“It’s not so fundamental for me to reach 4%. Indeed, reaching 3% would still be extraordinary for a movement born only a few weeks ago.” Michele Santoro saw the latest Ipsos poll giving Pace Terra Dignità at 1.9% and up 0.4% compared to a month ago But the journalist and television author who decided to go into the field for the European elections on June 8 and 9 does not seem worried: “Also because it is a survey. of 500 people. This means that the great historical forces are favored. Let's see if this result will be confirmed at the polls. I believe that the pollsters are having difficulty reproducing the reality of this period. .”
The threshold
And he does not get angry even when it is pointed out to him that, according to the polls, his name “weighs” exactly 2% in the ballot boxes, his party therefore does not bring added value for the moment: “I think whoever talks like that, he doesn't know the history of Italian politics. And he does not remember that, for example, Giorgia Meloni ran for the first time with the Brothers of Italy in the European elections and did not reach the quorum. This is a way of discrediting the new lists, but if we want to think seriously, we must recognize that a movement which quickly reaches 2% is a growing political force. We collected 100,000 signatures in a few weeks, we managed to present ourselves everywhere. This means we have a significant push from below. So if you want to think from the point of view of the powerful…”.
For the presenter from Samarkand, the main objective of the electoral campaign is to “place the question of peace at the center of the competition. I see that a very strong form of censorship has taken place on the part of newspapers and television. Indeed, when we had problems in the constituencies, all the television news was quick to say that we would not be present. When we were readmitted, only the Mentana newspaper said it, even if they got the name of the list wrong.”
The atomic rearmament of Europe
Today, according to Santoro, the major parties “find themselves on the news in blatant violation of the level playing field, giving them a huge advantage over the others.” But our objectives remain clear: to end the war, to remedy the violation of constitutional rights represented by the supply of arms to Ukraine, and then not to build a European army. Because EU countries spend 1 trillion on weapons, Russia spends a tenth of that. We are therefore quite calm about traditional armaments, we can easily face a Russian invasion. Whereas the creation of a European army should start from an atomic rearmament of the EU. And we are obviously opposed to it, because it comes at the expense of social policies and the challenge of climate change. » Which would require the use of enormous resources, Santoro explains: “We need a water pipeline, major work because water has become an essential good. Taking resources away from that and giving them to weapons seems crazy to me. »
Cancel the debt
And then Santoro proposes “the cancellation of 2,500 billion of debts which are State bonds in the belly of the European Central Bank to accelerate the ecological transition and protect the categories concerned: from farmers to workers”. Also because, Santoro explains, “Europe is currently planning to devote only 300 billion to the ecological transition: this figure is insufficient. Even Trump in the United States is opposed to the “Biden” transition, that is to say slow and carried out in the interest of large financial aggregates which cannot suddenly divest from their investments in fossil fuels. When asked which European institution could have the stature to say “no more massacres” to Netanyahu and Biden, he replied that “right now Europe is on its knees. And it’s not just me saying that. This is also what former prime ministers like Monti say, who speak of an EU in pieces and assert that to rebuild a European political identity, “a bloodbath is necessary”. debate on this because we prefer to talk about something else, while the world is on the verge of an atomic conflict and when Raisi's helicopter fell the other day, we all trembled in fear of an escalation . Just like the day of the Italian drone attack, Bibi took refuge in the fallout shelter and Biden was in the Oval Office with his briefcase. For us, however, it is important to discuss whether or not Chico Forti should have been welcomed by Meloni, which – let's be clear – I still find absurd. This is the level of the debate in Italy.”
Lucan and Tarquin
Santoro then speaks of Marco Tarquinio's candidacy for the Democratic Party: “I am happy about it because it means that it is a first result of our action: the Democratic Party has been forced to open up to questions of peace. I wonder if there is any consistency, given that I am one of the few who have read the Democratic Party manifesto for the European elections, which commits all candidates to support Ukraine also militarily. And I don't think Tarquinio agrees with that. But no one asks him anyway…
However, according to Santoro, that of Mimmo Lucano is part of a “strategy of the Democratic Party and the Avs to stem the growth of our list. Lucano had proposed a single list to which we all adhered, from De Magistris to Rifondazione. But the truth is that neither the Italian left nor the Greens wanted to do it because they do not want to put the war at the center of the electoral campaign. Lucano withdrew from the operation that he himself had proposed. Why did he do it? I don't know. I continue to respect him. But the fact remains that he disappeared after proposing a list which would have obtained more than 6% and would have become competitive in Italy. We see that he preferred to survive…”.
Calenda and Annunziata
Santoro is caustic when it is pointed out to him that, according to Calenda, slogans such as “vote for us to bring peace to Europe” are misleading, because no party would be able to keep such a promise: “So I don't understand not which promises the leader of Action would be able to keep. He would first have to tell us which ones he manages to keep.
On the challenge with Lucia Annunziata in the South constituency, after the numerous clashes of previous years, he wishes to emphasize that “it is first of all she who has bad relations with me, it is she who left one of my programs called “The Children's War” because she had seen a report which, according to her, had been produced by Hamas and by one of my producers who had been working in Palestine for years: in the end, this episode led to a conviction for war crimes. against Israel. Annunziata is like this: she is always on the side of those who command. Once again, she is on the battleship and I am on my lifeboat. But unfortunately for her, my challenge is always the most interesting and adventurous. »
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