Brussels, 06/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - European Parliament Vie President, Renzo Imbeni, presented together, Democratici di sinistra (of which he is a member), a declaration on the "unacceptable positions" of Umberto Bossi on the European Union. The declaration has so far been signed by Enrique Baron, Graham Watson, Francis Wurtz, Monica Frassoni and Daniel Cohn Bendit, the respective Presidents of the Socialist, Liberal and Left Unity groups and the Co-President of the Green Group. It was also signed by Guido Bodrato (PPI member of the EPP group) and Marotto Segni (Patto Segni, member of the Union of the Europe of Nations). The declaration recalls the series of virulent attacks and profound distortion of reality made by the leaders of the Northern league such as the following: "The EU Charter of Rights was sought by an alliance of freemasons, fascists, Nazis and Communists", "We will not allow one of our citizens to be put on trial by executioners; "Europe is the new fascism because it takes away power from its citizens"; "They want a Europe of Soviets". Or at the Northern League's last congress: "Europe super-state. Death of the family, and uncontrolled immigration". Declaration signatories are angry at this, "surrealist charicature of the European Union, which is, on the contrary, founded on the respect for the rights of its peoples and citizens" whereas it has been depicted as, "a real and potential enemy of citizens' rights". The signatories are asking, "whether such positions expressed by a Minister of a European Union country are compatible with Italian government policy, which is a full participant in the Treaty and in the definition of all its strategic decisions, the Union programme and elections". The Italian government has been called on to, "clarify its positions and clearly distance itself from these affirmations. The leader of the Italian opposition, Francesco Rutelli, has decided in his role of MEP (member of the Liberal group) to urgently request the European Council what initiatives it intends to take in order to clarify the position of the Italian government. Mr Rutelli pointed out that in the Haider affair in 1999, the FPÖ was a "member of the government majority but not of the government", which was not the case today with Umberto Bossi.
On Tuesday, the President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi met Silvio Berlusconi and at the end of their meeting published a brief communiqué reaffirming that, "Italy's fundamental European political positions" were the same as those approved last November by the Parliament and reiterated by the Prime Minister (who repeated that "he has always been pro-European") and that it was important to not over-dramatise the subject of Umberto Bossi's vividly colourful language.