ABSTRACT: Michele Boselli, coordinator of the Transnational Radical Party in Bulgaria, outlines the characteristics of the party. In the first part, Boselli describes the history of the party from its origins to the major referendum campaigns for civil rights. In the second part he describes the events that led the radicals to transform the party, which had so far been active mostly in Italy, into a transnational party that operates in central and eastern Europe too. The transformation, which had already been started with the campaign against world hunger, turned out to be very expensive, and the party had to organize a major membership campaign in Italy in order to raise the funds necessary for its survival. In the third part, Boselli illustrates the characteristics of the coming assembly of Sofia and the themes it will have to address, with special attention for eastern Europe and the Balkans.

[Article published in three subsequent issues in July 1993 of the regional weekly "Dobrudzhanska tribuna" ("Dobrigia Tribune") and signed by Raina Tasheva]

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In order to better explain the characteristics of the Radical Party and its nature as a trans-party, I need to make a brief historical outline, starting from when and where this political movement was created, then its evolution and the current situation.

The Radical Party originated in Italy in 1955 as the result of a schism of the liberal party and the breakaway of its left-wing faction. One of the co-founders of the party is the party's current leader, Marco Pannella (1). This fact is corroborated to a certain extent by the situation which had arisen in Italy after the war and twenty years of fascist dictatorship. Immediately after the war, a two-pole model of the political life developed. On the one side the Christian Democratic Party, on the other the Italian communist party. These were the two largest and strongest parties in the country. The two poles represented by two ideological parties. What was lacking was a lay subject. In this sense the radical party cam be considered to be the heir of the Partito d'Azione, which participated actively in the Resistance but was crushed after the war by the two-pole model.

During the sixties the party, headed by the current leader Marco Pannella, gradually came to represent the party that supported human and civil rights. This characteristic of the Radical Party won it vast consent and popularity. To make a few examples, the party advocated the right to the recognition of conscientious objection, and wanted to lower the voting age to 18. Another campaign it carried out successfully was the one for divorce. This campaign was promoted in our Catholic country as early as in 1966, where it seemed impossible to achieve this result. The victory came in 1974 with the referendum, the results of which confirmed the people's will. Thus, divorce was legalized in Italy. In the campaign for civil rights, the Radical Party frequently relied on referendums. In the seventies the campaigns for the legalization and the regulation of abortion were carried out. Abortion was forbidden and clandestine, and caused many victims. In 1986 we held a referendum to close all nuclear power plants in Italy,

and that was another success.

Moreover, the Radical Party was the first party in the country to be concerned about the environment, issues that were later taken up by the "Greens". The acme of this series of referendums promoted by the Radical Party was the referendum of last April to abolish the proportional electoral system and to introduce the majority system. The radical party believes the majority system is the way to fight the excessive power of the parties. At the same time we promoted another one to abolish the public financing of parties, which was an endless source of corruption in Italy. In this situation, the Radical Party remained absolutely pure, because it was self-financed from the beginning and its sole resources are the contributions of its members.

While promoting the referendums and direct democracy, the Radical Party also organized its battles within the institutions. In 1976 four representatives were elected to Parliament. Three years later 18 representatives of the Radical Party were elected to Parliament. This growing trust was the result of the alliance and the compromise between the Christian Democrats and the communists. The communists pretended to be the opposition while in practice supporting the Christian democrats. About 80% of the bills in Parliament were passed with the communists' vote. Owing to a lack of true opposition, a large part of the electors chose the radical party at the general election in 1979.

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These positive aspects have not prevented us from carrying out a critical analysis: the party realized that with a percentage of 3,5% it could do little and risked not justifying the hopes of the people who had voted them. At the following elections of 1982 the radical party suggested to vote for no party at all, not even for the Radical Party. The aim of this was to denounce the absence of real democracy, of an excessive power of the parties which suppressed the true rules of democracy.

Between 1979 and 1982 one of the most massive campaigns of the Radical Party was organized, the campaign against world hunger. It was a vast campaign, also at the institutional level. Hundreds of Nobel Prize winners signed a petition addressed to the governments, asking them to allocate financial resources from the GNP to fight starvation, especially in the Third World. Many radicals started a hunger strike to draw the attention of the public opinion on this problem. At any rate, the campaign was a failure. We consider it a failure. The government allocated a given sum but thanks to the system of the parties the money never reached the addressees, and was ultimately pocketed by bloodthirsty dictators in the African states.

After a thorough consideration we have reached the conclusion that no single state or government is in a condition to tackle alone the great problems of our time. It takes the combined efforts of many populations. This originated the idea of creating a supranational political subject, a party capable of operating at a supranational level. The current leader of the Radical Party, Marco Pannella, suggested to transform the radical party into a transnational party, and this occurred in 1988. The constituent congress was called in Budapest in 1989, when a communist regime was still in place in Hungary. Five years have gone by, a period in which all our forces have been devoted to the construction of this new political forces, and in which our attention was addressed in particular to central and eastern Europe, since the Berlin Wall had in the meantime fallen and the communist regime too. In 1992 for the first time in its existence as a transnational party, the number of non-Italian members exceeded that of the I

talian members. In fact, there were more Russians alone than Italian members. Last year in Bulgaria a first group of some 100 members, MPs and other citizens was created. Nonetheless, even before becoming a transnational party. the radical party has always looked beyond Italy. And it has followed with special interest the countries rules by dictatorships. For instance, the repression of the Prague Spring in 1968 was an event that caused the protest of the radicals in many parts of the world. Our leader, Marco Pannella, went to Sofia on that occasion, held demonstrations there and was obviously arrested and expelled from the country.

The last congress of the transnational party was held in two sessions, in 2992 and in 1993. In the first session 29 MPs from Bulgaria also participated. More or less the same number of MPs took part in the second session. But these events subjected the party to a harsh financial trial. Since political activity has a cost, especially at that level, at the end of last year we found ourselves confronted with the problem of closing the party for want of financial resources. Thus, the party decided to obtain a certain number of members in order to survive or close. The deadline was established: end of February 1993. Miraculously this objectives was reached: in a few weeks' time we reached ten times more members than the ones we had always had. That was a true Italian "miracle". This success allowed us to resume our activity...

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The assembly of parliamentarians, one of the organs of the party, will take place in Sofia from 15 to 18 July. They are 580 people from about 50 nations. The 42 MPs from Bulgaria all represent the parliamentarian groups in the current national assembly. You may wonder how people who fight and argue so much in Parliament manage to be together in another political force, the transnational party. The answer is simple: our party does not participate in the elections of any country, therefore it does not compete with any national party. This allows members to have a double membership. On the other hand, a member does not necessarily need to agree on all the ideas and to work on all the themes of the party. It is enough to share one of the objectives. This is a party without ideologies, without dogmas, that unites its members for the method of political action which is non-violence, a Gandhian method.

The other aspect all members of the TRP have in common are the vast pragmatic objectives which the assembly of parliamentarians in Sofia will need to approve. One of the most important themes of our activity is the new international law, which must be capable of reforming the existing institutions and guaranteeing the respect of the democratic rules. In this context we are promoting two major initiatives. The first is a petition addressed to the United Nations for the creation of an international tribunal against war crimes. The decision has already been taken by the United Nations for the former Yugoslavia. We want instead a permanent tribunal to prevent or intervene in any future conflicts of this kind. Another petition we addressed to the United Nations was to urge the abolition of the death penalty in the world by the Year 2000.

The assembly of Sofia will need to locate and find the most concrete themes and objectives. For the Balkans, namely, we have started a project aiming to the creation of a trans-Balkanic railway connection between Durazzo-Tirana-Skopie-Sofia-Bucarest, i.e. an east-west communication route that would put an end to the current north-south monopoly of communication. This railway already exists, except for two stretches, between the Bulgarian-Macedonian border and the Macedonian-Albanian one. If it were realized, this route would mean an important contribution to the economic development and the inter-exchange among these countries; moreover, it is the most convenient communication, in environmental and economic terms. This line could connect southwards to Turkey and westwards to Italy.

Another initiative the Assembly of Sofia should pass is the creation of a High Authority for the management of the Danube with the participation of all countries that could start an advantageous cooperation.

We are also very active on the problem of nuclear power plants in central and eastern Europe. We want to find the mechanisms to favour help and assistance by the West in this direction.

Lastly, I would like to mention our project for the regulation on the production and consumption drugs, to fight organized crime. We believe a neutral communication means among the people should be created,a language that make all languages equal. Our attention in this case is for Esperanto.

I tried to draw a brief outlines of the main objectives and themes we are working on. And I believe it illustrates the ambitious projects the transnational radical party pursues. But to achieve them it takes an effort by many people.

Translator's notes

(1) 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.