Marco Pannella was a towering determine in Italy’s political and activist scenes. Very tall, burly, and with a voice like thunder, he was a good-looking man within the mildew of imperial Rome: His shiny eyes, aquiline nostril and extensive smile have been instantly recognizable. Tv popularized him as somebody who stood out from the gang and disturbed the general public peace. His physique may face up to lengthy Gandhi-like durations of fasting in a rustic well-known for its love of meals. He as soon as drank his personal urine in entrance of the cameras, throughout a sensational quick in protest at poor dwelling circumstances in prisons.
Born to a Franco-Swiss mom, Pannella’s good and chic French at all times astonished his colleagues within the European Parliament, the place he was a member for a lot of legislative phrases. A son of the South, the homeland of rhetoric and demagogy, he was born and buried, with elaborate ceremony, in Teramo, a small city south of Rome, nearby of the Adriatic Sea.
In a rustic the place reforms are a mirage and rights are a luxurious, Pannella added momentum to the combat for divorce and abortion in Italy within the Seventies. He promoted using the referendum as a method of constructing legal guidelines and influencing energy. To the ranks of the Radical Get together, an influential minority social gathering he based within the Fifties, he nominated controversial figures: Enzo Tortora, a well-known tv anchor and a logo of injustice in Italy; Professor Antonio Negri, thought-about one of many leaders of an ideological extremism bordering on political terrorism; Ilona Staller, a well-known porn actress often known as “Cicciolina.”
Pannella fought in opposition to world starvation, performed an extended worldwide marketing campaign in opposition to the dying penalty and was in favor of legalizing using hashish. He was a liberal and a democrat, a passionate anti-cleric and an unparalleled activist. He by no means took an actual vacation in his life.
Pannella can by no means be in contrast with the boisterous, noisy and sometimes trivial clique of the brand new anti-politics, equivalent to comic Beppe Grillo and Matteo Salvini, chief of the Northern League. His motto was: We have to govern, even from the opposition, and to defend the establishments and the rule of regulation.
Each old-style liberal tradition and democratic radicalism flowed in his veins. He was dedicated to the free-market, an enemy of public debt, and a critic of the welfare state. Regarded for years as a left-wing politician, he didn’t hesitate to help Silvio Berlusconi.
Pannella additionally suffered crushing defeats. Even in his “golden age” his social gathering by no means obtained greater than 4 p.c of the vote, aside from as soon as. However the significance of his concepts was monumental. He was each brusque and respectful, with out “double requirements.” His fashion was flavored with a splash of disdain, maybe, however with out skepticism. To Italians, he was maybe not well-suited to manipulate however he was a saintly determine, a individuals’s prophet they couldn’t do with out.
Pannella died after writing a loving letter to Pope Francis. The Pope reciprocated by phoning him and making clear he thought-about Pannella a fantastic character.
Giuliano Ferrara is the founding editor of Il Foglio. This text was translated from the unique Italian.
