[WCUSP] Luisa Morgantini V president of European Union

[yvonne simmons]

I met Luisa Morgnatini in her tiny activist office in
1991 at the University of Rome. Among all the posters
ans papers she was getting ready for a trip to central
America taking a group with her. I wanted to know
about Women in Black so my introduction to WIB was in
Italian and I still have the Italian literature. ahe
is an amazing woman. The last time I saw her was in
Bogota, Columbia at a women's peace conference
organized by Ruta Pacifica, Colombia. Her involvement
in working for a just solution for Palestine. She has
several times taken members of the European Parliament
to see the situation on the ground in Israel and
Palestine. She is one of my heroes. In Peace Yvonne
To MEP Luisa Morgantini

Vice – President of the European Parliament

by Giancarla Silvestrini

 

Published on  Nuovo Parlamento –Monday  19th May  2008

In 2007 you were appointed Vice President of the
European Parliament, which is a very honourable
assignment but that also implies a role of great
responsibility, representing 500 million people.  How
do you live and deal with this commitment on a daily
basis?

I have to admit that I am always very surprised and
astonished to be the Vice President of such an
extraordinary and important Parliament. I am a fervent
supporter of European unity and I am thankful to
Altiero Spinelli and to all those women and men who
were devoted to Europe construction, even if there is
still a lot to do so that Europe can be consistent
with the values of social justice and defending human
dignity.

Sometimes it happens that even people around me are
surprised to know that I am the Vice President of the
European Parliament. For example, people whom I meet
in the street or at the supermarket often ask me "Do
you go shopping and take the bags by yourself? Don't
you have a chauffeur?" Some weeks ago, during my
flight back from South Africa where I went with an
Italian NGO to verify the effectiveness of projects to
prevent AIDS (it was not an official delegation of the
EP and I was flying in economy class), I was asked by
a young boy from Naples about my job; my awkward
answer left him absolutely astonished and he said to
me that he would tell his mother that he had travelled
with a Parliament member sitting in economy class
instead of business; a Parliament member who owns an
old 1989 Clio that she drives by herself, instead of
the "official car".

Apart from that, I often ask myself if I can measure
up to this commitment and sometimes I feel unsuited
for the complexity of issues and questions that I have
to face; I know my limitations and this awareness,
which I gained through my interactions with the trade
unions, feminism, the non-violent movement, saves me:
not being engaged in all fields, but focusing my
activities on those questions and issues that
represent the heart of my life and my values.  

The duties that I have committed to for the Presidency
Bureau include the relationship between the European
Union and its strategies towards Africa, and the EP
commitment to affirming human rights. According to my
proposal, I am very glad because on the occasion of
the Intercultural Relations Year, EP will host the
"Week of African Culture". Africa means not only
hunger, death, desertification, war. Africa is rich in
big resources, not only material, but human as well;
its relationship with the European Union should be a
real partnership, recognising the current inequality.
It's necessary to break the clichés which prevent us
from seeing the others with this complexity; of course
the rules of trade policies should be modified, too.

You asked me about my way of facing issues
it could
sound banal, but I face everything seriously, talking
with passion isn't much, sometimes it is an obsession,
I work hardly. I have no children, no grandchildren,
no husband, no lovers who are waiting for me. Only two
cats and I am very sorry to see them only for a little
while. But I cannot stop, I try to work so that human
rights can be not just words but actions and Europe is
not using different criteria when human rights are
violated. It is very hard, but it is worth a lot! Only
my body sometimes is unable to handle all this, then I
keep still for 2 days because I cannot move, but
luckily the telephone and e-mails exist, so that I can
go on.

In your first plenary session, in quality of
President, you opened a debate on equal opportunity, a
very important issue for you who have been always
struggling for human rights and gender equality.
Today, after one year, which are the initiatives in
this sector carried out by you and approved by the EP?
 

In reality I didn't do very much, but the Parliament
and the Women Committee together worked a lot on this
issue. 

In particular on supporting women in conflict areas,
on promoting gender equality in the EU development
policies, on the commitment against trafficking and
exploitation of women, on defending employment and
health.  

Last week I worked together with three other MPs to
collect enough signatures in order to approve in the
European Parliament the request of a policy by the
European Commission in financially promoting
micro-credit for women of different region in the
world. But of course we promote equal opportunities
also inside the European Parliament, where however
discrimination still exists.   

 

As independent, firstly in 1999 and then in 2004 you
have been elected in the list of Rifondazione
Comunista. Which is your point of view referring to
the recent Italian political elections, which have
signed the disappearance of this historical party from
the Parliament?

As you say, I am not enrolled as a member of this
party, but of course being a candidate with Prc, I
share its perspectives and positions; in the last
years I really appreciated the cultural struggle to
deeply change the Leninist culture and practise a
non-violent approach, defending discriminated and
weaker social groups, carrying out the struggles for
water and services as basic rights, peace between
Palestinian and Israelis and the end to the military
occupation, as well as a commitment against war. 

I consider elections results – above all the absence
inside the Parliament of the left – very serious and
sad, it represents a total failure not only in
political terms. We should start from understanding
people's needs, from daily life, not removing or
denying fears, insecurity, on the contrary finding
alternatives. I am scared and terrified from such a
society -even not being the majority - who sets fire
to Gipsy camps, who is xenophobic, loosing heart and
humanity; but we have to face this issue with all its
contradictions. Above all I am terrified if political
leaders spark off hate and violence instead of helping
to understand. I hope that Prc would be able to find
its way towards social struggles and justice, without
sectarianism. I would like a big engagement for a
policy assuring a home for all: it would be a driving
force for the economy, with none obliged to live
inside hovels along the river's edge.

>From my side I still go on working crosswise on the
single issue, peace – war – development – human
rights, trying to walk together with all those women
and men who think that L'Arcobaleno  represents a way
of acting towards a world of colours and differences,
where everybody can help the other, without delegating
anybody else in participating in political and social
life.

 

You recently received the Prize for peace from Israeli
Women in Black and the 'Colomba d'oro ' for peace by
Archivio Disarmo and you are also among the 1,000
women in the world who have been candidates for the
Nobel Prize for Peace. Apart from your undisputed
activity and from your merits, is the key of your
success due in part to the immediate communicability
spread by your personality, isn't it? This is my
thought. Thank you.     

Oh my God! Among the 1,000 women candidates for the
Nobel I ask myself how I was nominated, even though I
don't have a great consideration for many Nobel Peace
Prize winners anymore. 

Well, I have to thank you for thinking in this regard
about me. Maybe it's true I can communicate, I am
unable to hide my emotions but to look at others with
love; I have also my antipathies. Maybe I can
communicate because when I go to talk in different
places and meetings I don't speak the language of
politicians, I tell the facts, I put myself to the
test with my head and my body, such as when I'm
together with Palestinian, Israeli and international
women when we try to stop soldiers shooting with our
raised hands, or maybe because I look right in the
eyes of people that I meet and I smile from the
inside. Finally, I adore the world and I would like to
speak for the many injustices and the suffering of
people, which should not disappear in the world's eyes
through indifference or even worse by the construction
of mental or physical walls in our society.  

 

Traslated by Luisa Morgantini Office and Nitin Sawhney


 

Luisa Morgantini contacts: 0039 348 39 21 465 (mob.)
or 0039 06 69 95 02 17 

luisa.morgantini at europarl.europa.eu:
www.luisamorgantini.net