«I heard Minister Roccella use the word “censorship” due to the complaints she received. It seems excessive to me, there is a clear difference in power between the girls of the collectives and a minister who has the possibility of speaking her mind every day on all the TV channels. Censorship is when those who have power take away the speech of those who have much less, not a simple non-violent protest.” Cecilia Strada, human rights activist, former president of Emergency, daughter of Gino and Teresa, is the leader of the Democratic Party in the European elections in the north-west.
Did the minister exaggerate?
I’m used to protests. When I say that lives must be saved at sea I receive all kinds of insults, much more violent, but I don’t play the victim: a public figure runs these risks and twenty or so students cannot silence a minister. It worries me much more to see young women who, in 2024, are forced to reiterate that they want to decide about their bodies. We thought they were rights acquired once and for all. And it worries me to see that with Pnrr money the right wants to get pro-lifers into counseling centers. I am concerned about the effort that women make to be able to terminate pregnancies, amidst objecting doctors and other obstacles. If the government wants to reduce abortions, it should invest in sex education in schools and make contraception free. Otherwise you only perceive the desire to attack women’s freedom.
Marco Tarquinio, a candidate like her in the Democratic Party, maintains that abortion is not a right. What does he answer?
I respect his position as a believer, I ask him to respect law 194 and women’s freedom of choice, something he has never questioned. There is no need for either of you to try to change the other’s mind.
Why did a person with your history run for office in the Democratic Party?
I could ask you the question: “Why is the Democratic Party now making posters talking about peace and asking that the Mediterranean is no longer a cemetery?”. Today the Democratic Party is close to many of my battles. Not all of them, for goodness sake. But I give a lot of value to differences: I would never want to be in a party where everyone thinks exactly like me. This is not the main party that made the agreements with Libya; instead he proposes a European rescue mission. There are all the conditions to travel for a while together.
On Ukraine you are more for negotiations than for sending weapons. Rather isolated position in the Democratic Party.
Laura Boldrini agrees with me and she is not the only one. After two years of war, the need for negotiations for a just peace is increasingly emerging.
What do you mean by just peace?
A peace that does not create the conditions for a return to war after three weeks.
Would you vote for more arms shipments?
My position is known, now we need to invest all our energy in negotiations. I haven’t been elected yet, I really hope that, if and when I sit in the European Parliament, a solution has already been reached. In any case I will vote according to my conscience, aware that no one will be shown the door.
Tarquinio, a pacifist like her, says he feels like a foreign pope in the Democratic Party. Is she too?
I appreciate the fact that internal discussion is present in the Democratic Party and is also encouraged by the leaders. On peace, I am in agreement with Tarquinio, with Cardinal Zuppi, with Pope Francis, with the Ukrainian pacifist movement. For two years everyone has been focused on the war system, it’s time to change, to give peace a chance and to invest all economic, mental and political resources. We have already seen where the logic of war leads: conflicts do not stop and there is the risk of nuclear apocalypse. I never thought my 14 year old son would ask me if anyone is actually going to push the atomic button.
Does Schlein agree?
The secretary’s job is to summarize. But she is the first to want a just peace.
Is the EU doing enough for peace in Palestine?
What is happening in Gaza and Rafah is monstrous, even for us Westerners who accept that a democratic government carries out a massacre of civilians. I have seen these massacres carried out by the Taliban, by militias or by terrorists, but this is a democratic country. The deaths are many more than the 35 thousand we are talking about: there is an “induced” effect caused by hunger and disease. For the West it is a very serious problem and also a demonstration of incoherence: why are war crimes condemned in Ukraine tolerated in Gaza?
What should Italy and the EU do?
Tell Israel more forcefully that it cannot behave like a terrorist group. For me this is respecting Israel, not encouraging it to get on the wrong side of history.
Many even in the Democratic Party believe that Netanyahu is legitimately fighting Hamas.
The fight against terrorism, like the mafias, is done by following the money. To fight the mafia and the ndrangheta, Palermo or Milan are not bombed.
How has your life changed now that you are in politics?
Even before I was out and about a lot meeting people, one of the best parts of my job. They give me words like peace and rights, and above all hope. To be able to change things with a vote. I try to say that Europe is not an abstract entity, it also depends on the people who will be elected.
Will he sign the CGIL referendums against the Jobs Act?
Certainly, and I consider a party that has the courage to correct the mistakes of the past, such as regarding migrants, to be healthy. Schlein chose to focus on workers’ rights, without the fear of disavowing choices made by some predecessors.
Is there a suppression of dissent in Italy?
We have a government in which many cannot call themselves anti-fascists, and this in itself reveals an authoritarian impulse. Mark Twain said that history does not repeat itself but it rhymes: I see many rhymes if I look at how the poor, foreigners, students, protests are treated. Tina Anselmi said that democracy is not given forever but must be kept alive: that is exactly what we must do.
