ABSTRACT: Remembers having met years before Sergio Stanzani (1), when he was still a "highly appreciated executive" before engaging in politics "full-time". Of the Radical Party he says he appreciates the "spirit", the fact that it has promoted a "new humanism" that aims to combine the values of the individual with the needs of the community, which are the "most interesting issues" of our time. In the transnational party the "respect for the individual" and the "respect of the community" "exceed any reference" to the reality. This quest is made by "people who participate in the movement" and devote themselves with a "spirit of service". This spirit is called "freedom". But now the radicals need to understand why the electors have not "rewarded" the radical movement, without blaming this responsibility to "third parties, electors or politicians".

(1994 - IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, 12 November 1993)

More than thirty-five years have gone by since I first met Sergio Stanzani at friends' place. He was wearing an elegant dinner suit and was a much appreciated executive. He had a brilliant career in front of him. After not that many years, Sergio Stanzani made a courageous choice, devoting himself to politics full-time.

I wanted to share this memory simply to explain that to me, who love politics while never participating in the life of any party, it was natural to gradually understand, through Sergio, the political proposals and the spirit that underlie the radical movement.

It is precisely the spirit of the movement that I would like to underline: it seems to me that it relaunches a new humanism that places the individual at the centre of its interests and tries to combine the needs of development of the community with the values and needs that are inborn in any individual.

The simplified but correct explanation of the current crisis of capitalism and Marxism is substantiated by the scarce attention and, in some cases, the contempt with which the issues that concern the individual, his rights, his needs and civil and economic spaces that are necessary to live both life and the relation with the community, have been treated. I believe the political issue of greatest interest for our time is that of combining as harmoniously and profitably as possible the individual "space" and the collective "space". In this respect, it seems to me that Marco Pannella (2), Emma Bonino (3) and many others had showed great intuition in establishing the transnational party where the respect for the individual goes beyond any reference to religion and ethnic origin, and where the respect of the community goes beyond any reference to the national interest and the forces of aggregation expressed by culture and history. The seed of the transnational party is a seed of vital importance for the world of

the future which, for the moment, has not born fruit but which for our children could represent a vital point of reference for their projects.

This is not the place to enumerate the important campaigns carried out by the radical movement with innovative political proposals, all based on a spirit of service towards the individuals and the community, although not always fully acceptable. The spirit of service is the cement that keeps together all those who participate in the movement and embody it through their personal sacrifices, their economic and intellectual honesty, their prior acceptance of every difference. That spirit is called freedom. A french poet once wrote that "by virtue of one word I start my life again, I was born to know you, to call you freedom". I would like to conclude this brief text by touching briefly on this topic. The electors have so far failed to reward the radical movement for the many campaigns carried out in the general interest of the community. Not even the political forces have shown gratitude for people who, especially in 1992 and 1993, have showed a great sense of civil responsibility towards the country and have,

consequently, in the face of prospects of political and economic collapse, sought for solutions of aggregation, renouncing any particular interest. I believe it is necessary for the radicals to realize the reasons that have caused this situation and which certainly cannot be blamed on third parties, electors of politicians. In an enhanced sense of freedom, which comes short of ruthlessness, the radicals will know how to find the right answers.

* President of SIP

Translator's notes

(1) STANZANI GHEDINI SERGIO AUGUSTO. (Bologna 1923). Exponent of the Italian Students Association in the '50s, among the founders of the Radical Party. Senator and member of Parliament, currently secretary of the Radical Party. Former IRI executive. Engineer.

(2) 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.

(3) 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.