ABSTRACT: Quotes some of the negative opinions of many of those who criticized Pannella's initiative of organizing "seven o'clock meetings", and recalls the time when Pannella was slapped in the face by the porter of the headquarters of the communist party at the general election of '76, a deed that was later justified by Fortebraccio (2). In other words, the radical image is "constantly" deformed, and no effort is made to understand why the radicals continue to "be constantly unrecognizable, and to cause scandals". The only thing to do is wait: "perhaps in a few months those who do not want to renew their membership today will admit that the radicals were right once again.

(1994 - IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, 25 November 1993)

"Pannella and his radical friends want people to believe that they are upholding noble principles, but the truth is they are safeguarding their personal survival. In one word, or rather in five words, "all they want is to save their ass". Thus Vittorio Sgarbi dismisses the initiative of the seven o'clock meetings. Guido Quaranta, a columnist for "L'Espresso", describes them as "indicated by ex mafia men turned state's evidence to be friends of mafia members, in trouble with the judicial system for corruption, violation of laws on housing and illicit financing. When Pannella continues his initiative, Quaranta insists: "Some maintain he wants to support the legislature, and immediately later the referendums, with the only self-serving purpose of having the mass media talk about him". These are metaphorical slaps that remind the author of the time when Pannella was slapped in the face by the porter of the communist party's headquarters during the general election of '76. These slaps were then poetically sanctif

ied by Fortebraccio on "l'Unità". "We want to underline the civil and even loving nature of the slap, when it is given at the right moment and when it does not exceed the physiological limits". So the participants of the seven o'clock meetings have been submerged with slaps and sneers. But they were even before that, when they opposed the compromise between Catholics and communists and the emergency anti-terrorist laws, or when they campaigned for a fair justice system and the civil responsibility of the judges, against parties' public financing, (which Nilde Iotti (3) considered a guarantee against corruption)...

The radicals' image is constantly deformed, and no attempt is made to understand the reasons for which, accepting Pasolini's (4) exhortation, the radicals "continue to be constantly unrecognizable, and to cause scandals". Ten days or ten years later Pannella, who carried our those wise battles, is reconsidered and revalued. Thus, if seventy letters of protest arrive as a consequence of the caricatural image which the media give of the radicals, the only thing to do is wait. Perhaps in a few months' time, those who do not want to renew their membership today will recognize the radicals were right once again. The transnational party is not yesterday's party, but we are not worried by continuity, provided in a few months' time it won't be too late, once again.

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.

(2)FORTEBRACCIO. (Melloni Mario). (S. Giorgio di Piano 1902 - Rome 1989). Journalist, political columnist for "L'Unità" (the daily newspaper of the Italian Communist Party).

(3) JOTTI NILDE. (Reggio Emilia 1920). Exponent of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). Life-time companion of Palmiro Togliatti. President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 1979 to 1992.

(4) PASOLINI PIERPAOLO. (Bologna 1922 - Rome 1975). Italian writer and director. Novels ("Ragazzi di vita", 1955; "Una vita violenta", 1959), verse ("Le ceneri di Gramsci", 1957, etc.), plays, cinema ("Accattone", 1961, "Il Vangelo secondo Matteo", 1964, etc.), but especially powerful polemist and moralist, he denounced the evils of the "bourgeoisie" and severely criticized the Italian Left for its shortcomings. Sympathizer of the Radical Party, on the subject of which he wrote some beautiful pages, the day after his death he was supposed to go to Florence to take part in a congress of the party.