentions the most important initiatives taken in the past vis-à-vis East European countries, starting from the refusal of the principle of "non-interference". She stresses that the Radical Party has emerged as the party of "the right to life" and of the "life of rights" and is now actively seeking to promote the democratic growth of the UN in order to make it into a "government" of global conflicts. Bonino denies the radical party has ever been a party of intellectuals, and says it has on the contrary always been a "party of ordinary people". Lastly, she expresses the hope that the countries of Eastern Europe, and Bulgaria especially, will join the EEC also in order to renew the obsolete agricultural policy which is so important for those countries.

(ZEMIA, 9 July 1993)

The Assembly of over 400 parliamentarians from 40 countries, members of the transnational radical party, will be held in Sofia from 15 to 18 July 1993. This is why we decided to interview the president of the party, Emma Bonino, who has a strong reputation for supporting human rights.

Emma Bonino was born in 1948. She is president of the radical party. She has been elected to the Italian and European Parliament several times. She is one of the first in the Radical Party to have actively drawn the attention of the international public opinion on the problem of world hunger.

She is secretary of the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies.

Violetta Grigorova interviewed her.

Q: Which are the values enshrined in the principles of the new Transnational Radical Party? And what are its aims in the European context?

BONINO: The Transnational Radical Party wants to promote a policy based on the "Right to Life" and the "Life of Rights". The right to life is threatened today by the new forms of barbarianism, "ethnic cleansing", in ex-Yugoslavia and in Germany, and by the surge of the use of the death penalty as a means of political repression, by the international chaos that is devastating entire regions of the planet, from Somalia to Cambodia, and by the destruction of the environment its balance is based upon. The right to life blends with the quest for the respect of rights. Humanity is threatened today by the crisis of the legality, the lack of clear and ascertained rules and laws enforced by an authority capable of winning respect (first and foremost the UN, but obviously a reformed, more democratic UN) in that it is supported by the respect of the people. These shortcomings are particularly evident in the countries of eastern Europe, whose juridical culture has been devastated by half a century of communist dominatio

n; but they are also evident in the West, where the respect of the legality is slowly subsiding and fading.

But the reason we wanted to hold our Assembly in Sofia is that we believe that precisely the countries of eastern Europe offer major opportunities for a democratic change which could even be an example for the West, to shake it from its numbness. You have tremendous opportunities in front of you: I'm thinking of the environmental issue, for instance, the possibility of turning the Danube into a unique model of extraordinary environmental-productive development. We transnational radicals are here also to learn from you.

Q: Considering that on the international scale the radical party is a party mostly made of intellectuals, where do you place ordinary people, peasants, for instance, and which are the steps you will enact to represent their ideas as well?

BONINO - No, the radical party has never been a party of intellectuals. It has always been a party of ordinary people, of outcasts of politics and of the oppressive power of the parties, of the poor. For example? Those who in the '70s advocated divorce--people who were humiliated in their feelings and even risked being tried for bigamy--were scorned at by the press, by state TV, by the parties, as "cuckolds" or at best as "outlaws of marriage". The same applies to prisoners, who were often kept in custody without a trial, in inhumane conditions; or the pensioners, for whom we asked for an improvement of minimum pensions, etc. Today there is no more distinction between "country folk" and "city folk", All citizens should enjoy the same rights, starting with the right to be properly informed, to a safe environment, to justice, etc.

Q: We are democracies that are experiencing a period of transition. Agriculture is the base of the economy of any society. How do you judge the attitude of the EEC vis-à-vis the agricultures of the east European countries, including Bulgaria? And what are the appropriate measures to redress the national economies?

BONINO - The EEC is inadequate, at his point, to meet the needs for which it was created. Even its legislation on agriculture is unacceptable, and needs to be entirely rescheduled. But in order to reform it, the east European countries need to adhere to the EEC in an organized and homogeneous way, to bring into it common plans, of transnational, "regional" level, capable of bringing about a radical revision of the EC system, not in welfarist but in egalitarian forms, based on a free and productive exchange of resources. For Bulgaria and east European countries, with their specific productivity, also agricultural, this is a precious opportunity.

Q: You are a woman who has shown a great deal of courage, coherence and intelligence throughout the political struggles both in the Italian Parliament and elsewhere. What is the moral drive that protects you in moments of despair?

BONINO - The same drive that should be common to any democrat and citizen who believes that politics is not always or not just corruption or violence, but also and especially the free expression of the best intellectual and moral energies. In this we have received a great teaching from the resistance against the oppression of the communist dictatorship enacted by so many intellectuals. We said to ourselves: if they can express their trust and hope in democracy, how can we give in to weakness and despair? The example of the anti-communist "dissidence" has often comforted and spurred me.

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.