ABSTRACT: In the Middle East, "for each European kept hostage" there are "hundreds and thousands of citizens" who are killed as a consequence of the absence of freedom. The true problem of these countries is that independence "guarantee must freedom [...] rather than represent an alibi for ruthless regimes".

(1994 - IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, Special European Parliament, 26 November 1993)

Mrs President,

for each European kept hostage, every day in the Middle East there are certainly hundreds and thousands of citizens of the Middle East and of various countries who are killed because of their beliefs, tribe and history.

To keep on talking in terms of conflicts among States, whereas the true, great problem of the Middle East, for each man and woman of the Middle East, is that of his/her freedom and dignity, is, in my opinion, extremely Eurocentric and even superficial.

The problem is that independence must guarantee freedom, democracy and dignity rather than be, as often is the case, an alibi for ruthless regimes.

At the same time in which our Parliament - quite aptly - is concerned about the European hostages, I would simply like to say, as a radical, that either a European policy will succeed in guaranteeing the right to life, to freedom, to independence in freedom and political democracy, of the Palestinians and of the Syrians, or, Mrs President, we run the risk of suffering the consequences of not fertilizing the seed of independence, freedom and dignity.

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.