Angry intervention by Mrs Bonino on the plenary's decision on political groups

Agence Europe, September 16, 1999

Emma Bonino took the floor on behalf of the unattached Members, bringing up solely the plenary's decision on Tuesday (see yesterday's EUROPE, page 6) not to allow the constitution of a Technical Group of Independents. This is not "worthy of elected officials or of voters and I and the Radicals elected in Italy will not participate in votes as long as this problem of Parliament's dignity has not been settled", she affirmed. "Your decision", she told other Members, means that there are class A Members and "proper" groups and class B Members, "like us", "independent of your party dictatorships and your bureaucracy". Emma Bonino (following in the footsteps of Marco Pannella) pointed out that in the Italian parliament, the Mixed Group, ranging from the far right to the far left, is the second largest in number and that, in other national parliaments, "you have no problem sharing public financing". "We do not even have the right to table a resolution or an amendment, only the right to press a button to vote", she

said, with obvious rage. She went on to note with regard to the groups that are supposed to express a political position, that during the vote on the Prodi Commission, three group representatives stood up to say they had no common position to announce.

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