Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-10-08-Speech-4-053"
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"en.20091008.5.4-053"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the motion against the alleged attack on press freedom in Italy reflects the choice, I feel, of a politically oblique and unsound path. Moreover, some of the strong words, tinged with anger and a touch of hatred, seem to me to have clearly got out of hand. It is very strange, however, that this decline (or alleged decline) in democracy in Italy should arise only now and in such a striking fashion, given that the centre-right, but also the centre-left, governments – of which I too have been part – have taken turns in governing my country.
If this wall of illiberality and anti-democracy really does exist in Italy, why, in so many years of left-wing government, has it never been brought down? Are we talking about negligence, reticence, convenience, or – as seems far more logical to me – the simple observation that Italy’s standards of democracy are in line with those of the West and of Europe?
If we really do want, as an exceptional measure – such as the one, I apologise to Mrs Serracchiani, used in this case, namely that of discussing one country and not Europe – to ascertain the truth about the health of democracy within our country, then we should ask the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, respectfully as an institution, whether he feels that he is the President of a country in which pluralism of information is floundering, freedom is in a tailspin and the tide of democracy is going out. However, I do not believe that, were the situation thus, President Napolitano would refrain from denouncing such a state of affairs, faithful as he is to his prerogatives as guarantor of our Constitution.
Since the issue does, however – ladies and gentlemen of the left, and I am sorry to say it – touch on Italian political matters in a very provincial way, taking on an artificially European, and now domestic, dimension, it must be pointed out that, as long as the Italian left, which was once so much more powerful and substantial, allows itself to be led politically by comedians and demagogues, it will become increasingly distanced from power. I do not believe that Woody Allen dictates to President Obama the line he should take."@en1
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