ABSTRACT: The authors "takes sides" with Marco Pannella (1), who has struggled against the conformism of the "system" in a period when it was universally accepted, and is now struggling against the conformism of the "new system" and its "pan-judiciary desire for justice". Pannella cannot be called a "conservative" today, nor does he consider himself one. And yet the violence with which the new system is being introduced is alarming: the judiciary is becoming an "hegemonic" power, the "market" is trying to stifle the rules of democracy, with a "black-and-white" distinction between good and evil.

The author says he feels "overwhelmed" by a "merciless" mechanism that chooses the "submerged and the rescued", but he continues to defend his experience in Sicily as "one of the most earnest attempts to modernize the island". He has given up the idea of bringing about an innovation himself but wants to contribute to bringing it about, hoping in the intervention of the "radical" courage. He then recalls the experience of his meeting with Pannella in Catania.

(1994 - IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, 25 November 1993)

I am not looking for a protector and I have not given up my ideas. But I have to say Pannella is the only one who has struggled against the cultural and political conformism of the old system at a time in which is was universally accepted; today he is alone in opposing the even more oppressing and devastating cultural and political conformism of the new system and of its many prophets. Amid the want of politics and the excesses of pan-judiciary desire for justice, it is a fact that Pannella still has the courage to say the truth, and has not lost the pleasure of reasoning. Isn't that a reason enough to feel on his side?", says Rino Nicolosi, Christian democrat member of Parliament, under investigation and member of the radical party for 1994.

But isn't there a risk that these remarks will be assimilated to a rearguard battle?

It would be truly provocative to place Pannella in the conservative front.

Nor have I ever resisted innovation. On the contrary. But it's alarming to see the violence with which the change is being brought about. The things to be destroyed are clearly pointed out, but it is much less clear what should be built instead. Moreover, systematically giving up the principles of civil rights, the pillars of the democratic civilization more than the basis of a process of general moral renewal of Italian society, is the symptom of an all-out conflict between old and new powers.

So you too believe there is scheming going on?

The history of our country continues to be a pattern of conflicting interests, and in any case a democratic regression does not always come in the shape of a coup d'čtat. All it takes is for certain powers to simply become hegemonic.

Are you referring to the judiciary?

Yes, but not only.

I also share Rossana Rossanda's (2) concern when she says ours is a stage in which the rules of democracy are sacred only in that they are parallel to the market. If the market proceeds without them, the market becomes sacred and the rules become expendable.

Many tend to stress the fact that our country is supposedly going though an historical clash between the forces of good and the forces of evil. Unfortunately, there is some good also in the forces of the past, and there is some evil in the forces of the future. And the future does not necessarily represent an improvement. As for the risks for the delicate balance of our democracy, these are often neglected by those who, in other circumstances, have aptly underlined that the democratic state is irrenounceable.

That silence is frightening: too many civilian witnesses of the excesses of this historic period are surrendering the moral duty of denouncing them. Pannella is one of the very few who do so with authoritativeness and a sense of political prospect.

You have received dozens of notices of investigation. Do you feel you are the object of a persecution?

I reject the hypothesis of being the object of a personal persecution. Nonetheless, this does not rule out the fact that I feel overwhelmed by a ruthless logic, which picks on the submerged and the rescued. And I share the unhuman situation of many who are already paying for their mistakes without even having been sentenced or tried. Today the strongest parts are in control of the truth. Now more than ever the dignity of the individual has become a worthless value.

How can we otherwise define a condition in which my human dimension seems to be destroyed along with my political dimension? I had fostered the illuminist ambition of changing things for the better. The system tried to influence me strongly. I have paid for that and perhaps I have committed mistakes. It's fair that I now assume my responsibilities for the things I have done and for the reasons I did them, but not for the things I am unfairly accused of. I would like to make it extremely clear that I have never received money for private purposes and have never let myself be corrupted.

Yesterday you held the important position of President of the Sicilian Region, and now I am under investigation with no brilliant prospects. How does that make you feel?

First of all, I'm grieved by the fact that my Sicilian experience, which has been one of the most serious attempts to modernize the island, has been reduced to a matter of kickbacks. I feel angry because this is false and impotent because it seems there is a prejudice to refuse to listen and understand.

What do you mean?

People feel such a strong need to divide the social field into "us" and "them", which is one of the results of the two-party pattern, new-old, good-bad, friend-enemy. If we assume this, the kickback scandal can be reduced to a black-and-white distinction between good and evil, and could become and endless tragedy which could never lead to a national reconciliation.

A hopeless prospect, in other words?

No. History teaches that the crises of collective violence are nothing but the worst moments of history. Pannella, in the face of a future that presents itself as arrogant and self-assured as much as it is confused, points to a possible future based on a supranational humanism and on well-established democratic rules to be created, and whose growth we must protect.

Can you see a space for your future?

I have given up the idea of innovating myself, but I wish to contribute to creating the conditions for others to achieve it. And this will be easier once the "radical" courage will find a vast consent and important political convergences.

Are you influenced by your friendship with Marco?

I don't think so, even though it's true that our friendship is deep.

What it is based upon?

The things that divide us at least as much as the things that unite us: and a recollection of our political clash at the local elections of Catania in 1989...

The political level of the electoral campaign was high. Marco was a non-Sicilian and he played the card of the antagonist, but be immediately became a protagonist: the people of Catania have a flair for distinguishing real politicians from dispensers of hot air!

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) ROSSANA ROSSANDA. (Milan 1924). Journalist, former leader of the PCI, which she left in 1969 with the group that founded "Il Manifesto".