Interview
Greens aim for 10% of the vote with positive vision: ‘We cannot be merely against’
Italy’s Angelo Bonelli has been confirmed as co-spokesperson for the European Greens. ‘They want to label us as hardcore opposition, and we don't mind that, it's a badge we’ll wear with pride. But we are also in a position to be able to deal with the big issues facing the country.
At the Green Europe national congress in Chianciano, Angelo Bonelli has been confirmed as co-spokesperson of the party, while Fiorella Zabatta will be the new chair of the party's federal council, replacing Eleonora Evi who resigned after a conflict with the leadership.
“We approved the congressional motion that affirms our determination to continue the Green Left Alliance,” Bonelli tells us. ”The text speaks of the need to reject the right-wing assault on civil and social rights by building a broad alliance. But we must not be merely against. We must build our vision for the country, to deal with the increase in needs and the encroaching crisis that is covered up by right-wing propaganda.”
Your document talks about “the journey through the desert” for the Italian Greens.
It was an expression used by Marco Boato in 2008, when we ended up not making it into Parliament. The following year we also dropped out of the European Parliament. Boato said that this was where the journey through the desert began, one that brought us to the 2022 elections. We had to build a resilient way of doing politics, to avoid being swept away. Gradually, we started electing municipal and regional councilors. And then, thanks to the idea we had together with Nicola Fratoianni, we gave birth to the Green Left Alliance (AVS). Thanks to this alliance, we went beyond the confines of the classical division of political forces, as shown by the recent result in the European Elections.
You set yourselves the goal of reaching 10 percent of the vote. How will you achieve that?
Through broadening the party to include the forces of civic activism. And with a strong proposal for government. They want to label us as hardcore opposition, and we don't mind that, it's a badge we’ll wear with pride. But we are also in a position to be able to deal with the big issues facing the country. We have personalities and experts committed to us and giving us the right profile.
Has the advance of the right across Europe and Trump's victory put the climate emergency on the backburner?
Trump has repeatedly said that he will exit the climate agreements. The climate agreements aren’t doing well, because war has made us disconnected from the urgency of these issues. War is the enemy of the climate: $2.5 trillion was spent on armaments in 2023. The figure is set to grow as conflicts are widening. The big oil and gas industries have succeeded in disrupting the ecological transition. But that is precisely why we need to build an alternative that will make it clear that ecological transition is not the enemy of the poor, and ensure that the rich will pay for it.
After dealing with the internal party matters, your congress will host the leaders of CGIL and UIL and those of political forces alternative to the right. What message will you have for them?
That it is increasingly urgent to start dialogue among ourselves on a common program. We are not interested in bringing together a list of party acronyms, but in a project for the country. The right is lashing out at everyone who dissents; after the magistrates and journalists, on Sunday it was the turn of the unions. They want to subjugate our democracy to those in power. And their insinuation that workers are striking now just to have a long weekend is outrageous: strikers are losing money from their paychecks.
Still, divisions remain among the potential coalition. And you split your votes on the EU commission.
That vote caused division across all political families. We at AVS voted against, even though a slight majority of the European Greens were in favor. At the next European Green congress in Dublin, my message will be that they were wrong: it was a mistake to trust Von der Leyen and the axis between the Popular Party and the far right that is taking shape.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/avanti-col-confronto-programmatico-serve-una-proposta-di-governo on 2024-12-01