1) Biography
The
seventh legislature was inaugurated on 5 July 1976, with the
solemnity of a customary ceremonial. The temporary president of the
opening session, Nilde Jotti (1), had just completed
the traditional preliminaries when the newly-elected member of
Parliament Marco Pannella, elected in the radical party's
lists, asked to speak from the benches of the far left. This procedural
objection, which some maliciously judged to be prompted by pure desire
for publicity, possibility on TV, marked the beginning of the radicals'
institutional season. The radicals had finally entered Parliament
after a dozen years of militant initiatives carried out outside of
the legislative forums, "in the streets and in the prisons",
as they repeated with great pride. Four of them obtained a seat in
Montecitorio (2).
The electoral response
only partly rewarded those radical civil rights campaigns which were
nevertheless acknowledged to have changed the country and made it
more modern: in 1970, Parliament had passed the Fortuna-Baslini
(3) bill on divorce; 1974 was the year of the referendum
promoted by Catholic associations and sections of the DC (4) which
aimed to abrogate it. It was, no doubt, won by the "lay front"
which Pannella had long since advocated, but it was won especially
by the millions of citizens which expressed through it a vote of opinion,
free from the influence of the parties and freely developed during
a major, passionate and civilized debate. In the aftermath of the
referendum, in 1975 the radicals started collecting signatures
for an even more sensational referendum, the one on abortion. Intellectuals
such as Pasolini (5) rather liked the civil rights leader,
and attempted a Marxist translation of his libertarian language. The
widespread feeling was that the country was far more advanced that
its leading classes, which had been taken by suprise and were confused:
immediately after the vote on divorce, Enrico Berlinguer (6)
had advocated a prompt reprise of the dialogue between the Marxist
and Catholic masses, in order to mend the division brought about by
the referendum and to pave the way for the coveted historical compromise
(7).
Anticipated elections were
held in 1976, called with the purpose of at least postponing the feared
clash on abortion. The same had occurred four years previously, for
divorce (but in 1972 the radicals had announced that they would abstain
from voting to protest this postponement practice, which, as they
wrote, turned the elections into a "swindle"). The DC
and the PCI carried out a clever campaign of strong opposition,
succeeding in reaping their maximum share of votes, while the PSI
suffered a severe defeat and started a drastic renewal of the leading
group, appointing Bettino Craxi (7) as secretary. The radicals
obtained 1,1% of votes at the Chamber and 0,8% at the Senate. Their
votes came essentially from the urban areas: 32,5% between Rome (2,4%
thanks also to Marco Pannella's non-stop hotlines on Radio Radicale
(8), which proved decisive in obtaining the quorum by 270 votes
only), Milan and Turin. Pannella thus obtained a personal success:
almost 40% of the votes reaped by the list were specifically given
to him. During the campaign, with a long and exhausting hunger strike,
Pannella had obtained a political broadcast from the state-owned TV,
which the radical list was not entitled to: but Pannella had long
been warning that the future of political democracy itself was in
the hands of the media, and therefore primarily in the behaviour of
the state-owned TV.
***
The radical leader's political
activity had begun with an intense militancy in the university organizations,
which were at the time the breeding ground for the leading classes:
at twenty, Pannella was national university delegate of the liberal
party - which he had become acquainted with by reading Mario Pannunzio's
(9) "Risorgimento Liberale"; at twenty-three, he was
president of the UNURI, the unitarian organization of university students.
In 1955 he was one of the most passionate supporters of the foundation
of the radical party - a "new party for a new politics"
- and with this formation he engaged in the unsuccessful electoral
campaign carried out in 1958 together with the republicans.
In 1960 he worked in Paris
as a foreign correspondent for "Il Giorno"; there he started
active relations with the Algerian resistance; but when the radical
party, crushed by inner divisions and especially by the advent of
the centre-left, faced a serious crisis and risked a final dissolution,
he returned to Italy to receive the difficult legacy, together with
a few friends and supporters of the current of "radical left".
His line was characterized by ideal continuity, but also by major
innovations: in the tradition of the controversies carried out by
Ernesto Rossi (10) and of the socialist libertarian and humanitarian
tradition, Pannella insisted on an inflexible anticlericalism and
antimilitarism, and supported the civil rights campaigns which had
broken out that year in the universities of America and of Europe
with unprecedented militant initiatives in Italy and with the force
of Gandhian nonviolence.
1965 is the beginning of
the campaign for divorce, in cooperation with Loris Fortuna. Two years
before that, press inquiries and campaigns had investigated the deviations
of the ENI (11), the scandal of welfare assistance and the
Rome-based OMNI (12), which implicated the mayor of Rome, Amerigo
Petrucci (13). In the meanwhile, an intense dialogue developed
with Aldo Capitini on the meaning and on the forms of nonviolence
for the renewal of politics not only in Italy, and sensational juridical
initiatives were taken, which ended in most cases with victorious
trials that drew the attention of the public and of the political
class itself - concentrated instead on debating economic problems
and "planning" - on the issues of justice and law. And Pannella's
multifarious production of texts, speeches and pamphlets, already
show an effort to define a liberal theory and praxis open to individuals
and social classes that were traditionally distant and subordinated,
wider than the ever smaller ones which the lay or minor parties referred
to, with the exception of Pannunzio's "Il Mondo". Pannella's
liberalism is certainly lay but not laicist, corroborated by an ancient
libertarianism for which the most important freedom to be upheld is
the freedom of the enemy, of the other person, of the different person
(and people were very impressed by the fact that Pannella accepted
to be the editor of newspapers such as "Lotta Continua"
(14), even though he didn't share their policy, simply to ensure
their survival). Nonviolence was the most original linchpin, the one
that corroborated the hunger strikes, the direct demonstrations, the
sit-ins, promoted both in Italy and in any part of the world where
freedom was threatened. As in 1968, when Pannella and other militants
demonstrated in the countries of Eastern Europe to protest against
the Soviet invasion of Prague. Pannella's liberalism aimed to an alternative,
in a regime blocked around a single party, the heir, in practice,
of the structures and of the society of the '30s; and in this field,
the young students' leader had already provoked Palmiro Togliatti
(15) to urge him to initiate the communist masses to democratic
reformism, repeating the experiment proposed in the university organizations
on a national scale.
***
During the campaign
of 1976, Pannella has solemnly pledged that the radicals would have
changed Parliament, and would not have been changed by it: in other
words, that they would not have given in to the temptations of a mechanism
which was already jeopardized by an evident crisis of functionality
and credibility, and damaged, in its most delicate prerogatives, chiefly
by the parties of the so-called constitutional range. This process
was already visible, despite the fact that regulation, inaugurated
in 1971 and which had separated the "dominion of the majority"
from the "procedural dominion" (and it appeared to be a
major democratic achievement and a progress compared to the liberal
model of the eighteenth century) was still regarded with confidence.
The procedural dominion was entrusted to the Assembly and to an accurate
balance of powers between a majority and an opposition to be equally
guarantied by the proportional representation. In their refusal of
the historical compromise and of all that could prevent a clear constitutional
and liberal distinction between majority and opposition, the radicals'
attention toward rules and procedures was certainly not incidental.
There ensued procedural adjustments, precise requests for a correct
normative interpretation, and an opposition to all that seemed like
an inadequate or arbitrary interpretation of the rules. At the same
time, they emphasized the activities of inspection and address - compared
to the legislative activity proper - in that they could ensure an
accurate control of the parliamentary itinerary of the bills as well
as their adequacy and application. This effective and insistent practice
challenged the constitutional tradition concerning the role of Parliament
and of the members of Parliament; the latter had often been the object
of ungenerous criticism which denounced their guilty absenteeism,
the incapacity which produced impotence, and the fact of tolerating
a degrading condition of "peons", deprived of any means
of control and even of a place to carry out their daily work.
Once the initial irony
subsided, the strategy used by Marco Pannella and his radical colleagues
caused perplexities and intolerance, as soon as it became clear that
the four parliamentarians were creating for themselves a role of genuine
parliamentary opposition, in its most classic, Anglo-Saxon forms:
great concern was expressed in particular by the PCI, whose role in
the consociative balancing was to be attributed exclusively according
to the forms and limits of the regulation of 1971. The combined efforts
to neutralize and "discourage" the radical initiative were
immediate, both by consolidating the consociative relation and by
starting an aggressive campaign against the "provocations",
the "destabilizing acts", the paralysis of the Chamber by
means of obstructionism. The intense confrontation obviously involved
the Committee of the Rules and the President of the Assembly, Pietro
Ingrao (16). Soon, in the logic of things and of the existing
political equilibriums, a rigid and restrictive interpretation - or
a subtle redefinition - of the rules began to be applied whenever
possible, so that they could filter or reduce the area of the interpretations
favourable to the radicals. But Pannella managed to urge the forces
of the consociation maintaining that the inefficiencies and the delays
of Parliament were not to be ascribed to the recent obstructionism
(a definition which Pannella rejected more than once), but rather
to the deterioration which precisely the policy of national unity,
the consociativism, was causing: and the objective symptom of the
difficulties within the system was the increasing use on the part
of the Andreotti (17) governments of the urgent decreeing,
despite the fact that the PCI passed most of the bills introduced
by the government in Parliament or in the Commissions, thus creating
a majority which almost reached an unprecedented 95%, as not only
the radicals underlined.
This fiery debate
found no echo in the country, as the radicals had hoped; neither the
press nor the TV, even after the reform of 1975, gave accurate coverage
of what was happening in Montecitorio. During a political broadcast
of 1978, Pannella had been clever in demonstrating the full potential
of the TV means: four radical exponents used up the minutes they had
been given to explain the themes of the referendum by wearing a gag,
in an unreal silence which meant to denounce the silence of the media
and the oppositions' impossibility to make their voice heard in the
country; politics-entertainment, no doubt, but with a "means"
that was far but consenting and taken by suprise.
The harshest moment of
the conflict occurred during the Moro (18) affair. Tension
had long been developing in the country, caused by the terrorism of
the Red Brigades (19), while the government and the opposition
relied on an increasingly rigid legislation, scarcely concerned about
civil rights (in fact, precisely the "defence of civil liberties"
was accused, as if it was a surrender to armed violence). In May 1977,
during a nonviolent demonstration organized by the radicals, a young
woman, Giorgiana Masi (20), was killed. An unquestionable series
of photographs pointed to the presence, in the square, of police forces
in plain clothes, photographed as they were shooting. Pannella's polemic
with the then Minister of the Interior, Cossiga (21), was harsh.
During the tragic 55 days
of Moro's kidnapping, Pannella more than once expressed his concern
for the fact that Parliament had not been summoned (and not even the
statutory organs of the parties), for the "ostracism and obstructionism"
against the "rights-duties" of the representative institutions,
which had been "robbed" of their essential functions of
address and control in a moment of extreme gravity for the country.
Moro's survival, Pannella warned, was to depend primarily on the respect
of the legality and of the functions of Parliament. The Chamber was
summoned, but only to discuss the referendums promoted by the radicals
and to pass provisions pertaining to public order: the so-called "Reale-bis
(22)" and an "antiterrorism" decree which were
even assigned to two different commissions, contravening the rules,
without any guaranties as to the public nature of the work, and with
emergency procedures which prompted charges of "temptations of
regime" in the majority: experts of constitutional law such as
Silvano Tosi and Francesco Cosentino expressed their open concern
for the violations of the rules though which Pannella's opposition
was stifled (Pannella was even expelled by the Justice Committee).
While the equilibriums
in Parliament became increasingly unstable, in a general climate of
tense concern, on 11 and 12 June 1978 there was a vote on the two
referendums which the Constitutional Court and Parliament had spared
of the initial package of eight promoted in 1977: the one on the public
financing of the parties and the one on public order (Bill n.152 of
22 May 1975, the so-called "Reale Bill"). The popular reaction
to the referendum relative to the public financing of the parties
was unmistakeable, though formally not successful. Over 13 million
people voted to abrogate it (43,7%): the PCI, extremely concerned,
was forced to partly reject the compromisory practice, and the President
of the Republic, Giovanni Leone (23), implicated in the Lockheed
scandal, was forced to resign. Sandro Pertini (24) was elected
new president, and his election was to pave the way for the lay prime
ministers Spadolini (25) and Craxi.
Leonardo Sciascia
(26), whom Pannella had personally offered, for the elections of 1979,
a position at the Chamber and at the European Parliament in "omnibus"
lists open to new energies and to all those who were deceived by Berlinguer's
line, had sided with the pro-civil rights and humanitarian position.
The writer accepted. The radicals obtained 3,4% and twenty elected
representatives in the two branches of Parliament, while they managed
to obtain three seats in the European Parliament. Sciascia and Pannella
made it both at the Chamber and at the European Parliament (at the
European elections, Pannella obtained almost 100,000 votes of preference).
The debate on the
rules and on the role of the Chamber reached dramatic peaks during
the discussion of decree n.625 pertaining to "urgent measures
for the protection of the democratic order and of the public security",
introduced by the Cossiga administration. The parties of the left
rejected an agreement with the radicals, who had offered to withdraw
the 7,500 amendments introduced, and the PCI blamed the radicals'
obstructionism for the impossibility of "improving" the
governmental text. The President of the Chamber, Nilde Jotti, with
an unprecedented interpretation, established that each deputy could
speak only once to illustrate his amendments, regardless of their
number. Thus, the decree was passed on 2 February 1980, and the PCI
gave a vote of confidence to the Cossiga government. The provision
- wrote Sciascia - was not only "useless": it wiped away
the very idea of the rule of law in this country".
The Cossiga decree
materially provided the last opportunity for major procedural debates.
Soon after, a drastic revision of the regulations of 1971 was carried
out, which had proven too open to a determined opposition, and useless
with regard to the new priorities of the parties. The emergency, or
the "culture of the emergency", entered into permanent conflict
with all those who advocated a liberal type of concern for civil rights.
In such climate, the extraordinary congress of the radical party was
held in Rome in March 1980, called in the imminence of the administrative
elections. Pannella proposed a document which was to become the "Preamble"
to the Statute, which advocated the unconditional respect of the law
as the "insurmountable source of legitimacy of the institutions",
and with an unusual passion recalled the duty "to disobedience,
to non-cooperation, to conscientious objection, to the supreme forms
of nonviolent struggle to uphold - with life - life, the rule of law,
and the legality". 12 December marked the beginning of the D'Urso
(27) affair, in which the moments, the problems and the lacerations
of the Moro affair, aggravated by the concerns and suspicions on alleged
attempts to use authoritarian solutions which would have been enacted,
in the probable event that the magistrate had been killed, under the
shadow of the P2 (28) and with the open support of the press and of
political forces, seemed to re-emerge. Pannella expressed these concerns
and suspicions.
1981 was the year
of the referendum on abortion and of the "Manifesto of Nobel
Laureates". On 17-18 May, the country was called to vote on the
radical referendum and on one of the referendums proposed by the Movement
for Life, which was meant to change bill n.194 of 1978. Moreover,
the country was supposed to vote on three more referendums proposed
by the radicals, pertaining to: public order, gun licence and life
imprisonment. These were the only three that remained after the sentence
of the Constitutional Court, which had once again rejected the others
of the initial package of ten as "unacceptable". The package
represented the greatest effort made by Pannella in the field of referendums.
In a fiery debate, also because of the violent anti-radical campaign
carried out by the parties of the left, all the referendums were rejected.
The result caused discouragement and perplexity also among the radicals,
and Pannella called an extraordinary congress which was held in early
June 1981 in a tent in Villa Borghese (29). Pannella reminded the
participants of the "three linchpins" of the party's campaigns
("nonviolence, legality and referendums") to "take
from the Constitution and from everyday life, that bipartisanism which
only with the practice of the referendums we have been able and are
trying to achieve in the country"; a bipartisanism based on alternation
and, especially, on an alternative "to the huge juridical tradition
of Alfredo Rocco (30) and of the corporative state". And to all
those who objected against the abstract nature of the campaign on
world hunger, started in 1979, the radical leader confirmed its reasons
and objectives; reasons and objectives which were illustrated on the
"Manifesto", written by Pannella himself, which was introduced
a few days later (24-25 June) with the signatures of 53 Nobel Laureates
(28 more endorsed the appeal together with Heads of Government, cultural
and religious representatives, mayors). The "Manifesto of Nobel
Laureates" outlined the main points of the struggle to defeat
"the new Holocaust" of our time: the death, by starvation
and poverty, of masses of men, women and children of the Third and
Fourth World. The appeal addressed to the citizens and political representatives
of each country advocated "new laws, new budgets, new projects
and initiatives which should aim to spare billions of people from
malnutrition and underdevelopment..."; laws to be achieved in
every country through militant, nonviolent, Gandhian initiatives which
were explicitly illustrated in the Manifesto.
In his minority
report on the Moro case, of June 1982, Leonardo Sciascia wrote that
"the strongest obstacle, the real hindrance, the most dangerous
impediment" to the survival of the statesman came from "the
decision not to recognize, in the prisoner of the Red Brigades, the
man of great political capacity, the author of pondered opinions and
choices...", so that "finding the 'other' Moro alive would
almost mean finding him dead in a Renault". These were heavy
judgments, containing a moral, more than political, censure, which
were bound to increase the radicals' isolation. This was the price
to pay to the parties, to "party power"; but also a point
of force. And yet, the radicals sensed its weight as it gradually
involved that PSI with which it had shared positions on various occasions
during the Moro and D'Urso affairs. In fact, at a certain point the
PSI enhanced its pressure to such an extent that it attracted into
its area deputies and exponents of the radical party.
The radicals had
traditionally paid much attention to the problem of the relation with
the socialists. Since the time of divorce, they had always stressed
the elements of libertarian tradition present in that party. In the
mid-'70s, Pannella himself had advocated a "rebalancing"
between the forces of the Left to the advantage of the PSI as the
indispensable condition to achieve the alternative to the DC; on several
occasions, moreover, the radical leader tried to maintain and preserve
this prospect: but the urgency of the objective was eliminated by
leading classes which were obviously eager to maintain their primacy
and their hegemony in a field which was inevitable common. Nor was
it easy for the socialists to face the risks contained in Pannella's
strategy, out of fear of losing positions of power considered irrenouncable,
and in fact to be extended.
Then came the anticipated
elections, for the ninth legislature, with the controversial candidacy
of Toni Negri (31) in the radical lists. Immediately after, President
Pertini appointed Bettino Craxi Prime Minister. Eager to acquire the
conditions for a political stability on which to base the image of
a reformist socialist force, capable of checking the instability of
the system, Craxi benefited from the "code of behaviour"
adopted by the radical representatives. The latter, faced to the "invalidation"
of the elections and to the "seizure of any parliamentary rule
on the part of party power", had decided that they would not
have assumed legislative initiatives or participate in the vote at
the Chamber. On several occasions (the debate on the Euro-missiles
is highly representative, the radicals' non-vote was decisive, if
anything on a political level. Thus, despite the harsh conflict on
the Concordat (33), convergences and agreements were reached, as for
the referendum on the cost of living bonus (1985) and for the final
vote on the bill introduced by Flaminio Piccoli (32) and by 150 deputies
from all groups (except the PCI and the MSI) on world hunger. In 1986,
two thirds of the socialist deputies joined the "League for the
Uninominal System", created by the radicals, and in that same
year, the PSI co-promoted with the radicals and the liberals the referendums
for "a just justice system" - in particular the controversial
one on the judges' civil responsibility - which had been developed
in the tense climate of the Tortora (33) affair. Throughout the long
trial of the TV showman (and radical Euro-MP in 1984), radicals and
socialists had shared judgments and behaviours which lead to a common
position of criticism of the magistracy and of the CSM (34). The dialogue
between the PSI in charge of the government and the Radical Party
at the opposition prompted misunderstandings and suspicions among
the parties of the left, while Pannella's efforts to create a strong
and autonomous "green subject" for the administrative elections
of 1985, were followed with mistrust. The radical leader's denunciation
- corroborated by serious historical and political motivations - of
the very hypothesis of a "left-wing" alternative, further
rekindled the suspicions and mistrust. For the elections of 1988,
Claudio Martelli hypothesized a contest between the DC, the PCI and
an unprecedented lay-radicalsocialist front, for which Pannella expressed
a forecast of success.
This persuasive
prospect triggered more than one concern; in 1987, the secretary of
the DC, Ciriaco De Mita (35) - with the consent of the secretary of
the PCI, Alessandro Natta (36), who had been convinced of the possible
dissolution of the five-party coalition - suddenly caused the conditions
for anticipated elections. Craxi found himself excluded from the government,
and the elections took place in a confused political situation, with
the DC who had abstained on the government of Fanfani (37) appointed
by President Cossiga, after tense consultations, precisely to pave
the way for anticipated consultations.
This concluded
the experiment of a socialist government and direction, but it also
marked the conclusion of the period of cooperation between the socialists
and the radicals. In the new legislature, the socialists were to endorse
the law that invalidated the referendum on the judges' civil responsibility,
which took place in November 1987, and moreover opposed the candidacy
of Marco Pannella for EEC Commissioner. Back from the United States,
Craxi urged a toughening of the drugs law, which was a clear-cut opposition
to the antiprohibitionist initiative started by Marco Pannella in
1984 as a consequence of the campaigns conducted, with the socialist
consent, as of the '70s. In October 1989, lastly, thanks to the decisive
vote also of the socialists, the Chamber unexpectedly accepted the
resignation of Marco Pannella, motivated with the denunciation of
the law which had dodged the referendum on the judges' civil responsibility
and of the "disinformation" carried out by the press and
the state-owned TV to the detriment even of Parliament and its image.
Pannella's insistence
on the subject of information - which was not new (as we see now)
- found new justifications. The change of position of the socialists,
now very little interested in opening to the other lay and green forces,
and attracted instead by the possibility of a new direct conflict
with the DC on the subject of the "Great Reform", enhanced
the danger of the suffocation of the radical party and of its political
line based on a global growth of the reformist front. The distortion,
the destruction of the image, if not of the radical identity, was
one of the desirable and primary objectives of a party power which
aimed - as many denounced - to a final carve-up of the institutions,
of the economy and of the country. On the other hand, despite bill
n. 73/85, the project on world hunger had exhausted its creative momentum.
The law adopted by Parliament, while inadequate compared to the major
radical project, called for a determination of intentions and a precision
of objectives on the part of the authority which was incompatible
with the multifarious interests - lay and Catholic - which revolved
around the use of the allotments.
As a positive effect,
however, the long campaign had enlarged the horizon far beyond the
Italian borders, and had convinced the radical leader that it was
necessary, to ensure a lasting success to any reformist project up
to the problems of our time, to overcome the national dimension. The
belief was enhanced by the experience in the European Parliament,
consistently confirmed as of 1979. Here, Pannella carried out important
federalist battles side by side with Altiero Spinelli (38) and after
his death, in a continuity of inspiration (Spinelli indicated Pannella
as his political heir). Already at the radical congress in November
1985 in Florence, Pannella had managed to pass a resolution whereby
"acknowledging the impossibility of exerting the democratic rights
and the continuation of its activity", the party entrusted to
the statutory organs "the task of proposing a project for the
cessation of all activities at the next congress". This was how
the project of a "transnational" and "transparty"
party took shape, adequate, in terms of means and behaviours, to new
beliefs. The congress of Bologna of January 1988 marked a further
step forward, deliberating that the radical party would in any case
and once and for all stop participating in the national elections
with its own lists and its own symbol.
At a certain point,
the "transparty" indication seemed to take shape. At the
European elections of 1989, radical exponents were presented and elected
in various lists: green, socialdemocratic (an antiprohibitionist list
of strong radical inspiration was also fairly successful). For his
part, Marco Pannella was elected in Strasbourg thanks to an agreement
with the PSI and the PLI, which for a moment even considered a "federation"
containing the dispersed lay forces of the minority. However, regardless
of the scarce electoral results which was the result of the indecisions
of the republicans and the liberals who opposed Pannella's presence,
the lay "pole" was stifled by the opposition of Craxi, who
strongly opposed a potentially competitive force. The appeal addressed
by Pannella to the PCI when its secretary Occhetto (39) prepared to
refound the party, or rather to summon a major "democratic constituent"
among the forces of the left, obtained no better results. Fragility
or scarcity of beliefs hindered such development. Instead of the "constituent
assembly", there was simply a change of name: the Party of Democratic
Left (PDS).
No less complicated
was the progress of the transnational project. The congress of Budapest
in April 1989, confirming the decision to carry on in its realization,
entrusted to an extraordinary organ of four members the administration
of the party (or of its remaining structures, always suspended between
the liquidation and the adjustment, started with great determination,
to the ambitious project). The deliberations of the federal councils,
held symbolically in non-Italian cities (Brussels, Madrid, Jerusalem,
Trieste-Bohiny, Strasbourg) started to develop its themes, but technical
and financial difficulties made the creation of a minimum of structures
capable of connecting the members of different countries and languages
precarious. The multilingual computer conference system "Agor..."
was experimented, and in May 1991 the first issue of the periodical
"The new party", printed in ten (and then 14) languages
and distributed to 250,000 people, including 40,000 parliamentarians
and political exponents from over 100 countries and 4 continents,
was presented. "At the same hour, in the same form, with the
same contents, with the same mass and nonviolent demonstrations -
wrote Marco Pannella in the editorial - identical legislative texts
must be introduced and endorsed in our Parliaments and in our cities,
in our 'parties' or in our 'internationals'". The most massive
responses came from the countries of Eastern Europe.
On 9 June 1991,
a referendum on the single preferential vote for the elections at
the Chamber of Deputies was held, asked by the Committee for Electoral
Referendums (COREL), headed by Mario Segni (42) (who had joined the
"League for the Uninominal system"). In January, the Constitutional
Court, which had become a political "filter" on the subject
of the referendums, had invalidated the two other questions, which
came with the one on the single vote. But the vote of 9 June (opposed
by the parties, while Craxi, secretary of the PSI, invited people
not to vote) was nonetheless an unmistakeable sign of the deep discontent
among the public opinion. The popular discontent was accentuated by
the pressing initiatives and "statements" of the President
of the Republic Cossiga, for which denunciations for "attempt
against the constitution" were introduced in Parliament (the
one introduced in August by Marco Pannella was discussed by the parliamentary
committee for authorizations to proceed). The vote boosted the referendum
movement. In addition to the COREL presided by Segni, the forces that
mobilized were the CORID, the Committee for Democratic Reforms, presided
by Professor Massimo S. Giannini but largely promoted by a number
of radical exponents who had already attempted, through the Radical
Association for the Democratic Constituent (ARCOD) to urge and involve
Pannella and the party so that they would not leave the field of the
institutional reforms to other political subjects. The COREL promoted
three referendums and the Giannini Committee promoted three more.
With a last-moment decision - which prompted surprise and recriminations
- the radical party deposited the request for three more referendums:
abrogation of the public financing of the parties, non-punishability
of the drug addicts and (in cooperation with the Amici della Terra
(40) reform of the USL (41). The radicals started collecting signatures
four days before the other committees, which they extended to all
nine referendums. Part of the press, this time, favoured the new wave
of referendums, in particular Segni, portrayed as a reliable guarantor
against the excesses of party power. The 750,000 signatures collected
were handed in to the Court of Cassation at the same time in which
the 4th Italian Congress of the radical party was opened in Rome (9-12
January 1992).
At the anticipated
elections of 5 April 1992, the gravity of the parties' crisis became
evident in the proliferation of lists, among which there was the "Referendum
list" presented by the Giannini Committee thanks to the decisive
impulse of the radicals of the ARCOD and with consistentt adhesions
from exponents of the "liberal" public opinion. With a suprise
move, the radical leader presented an unprecedented "Lista Pannella",
which embodied the final electoral disappearance of the party of the
"rose in the fist". The list was presented as an anticipation
of that uninominal (Anglo-Saxon) system whereby the votes go not to
the parties, but to the single candidate. Suprisingly, it obtained
1,2% and obtained 7 seats at the Chamber (at the Senate, the agreement
proposed to the Greens and the Giannini Committee had been unsuccessful).
The predictable
massive electoral success of the Lega Nord (42) deeply changed the
parliamentary equilibriums, which were all to be explored. The confrontation
for the elections at the institutional positions (on 28 April the
president of the republic, Francesco Cossiga, resigned and it became
necessary to seek a successor) appeared open and difficult: operating
among the uncertainties and concerns of the political forces, Pannella
supported Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (43), who was elected President of
the Chamber first and then President of the Republic.
Vetoes, perplexities
and fears prevented a candidacy of Marco Pannella for an important
position in the government, while for his part, the radical leader
took a stance of intransigent opposition to the government presided
by Amato (44), which he judged weak and inadequate. But the aggravation
of the situation, including the economic one, in parallel with the
collapse of the Europeanist policies based on the Treaty of Maastricht,
induced the Federalist Group in September to give an unconditional
support to the government (and the fact caused surprise), involved
in a financial and economic emergency manoeuvre which was to be forever
compromised - among the international discredit - by a political (and
perhaps also institutional) crisis in the dark.
Two sectorial initiatives
taken by Pannella should be recalled at this point: the participation
in the regional council of Abruzzo, where he had been elected in 1991
(in an "Antiprohibitionist List against Criminality"), and
the "one hundred days" as president of the 13th municipal
council of the Municipality of Rome, Ostia. In Abruzzo Pannella advocated
a "political laboratory", a place in which to foreshadow
the renewal of the party structures together with exponents of the
PDS and of other political forces; in Ostia he took the occasion,
during the crisis of the municipal council of Rome, it too implicated
in the "Mani Pulite" (45) investigation, to outline a valid
model of governability on a local level: and during the hundred days
promised at the time of his election, Pannella obtained an unprecedented
municipal Regulation which endowed the Roman mega-neighbourhood with
ample autonomy and to start a serious struggle against the devastating
property speculation.
Despite the deep
Italian crisis, maximum priority was given to the transnational party.
The fall of the Berlin wall, the attempted coup in Moscow, with the
consequent expulsion of Gorbachev and the dissolution of the USSR,
the terrible crisis of Yugoslavia, offered opportunities for many
initiatives. In June 1991, the radicals decided to endorse the requests
of independence of the Republics of Slovenia and Croatia and of concrete
autonomy of Kosovo and Macedonia. Interventions at the European and
Italian parliament, hunger strikes, demonstrations in various cities
of Europe, the summons in October-November of a federal council of
the party in Zagreb were moments of a political presence which climaxed
in the decision to reach the areas most affected by the conflict,
the cities of Osijek and Nova Gradiska, in an active and nonconformist
solidarity with the Slovenian and Croatian populations and against
the violations of the law carried out by the Serbian leadership. It
could only be a "scandal", that nonviolent militants and
parliamentarians, and firstly Marco Pannella, provokingly and symbolically
wore the uniform of the Croatian army. The act was a visible protest
and denunciation of the United Nations' hesitation, and especially
of the fears, the silences and the compromises of the EEC, divided
and impotent in the face of a conflict in which there re-emerged the
spectres of the fascisms, of the nationalisms, of the totalitarianisms
which had infected Europe after the Spanish civil war.
The first session
of the 36th Congress of the transnational party was held From 30 April
to 3 May in Rome. Dozens of non-Italian political personalities, coming
especially from Eastern Europe, attended the congress. Zdravko Tomac
(46), Croatian vice premier and member of the party, introduced the
motion for an appeal to the international community to intervene in
Yugoslavia. Despite the evident political success, the Congress was
forced to acknowledge that the subscriptions, especially in Italy,
were insufficient to carry on with the project. The conclusions relative
to the final consolidation or to the dissolution of the transnational
party were thus postponed to a second session to be held in early
1993.
At autumn 1992,
the party counted among its members almost 200 parliamentarians (but
also ministers), representatives of 70 parties from at least 30 countries;
however, the number of Italian subscriptions, the only ones that could
- owing to the amount of the membership fee - cover the debts and
ensure at least one year to the party, continued to be visibly insufficient.
Thus, the second session of the Congress (4-8 February 1993) opened
in an atmosphere of great uncertainty. Pannella confirmed the decision
to close the party in case the number of subscriptions had not been
reached. But this time, sensationally, the destiny of the radicals
had a strong emotional and political impact on the public opinion,
and several exponents of almost all parties, including the Christian
Democratic one, joined the radical party, while the press started
a massive campaign of information and support. At the conclusion of
the Congress, a committee of outstanding personalities was formed,
which assumed the task of promoting a vast membership campaign to
guarantee the survival of the radical "transparty".
The extraordinary
turnabout of the public opinion was the obvious sign of the new prestige
acquired by the radical leader with his parliamentary attitude based
on a great institutional loyalty and with the appeal to the "nobility
of politics" addressed to the country at a moment in which the
entire leading class of the PSI and of the other parties was being
overwhelmed by the "Mani Pulite" initiative started by the
Milanese judiciary.
Angiolo Bandinelli
2) CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
1930. Marco Pannella
was born in Teramo from Leonardo and Andrée Estachon.
1950. National
university delegate of the PLI (Italian Liberal Party). Two years
later, he is President of the UGI (Unione Goliardica Italiana, association
of lay student forces), three years later he is elected President
of the UNURI (Unione Nazionale Rappresentativa Italiana, association
of university students). He graduated in Law at the university of
Urbino.
1955. Among the
founders of the Radical Party.
1959. On "Paese
Sera" (Italian newspaper), he proposes the alliance of all the
parties of the left, and hypothesizes a government with the participation
of the PCI.
1960. Foreign correspondent
for "Il Giorno" in Paris, where he remains until 1963.
1963. Elected Secretary
of the Radical Party. Founder and editor of "Agenzia Radicale".
1965. Beginning
of the campaign for divorce. Creation of the "Italian League
for Divorce".
1967. First Congress
(but third in the historical sequence) of the new Radical Party in
Bologna. The party has been reconstructed on a platform of important
reforms, anticlerical and antimilitarist activity and with a new statute-manifesto.
1968. Arrested
in Sofia, where he was demonstrating to protest against the invasion
of Czechoslovakia. First major Gandhian hunger strike, carried out
together with several other nonviolent militants.
1973. Founder and
editor of "Liberazione", which is published from 8 September
1973 to 28 March 1974.
1974. Referendum
on divorce. Beginning of the campaign on abortion and for the liberalization
of soft drugs.
1976. Elected at
the Chamber in the districts of Turin and Rome, and chooses Turin.
He is also elected at the municipal council of Rome and Genua, and
at the provincial council of Rome, but he prefers to concentrate on
his activity as parliamentarian.
1978. At the conclusion
of a campaign against the economic part of the Treaty of Osimo, he
is elected at the municipal council of Trieste. The radical list obtains
6% of votes and brings about the election of the first non-Christian
democratic mayor of the city.
1979. He is re-elected
deputy in Naples and Milan. He chooses Naples. Elected at the European
Parliament, where is he is constantly re-elected (1984, 1989).
1981. 25th (extraordinary)
Congress of the Radical Party in Rome. The Preamble of the Statute
is passed.
1983. Elected at
the municipal council of Naples, project for the metropolitan area
of the "Greater Naples". Re-elected deputy, chooses the
municipality of Milan.
1987. At the Chamber
this time he runs in Palermo. At the administrative elections of Naples,
the radical list gains twice as many seats and votes, and the radicals
become part of the majority.
1988. In Catania
and in Trieste, presentation of "Civic, lay and green lists".
In Catania, the list obtains five seats and is decisive for the election
to mayor of the republican Enzo Bianco. Pannella is elected also in
Trieste.
1989. Radical Party's
Congress in Budapest. For the municipal elections in Rome, Pannella
proposes a "Lista Nathan" (47), which is aborted because
of the uncertainties of the PCI and of the lay parties. He then runs
with the "Antiprohibitionists on drugs against criminality"
and is elected.
1991. Runs for
the administrative elections in Latium and in the Abruzzi in "Antiprohibitionist,
lay lists against criminality". Is elected in both regional councils.
He is also elected at the municipal council of L'Aquila (but gives
up) and in Teramo, in a civic list together with independent candidates
and exponents of the PCI.
First issue of
"The New Party", for the creation of the new Gandhian, lay,
transnational, federalist, environmentalist party (or rather, the
"transnational transparty").
Proposal of three
referendums, collection of signatures on the radical referendums and
on the ones promoted by the COREL and the CORID.
Denounces the "unconstitutional"
initiatives of President Cossiga to Parliament. The denunciation is
examined by the special parliamentary committee.
A group of radical
parliamentarians and militants, headed by Marco Pannella, visits the
Croatian cities of Osijek and Nova Gradiska for New Year's Eve; the
fact that nonviolent militants were wearing the uniform of the Croatian
army causes a scandal.
1992. 30 April-3
May, in Rome: first Session of the 36th Congress of the RP, with a
vast participation of non-Italian political exponents.
Presentation of
the "Lista Pannella" for the elections at the Chamber of
Deputies of 5 April. The list obtains 1,2% votes and 7 seats in Parliament.
In September, he
endorses the government of Giuliano Amato, with reference to the country's
economic crisis.
In October, the
municipal council of Rome enforces the special Rules for the autonomy
of the 12th local district (Ostia), which Pannella is president of
since August.
1993. 4-8 February.
Second session of the 36th Congress, with the target of obtaining
30,000 subscriptions.
3) SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
A.Bandinelli, S.Pergameno,
M.Teodori: "Libro bianco sul partito radicale e le altre organizzazioni
della sinistra". Edizioni Radicali, 1987
P.Ignazi, A.Panebianco,
M.Teodori: "I nuovi radicali". Mondadori, 1977 (useful bibliography)
"Referendum,
ordine pubblico, Costituzione". Papers of the 1st Convention
of the Radical Parliamentary Group, Florence 8/9 October 1977. Bompiani,
1978
"Il dettato
costituzionale in tema di referendum. Funzioni e poteri della Corte
di Cassazione. Le otto richieste radicali di referendum". Papers
of the 2nd juridical symposium promoted by the radical parliamentary
group, Rome 7/8 January 1978. Rome, 1978
"L'antagonista
radicale". Papers of the Convention promoted by the radical Federal
Council, Rome 1978. Stampa Alternativa, 1978
"Il parlamento
nella Costituzione e nella realt ". Papers of the radical Parliamentary
Group, Rome 20/21/22 October 1978. Giuffre, 1979
"Tutela dell'onore
e mezzi di comunicazione di massa". Papers of the juridical Symposium
promoted by the Centro Calamandrei, Rome 24/26 November 1978. Feltrinelli,
1979
"Il pugno
e la rosa. I radicali: gauchisti, qualunquisti, socialisti".
Edited by V.Vecellio. Bertani, 1979
"Come sempre,
meno liberi. Le leggi speciali sull'ordine pubblico, l'ostruzionismo
radicale". Edited by V. Vecellio. Bertani, 1980
"La pelle
del D'Urso". Edited by L. Jannuzzi, E. Capecelatro, F. Roccella
and V. Vecellio. Radio Radicale Edit., 1981
"Marco Pannella:
Scritti e discorsi 1959/1980". Gammalibri, 1982
Massimo Gusso:
"Il partito radicale, organizzazione e leadership". CLEUP
1982 (vast bibliography)
Gigi Moncalvo:
"Pannella, il potere della parola". Sperling & Kupfer,
1983
Angiolo Bandinelli:
"Il radicale impunito. Diritti civili, nonviolenza, Europa".
Stampa Alternativa, 1990
See also the collections
of : "Agencia Radical" (as from 15 July 1963), replaced
by "Radical News", news bulletins on the Radical Party,
printed or duplicated ("Radical News" discontinued in 1989);
"La Prova Radicale" (1972/1973); "Liberazione"
(editor Marco Pannella), initially a daily newspaper, 8 September
1973 - 28 March 1974; "La Prova Radicale" (periodical magazine,
normally a supplement of Radical News, June 1976 - March 1977); "Argomenti
Radicali" (1977/1979); "QR, Quaderni Radicali" (1977/1985);
lastly, refer to the archives of Radio Radicale and of the Computer
Conference System Agorà, both based in Rome.
(edited by Angiolo
Bandinelli, Rome, July 1991)
Translator's notes
1 - JOTTI NILDE. (Reggio
Emilia 1920). Exponent of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). The companion
of Palmiro Togliatti. President of the Chamber from 1979 to
1992.
2 - MONTECITORIO.
Square in Rome, seat of the Chamber of Deputies. In a wider sense
it Indicates the Chamber itself.
3 - FORTUNA LORIS.
(Breno 1924 - Udine 1985). Italian politician. In 1965, he sponsored
the bill on divorce which was passed by Parliament after years of
initiatives and campaigns carried out in cooperation with the Radical
Party in 1970. He also sponsored bills on abortion and passive euthanasia
(the latter was not approved). Minister of civil defence and community
affairs.
4 - DEMOCRAZIA CRISTIANA
(DC). Italian Christian/Catholic party. Founded with this name
after World War II, heir of the Popular Party, created after World
War I by a Sicilian priest, Don Luigi Sturzo. After the elections
of 1948, in the climate of the cold war, it became the party of relative
majority, occasionally coming very close to obtaining the absolute
majority. Key component of every cabinet, it has been detaining power
uninterruptedly for half a century, strongly influencing the development
of Italian society in a conservative sense. At the elections of 1992
for the first time it dropped below 30% of votes.
5 - 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.
6 - BERLINGUER ENRICO.
(Sassari 1922 - Padua 1984). Italian politician. Deputy since 1968,
secretary general of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) from 1979 to
his death, after the crisis and the assassination of Allende he became
an advocate of the "historical compromise", which produced,
between 1976 and 1979, the so-called "majority of no no-confidence",
the greatest achievement of Togliatti's strategy for an organic agreement
with the Christian Democratic Party. Architect of the project of creating
the so-called "Eurocommunism", an attempt to project in
the West a reformism which would not entirely deny the communist experience.
7 - HISTORICAL COMPROMISE.
Political project pursued in particular by Enrico Berlinguer, secretary
of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), based on a cooperation between
communists and catholics.
8 - CRAXI BETTINO.
(Milan 1934). Italian politician. Socialist, deputy since 1968. Appointed
secretary of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) in 1976, he operated
important changes in the party's phisiognomy, turning it into the
core of a wide project of institutional and other reforms and of unity
of the socialist forces.
9 - PANNUNZIO MARIO.
(Lucca 1910 - Rome 1968). Italian journalist, liberal. Editor of the
daily newspaper "Risorgimento Liberale" between 1943 and
1947, he then established (1949) the newsmagazine "Il Mondo",
which he was editor of for seventeen years, making into an unchallenged
example of modern European journalism. Member of the Italian Liberal
party, he was one of the founders of the Radical party, which he contributed
to dissolving when the centre-left was formed.
10 - ROSSI ERNESTO.
(Caserta 1897 - Rome 1967). Italian journalist and politician. Leader
of "Giustizia e Libert...", in 1930 he was arrested by the
fascist regime and remained in prison or exiled until the end of the
war. Author, together with Spinelli, of the "Manifesto di Ventotene",
and leader of the European Federalist Movement and of the battle for
a united Europe. Among the founders of the Radical Party. Essayist
and journalist, from "Il Mondo" he promoted vehement campaigns
against clerical interference in the political life, against economic
trusts, industrial and agrarian protectionism, private and public
concentrations of power, etc. His articles were collected in famous
books ("I padroni del vapore", etc). After the dissolution
of the Radical Party in 1962, and the consequent split from the editor
of "Il Mondo", M.Pannunzio, he founded "L'Astrolabio",
whence he continued his polemics. In his last years he joined the
"new" radical party, with which in 1967 he launched the
"Anticlerical Year".
11 - ENI. National
Hydrocarbon Corporation. Public holding established in 1953 to coordinate
the Italian energy industry. With its subsidiary companies AGIP, SNAM,
SAIPEM, ANIC, in 1980 it became the third greatest European industrial
group. Its presidents Enrico Mattei and Eugenio Cefis were involved
in Italian politics, occasionally with roles that went beyond their
functions.
12 - ONMI. Opera
Nazionale Maternit... e Infanzia. State institute established at the
time of fascism, for mother and child welfare. After the war it became,
until its dissolution, the feud of the Chrsitian Democratic Party
implicated in scandals for its lobbyist management. In particular,
the political and press campaign conducted by the Radical party in
the mid '60s on the corruption of the Roman section of the institute,
which involved the then mayor of Rome Amerigo Petrucci.
13 - PETRUCCI AMERIGO.
(Rome 1922). Mayor of Rome in 1964, arrested for administrative misdemeanours
committed to create the public welfare network which were the source
of the Christian Democracy's lobbyist fortunes. The allegations which
sparked the trial were the result of a political and press campaign
started by the Radical Party.
14 - LOTTA CONTINUA.
One of the most important and widespread political movements of the
extreme left, established in 1969 in Turin. In 1971 it created the
homonymous newspaper, which became immediately popular. It detached
the extraparliamentary Left from the laborite prejudicial, penetrating
the youth and students' milieu, the conscripts, the prisons, etc.
Its chief leader was the journalist and writer Adriano Sofri.
15 - TOGLIATTI PALMIRO.
(Genua 1893 - Yalta 1964). In Turin he cooperated with A. Gramsci,
among the founders of the Italian Communist Party, which he was secretary
of from 1927 until his death. Exiled in Russia, he was member of the
secretariat of the Comintern, and played an important role in Spain
during the civil war. Back in Italy in 1944, he launched a "national"
policy based on the fact of voting the Lateran pacts, clashing with
the lay forces of the country. Member of government from 1944 to 1947,
also as minister. After the elections of 1948, he monopolized the
opposition's role, but he also favoured a "dialogue" with
the Christian Democracy and the Catholic world, without ever breaking
with the Vatican. His project of an "Italian way to socialism"
did not achieve its fundamental objective, and on the contrary lead
to a stalemate in the political system, preventing the Left from acquiring
any "alternation" in power from the Christian Democratic
Party.
16 - INGRAO PIETRO.
(Lenola 1915). For many years chief exponent of the Italian Communist
Party. After militating in the fascist university organizations, leader
of the party's "Left", open to the so-called "dialogue
with the Catholics" and to a grass roots conception of politics,
perceived as struggle of the "masses" against capitalist
exploitation on a world scale. President of the Chamber of Deputies
from 1976 to 1979, at the time of the "compromesso storico"
and of "national unity".
17 - ANDREOTTI GIULIO.
(Rome 1919). Exponent of the Christian Democratic Party. Secretary
of A. De Gasperi, very young, as under-secretary of the Presidency
of the Council, he began an uninterrupted career as minister: Interior
(1954), Finance (1955-58), Treasury (1958-59), Defence (1959-66),
Industry (1966-68), Budget (1974-76). Prime Minister from 1972 to
1973, then from 1976 to 1979 and from 1990 to date.
18 - MORO ALDO. (Maglie
1916 - Rome 1978). Italian politician. Secretary of the Christian
Democratic Party (1959-65), mastermind of the Centre-Left policy.
Several times minister as of 1956, Prime Minister (1963-68, 1974-76)
president of the Christian Democratic Party as of 1956, he favoured
the participation of the Communist Party (PCI) in the government,
outlining the hypothesis of a so-called "third stage" (after
those of "centrism" and "centre-left") of the
political system. He was kidnapped by the Red Brigades on 16 March
1978 in Rome and found dead on 9 May of the same year.
19 - RED BRIGADES. (Known
as BR). Clandestine terrorist organization of the extreme Left, born
and operating in Italy as of 1969. By proclaiming the revolution of
the working classes, the organization tried to open several fronts
of armed revolt against the State and the political establishment,
carrying out a series of attempts, wounding, kidnapping and assassinationg
politicians, journalists, magistrates and industrial executives. Its
leader was Renato Curcio. In 1978 the organization kidnapped and assassinated
Aldo Moro.
20 - MASI GIORGIANA.
On 12 May 1977, in Rome, the police charged the thousands of participants
in a nonviolent demonstration organized by the Radical Party, called
to collect signatures on the "eight referendums" promoted
on fundamental themes (abrogation of the Concordat, restrictive norms
of the penal code, law on mental hospitals, public funding of parties,
parliamentary committee of inquiry on offences committed by ministers,
etc.). A young woman, Giorgiana Masi, was killed by gunshots, and
other demonstrators were wounded. The Radical party showed pictures
and tapes which show policemen shooting point-blank and others which
portray armed plainclothes policemen in the crowd, denouncing the
deliberate attempt to cause a massacre.
21 - COSSIGA FRANCESCO.
(Sassari 1928). President of the Italian Republic from 1985 to
1992. Deputy since 1958, under secretary (1966) and Minister (1974).
Minister of the Interior (1976-78) when Aldo Moro was kidnapped, he
resigned when the dead body of the statesman was discovered. Prime
Minister (1979-80). As President of the republic, during the second
part of his term he actively promoted changes in the Italian Constitution,
participating in fierce controversies with the majority of political
exponents, and overcoming the limits laid down by the Constitution.
For such reasons he was denounced by Marco Pannella in August 1991
for attempt on the Constitution.
22 - REALE ORONZO.
(Lecce 1902 - Rome 1988). One of the founders of the Partito d'Azione
(1942), secretary of the republican party (1949-1964), deputy, minister
of justice. The "Reale bill" is an emergency bill which
attributed special powers to the police forces, introduced by Reale
to defeat terrorism (1975). In the referendum of 1988 promoted by
the Radical Party to abrogate the "Reale bill", 76% of voters
declared themselves in favour of maintaining the law.
23 - LEONE GIOVANNI.
(Naples 1908). Prime Minister (1963-'68), then of the Republic
(1971-'78), was forced to resign after being implicated in the Lockheed
scandal, following the referendum on public funds to parties, promoted
by the Radical party.
24 - PERTINI SANDRO.
(Stella 1896 - Rome 1990). Italian politician. Socialist, was imprisoned
and exiled during the fascist regime.. From 1943 to 1945 he participated
in the Resistance. Secretary of the Socialist Party, deputy, president
of the Chamber (1968-1976), President of the Republic (1978-1985).
25 - SPADOLINI GIOVANNI.
(Florence 1925-1994). Italian historian and politician. Editor
of "Il Resto del Carlino" (1955-68) and of "Il Corriere
della Sera" (1968-72), Minister of Artistic Property (1974-76),
secretary of the Italian Republican Party since 1979 and Prime Minister
since 1981. Currently President of the Senate.
26 - SCIASCIA LEONARDO.
(Racalmuto 1921 - Palermo 1990). Writer, author of well-known novels
("Le parrocchie dor Regalpetr", 1956; "Il giorno della
civetta" 1961; Todo modo, 1974), but also known as a polemist,
he took active part in the Italian civil life for at least twenty
years. During one legislature (1979-1983) he was also radical member
of Parliament, actively intervening in civil rights campaigns (Tortora
case, etc.).
27 - D'URSO GIOVANNI.
Italian judge. Kidnapped by the Red Brigades on 12 December 1980.
The kidnapping, which closely resembled that of Aldo Moro, stirred
a vicious political and press controversy, during which some proposed
the formation of a an "emergency" government formed by technicians
alone. The Radical Party played an important role - thanks also to
the action of the writer Leonardo Sciascia - in obtaining the judge's
release and in opposing any authoritarian solution. The judge was
released on 15 December 1981.
28 - P2. Name of
a masonic lodge, whose members were covered by secrecy. Headed by
Licio Gelli. Believed to be the organization which masterminded obscure
political schemes and administered huge financial scandals. Dissolved
in 1981 following a decision of the government. Its members practically
all suffered a long political and social quarantine.
29 - VILLA BORGHESE
- A public park in Rome.
30 - ROCCO ALFREDO.
(Naples 1875 - Rome 1935). Jurist and politician.
At first a radical, then
joined the nationalists who then merged with the fascist party. Minister
of Justice from 1925 to 1932, author of the penal code and of the
codes of criminal procedure, issued between 1930 and 1931. Despite
the strong fascist inspiration, the two codes have remained intact
for many years even after the fall of fascism, and have only very
recently been replaced by more modern Codes. A figure of extraordinary
importance in the institutional history of contemporary Italy.
31 - NEGRI TONI. (Padua
1933). Italian writer and philosopher, exponent of the laborite and
revolutionary extreme Left, was convicted as the architect of the
assassination of ing. Saronio. Ran on the Radical Party ticket (provided
he waive his parliamentary immunity and accepted the trial), he was
elected member of Parliament in 1983. He escaped his trial by fleeing
clandestinely to France, where he currently lives.
32 - PICCOLI FLAMINIO.
(Kirchbichl, Austria 1915). Italian politician. Secretary of the DC
(1969; 1980-1982). Former president of the Chamber Foreign Affairs
Committee.
33 - TORTORA ENZO.
(Genua 1928 - Milan 1988). Journalist and popular TV compere, arrested
for alleged drug dealing. Elected member of the European Parliament
(1984) on the Radical Party ticket, he underwent a trial during which
he was convicted and later acquitted at the appeal. The occasion and
the symbol of the most important radical campaign for the reform of
the justice system.
34 - CSM - Conseil
Sup‚rieur de la Magistrature.
35 - DE MITA CIRIACO.
(Avellino 1928). Politician, Christian Democrat, deputy as of 1963.
Minister on several occasions, secretary of the Christian Democratic
Party in 1981 and Prime Minister in 1988, he was the protagonist of
a vicious controversy with Craxi and the socialists and of attempts
to "open" to the Italian Communist Party (PCI). Forced to
resign by the conservative Christian Democrats, the so-called "dorotei",
he has become President of the DC. Leader of the left-wing current.
36 - NATTA ALESSANDRO.
(Imperia 1918). Exponent and deputy of the Italian Communist Party
(PCI). He became secretary of the PCI after the death of Berlinguer,
but left active politics after the "turnabout" carried out
by the current secretary Achille Occhetto who interrupted the continuity
with Marxism and transformed the PCI into PDS. He studied at the "Scuola
Normale" of Pisa, in the cultural milieu of the time.
37 - FANFANI AMINTORE.
(Arezzo 1908). Italian politician, professor of economic history,
eminent personality of the Christian Democrat Party which he was secretary
of from 1954 to 1959 and from 1973 to 1975. He gave a strong corporative
impulse to the party with the use of public industry as a key element
of economic development. Prime Minister (1958-'59; 1960-'62; 1982-'83),
foreign minister on several occasions, president of the Senate from
1958 to 1973 and from 1976 to 1982.
38 - SPINELLI ALTIERO.
( Rome 1907 - 1982). Italian politician. During fascism, from 1929
to 1942, he was imprisoned as leader of the Italian Communist Youth.
In 1942 co-author, with Ernesto Rossi, of the "Manifesto of Ventotene",
which states that only a federal Europe can remove the return of fratricide
wars in the European continent and give it back an international role.
At the end of the war he founded, with Rossi, Eugenio Colorni and
others, the European federalist Movement. After the crisis of the
European Defence Community (1956), he became member of the European
Commission, and followed the evolution of the Community structures.
In 1979 he was elected member of the European Parliament on the ticket
of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), becoming the directive mind
in the realization of the draft treaty adopted by that parliament
in 1984 and known as the "Spinelli Project".
39 - OCCHETTO ACHILLE.
(Turin 1936). Italian politician. At first exponent of Ingrao's
group, he then shifted to Berlinguer's centre. He became secretary
of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1988, succeeding Alessandro
Natta. After launching the idea of a major "Constituent"
of the left with all reformist forces, he then decided to change only
the name of the party ("Democratic Party of the Left").
40 - AMICI DELLA TERRA
- (Friends of the Earth), Italian environmentalist association.
41 - USL - Public
health services.
42 - LIGUE NORD
- Parti politique qui entre au Parlement en avril 1992. La Ligue Nord
est n‚e surtout dans la r‚gion Emilia Romagna et en Lombardie.
Son objectif est la division de l'Italie en trois parties: nord, centre
et sud. La Ligue Nord a le consensus d'une population qui en a assez
de la corruption et qui accuse le sud de profiter de la richesse productive
du nord. Son id‚ologue est R. Miglio et son leader Umberto Bossi.
43 - SCALFARO OSCAR
LUIGI. (Novara 1918). Italian politician, Christian Democrat.
Lawyer, former minister of transport, minister of artistic property,
minister of the Interior. Man of great integrity, he enjoys the esteem
of the laics as well.
44 - AMATO GIULIANO.
(Turin 1938). Politician, expert in constitutional law. Extraparliamentary
by formation, later joined the Socialist Party. Member of Parliament
during several legislatures, under-secretary of the Presidency of
the Council during the two Craxi governments. Vice Prime Minister
and Minister of Treasury during the first Goria government.
45 - MAINS PROPRES
- Literally, "clean hands", an operation organized by part
of the judiciary of Milan, consisting in investigating the ministers
and politicians implicated in the scandal of the bribes.
46 - TOMAC ZDRAVKO
- (1937). Former vice president of the Croatian government. He spoke
for the first time at the Federal Council of the Radical Party in
Rome from 19 to 22 September 1991. At the time the political situation
of the former Yugoslavia was degenerating, explosing in conflicts
and attacks which made it more and more evident that it was a civil
war, which Europe refused to acknowledge as such. The federal council
was summoned to discuss this terrible international crisis, which
occurred immediately after the attempte coup in Moscow. The radical
party invited him to participate so that he could publicly denounce
the situation in his country in Italy, and he joined the radical party
on the last day of the congress.
47 - NATHAN ERNESTO.
(London 1845 - Rome 1921 - assumed Italian citizenship in 1888). Politician,
at the beginning of the century he headed a lay and reformist coalition
to conquer the local administration of Rome, until then controlled
by exponents of land speculation linked to the most reactionary and
clerical forces. As mayor of Rome (from 25 November 1907 to 4 December
1913) he achieved major social reforms of the Roman local administration.
A Jew and member of the Masonry, Nathan represented a never forgotten
nightmare for Roman reactionary forces. In 1989 Marco Pannella launched
a project called "Lista Nathan" for the administrative elections
which he proposed to the lay forces of the Left. The proposal was
not accepted.
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