ITALY Crisis in Democrazia Proletaria THE PRESENTATION of the slates for the European elections has sparked the explosion of a grave crisis in Democrazia Proletaria (DP). Two of its deputies are running not on DP's slates but on the so-called Rainbow slates, which also include members of the Radical Party.
On the other hand, the best known leader of the Radical Party, Marco Pannella, has just sealed a "secularist" alliance with two bourgeois government parties, the Republicans and the Liberals', as well as with environmentalists who have broken with the Greens, who participated in the 1987 legislative elections and will also be running in the June 18 EEC elections.
T HIS CRISIS had already begun to take shape a few months after DP's May 1988 congress (see IV 163). Those who defended minority positions in the congress published a document signed by 22 activists which in effect resumed the debate. More specifically, for the European elections they proposed "a common grouping that would develop rapidly and with sufficient homogeneity to make it possible to present slates backed by DP, the Greens and the Radical Party." Among the signatories were the former national secretary of DP, Mario Capanna; Lombardy regional councillor Emilio Molinari; and Senator Guido Pollice. And two other quite well-known leaders, Stefano Semenzato and Franco Russo, while they did not sign the document, were quite positive about the initiative. At the end of October and the beginning of November, the National Delegate Assembly met. This body includes the National Leadership, plus members elected by the federations. There was a very sharp confrontation, despite the attempts at conciliation by the center, in particular by the national secretary, Giovanni Russo Spena. Finally, the idea of an alliance with the Greens and the Radicals was rejected, and it was decided to present DP slates in the European elections (by 129 votes to 60). However, that was not the end of it. As the elections drew nearer, the proposal for an electoral bloc with the Greens and the Radicals was revived, especially following on an initiative by a group of intellectuals, of whom the best known was Leonardo Sciascia. And he proposed precisely the formation of Rainbow slates including Greens, Radicals and DP members prepared to accept such a move. But, since both the Greens and the Radicals rejected this proposal, the initiative was doomed to failure. In any case, a new DP Delegate Assembly at the end of March confirmed the decision to present DP slates.
An open break with congress decisions
However, despite appearances, the matter was not yet settled. Conflicts broke out among the Greens. And the availability of some Radicals, including one of their leaders, Francesco Rutelli, revived the project of Rainbow slates distinct from the "traditional" Green slates. This time around, Rainbow slates were finally set up. Edo Ronchi and Gianni Tamino, as well as the former chief of the organization's international department, Luciano Neri, were included on them.
This was an open break. DP's National Secretariat met on May 8, that is, two days before the deadline for registering slates, and declared that all those included on slates other than those of the organization "would place themselves de facto outside DP's debate and collective life." The rightwing was not slow in responding. Ronchi and Pollice challenged this decision, declaring that they were not accepting "bureaucratic reprisals," and that the debate in DP would continue after the elections. They were obviously relying on the fact that, according to the statutes, the Secretariat does not have the right to expel members, and that no meeting of the National Leadership nor of the Delegate Assembly is expected before June 18. * 1. The Radicals are present not only on the "secularist" bloc and Rainbow slates but also on the slates of the social-democratic party. Moreover, the Radicals are included in the so-called anti-prohibitionist slates, 9 which are for liberalizing the drug trade.