ABSTRACT: Grieved by the letters of dissent and criticism received, Emma Bonino (1) deems it "fair" to listen to the reasons and to answer, while warning that the radicals owe no "justifications". For too many years the radicals have been attacked by people who ask them to justify not what they are, but the "distorted and disfigured" image given by the "violence of information". If the radicals were really the way they are depicted, they would be "unrecognizable, monsters in fact". But the radicals reject this distorted image. They try to counter the distortion through their inflexible "behaviours" and the "continuity of their presence and of their campaigns". Nonetheless, Bonino warns that the letters are wrongly addressed, because the transnational radical party and the Lista Pannella (2) are two distinct and separate political subjects.

Bonino points out three specific points: a) despite the fact that the party in itself has suggested neither candidate in Rome for the mayoral election, the Lista Pannella supports Rutelli (3); b) as far as the vote to grant authorization to imprison De Lorenzo (4) is concerned, the radical MPs voted freely according to their conscience; c) Pannella's letter summoning the MPs for seven o'clock in the morning was addressed to all parliamentarians alike, and during those meetings the only subject discussed was the priority of "safeguarding of the truth" for Parliament and the government.

(1994 - IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, 25 November 1993)

Some members have given back their membership card because they feel "deceived". They are few: seventy out of 37.000. And yet it is fair to listen to their reasons.

They feel deceived. Why? The excerpts given in these pages are enough to explain their reasons. Basically they advance three objections: "You aren't supporting Rutelli"; "You have saved De Lorenzo from prison"; "Pannella has become the leader of the MPs under investigation, of those who don't want to leave politics, and is preventing us us from voting". Should we answer? Should I answer? Obviously - there's no point in denying it - we are grieved by the fact that these friends are leaving us. The fact conveys a sense of impotence, and we do not like this. We believe, however, that their money, the money of their enrolments, has been spent well. We needed their money as much as we needed the money received by those who did not leave us and trusted us more (or perhaps showed more tolerance). Therefore we feel we have an obligation towards them, one of loyalty and attention.

But on the basis of this same obligation of loyalty and mutual attention, we must clearly say that while we want to answer, we do not feel, in any way, forced to "justify" ourselves in any way. On the contrary. For twenty years we have been attacked by people who asked us to justify not what we are, and what we have done, but the distorted and disfigured image which the violence of private or state-owned media are feeding people in this country. If we were really the way we depicted we would be "unrecognizable, monsters in fact". Such is the party as it is depicted and as people perceive it. But we reject such a grossly manipulated image. We reject it firmly. And we want to counter the violence against us by answering in a single way: with our behaviour, with our daily, relentless activity, in a a visible way. More than with words we prefer to offer our credibility through the constant continuity of our presence and of our campaigns. Secondly: these letters are wrongly addressed - must we repeat it? The Tran

snational Radical Party and the Lista Pannella are two different and separate subjects. On this point too, there is widespread disinformation and distortion. I myself (on behalf of the party) and Pannella (on behalf of the Lista Pannella) have already sued the Rai first of all. The usual self-compassion? No, and this is proven by what is happening with these letters. The misunderstanding continues, to our and your detriment, interrupting that continued mutual trust we both need.

Therefore, at least on two of the three points we are accused of, the mistrust, the return of the membership cards are groundless, because they do not concern in any way the Transnational Radical Party.

Let's analyze them one by one.

First: Pannella supposedly does not support Rutelli. With a bit of patience these people would have realized that in Rome the Lista Pannella runs and campaigns by supporting the candidacy of Francesco Rutelli. For the above considerations, I repeat that the Transnational Party chooses not to (and could not) invite its members to vote one way or the other. The Roman radicals will obviously be free to vote as they wish: for one of the two candidates (and members of the Radical Party) Rutelli or Nicolini, but also for the exponent of another list. This applies both to Rome and to the other cities where radicals or personalities supported by the Lista Pannella will be running.

Secondly: at the Chamber we supposedly "saved" De Lorenzo from being imprisoned as he richly deserved. Please note that the MPs who are members of the radical party for 1993 are 182, from all sectors, and that that some of them voted on the request to authorize preventive custody for De Lorenzo in favour and some against, while others chose not to vote...Each MP voted according to his/her conscience. In these pages we are supplying useful elements to clear the field from misunderstandings and perhaps (it is our hope) restore mutual trust.

Third and last point: the "self-summoned" MPs, the supposed attempt to save the MPs under investigation by aiming to postpone the elections. Pannella answered very clearly on this point, even if the media practically ignored him. I can summarize his remarks: "For an initiative in which ALL parliamentarians, MPs and senators indistinctly have been invited, Pannella wrote, a disinformation campaign has been unleashed... Over-emphasizing these 7 o'clock meetings has proved useless: no one has ever suggested to "dismiss" the scandal. We simply wanted to safeguard the truth in the interest of Parliament and government. It was a civilized attack against the rabble-rousers, the former clients of a regime who have now turned into its accusers...The fact that the President of the Republic, the President of the Chamber, the President of the Senate were all working in the same direction with the same arguments was equally useless...

These are Pannella'a words, and we think they are credible enough.

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.

(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) RUTELLI FRANCESCO. (Rome 1954). Mayor of Rome. Secretary of the Radical Party in 1981 and treasurer in 1984. Antimilitarist and conscientious objector, co-promoter of the IRDISP (Research Institute for Disarmament Development and Peace), member of Parliament since 1983, group chairman. Among the promoters of the "Verdi Arcobaleno" list at the European elections of 1987, member of the Coordination Group of the Green Federation, regional councillor in Campania and local councillor in Rome. Elected member of Parliament on the green list in 1992. Elected mayor of Rome in December 1993.

(4) DE LORENZO. Former minister of health, investigated on allegations of having subtracted public funds and receiving kickbacks from major pharmaceutical companies to push their products.