20/08/2009 | Ziarul de Garda

Democracy Cannot Be Conquered In Only One Night

GLOBALISE DEMOCRACY | |  
Matteo Mecacci is member of the Italian parliament for the Radical Party, an organization which accused the whole Italian political establishment to hide itself behind of an infamous ideology curtain. One years ago Matteo Mecacci has been elected in the Italian Chamber of Deputies where he is member of the Committee External Affairs. In the previous years he served in New York as representative of the Transnational Radical Party in the United Nations, he toke part in a mission in Ukraine during the Orange Revolution and at present is in Moldova as electoral observer during the early elections of july.
You monitored moldovan elections with OSCE. What are the conclusions that you made after this elections?
My conclusions are that Moldova deeply needs European integration and that it could be ready in a few years to join Europe (considering its size) if the right reforms are made by politicians. Until now political ideologies have put this goal at risk for too much time and as a result of this, most of the Moldovan population still live in poverty.
Many foreign observers and journalists were not allowed to assist to the election's process. What do you think was the main reason to limit their access on July 29?
I believe that the democratic institutional culture still needs to take root in Moldova, especially among some people of the old establishment. External monitoring of the democratic process is essential for any democracy, also for my country, Italy, where there is the need to monitor freedom of information and the respect of human rights of immigrants, for example. So, any politician that pretends to define himself or herself as a democrat, must know that the international and independent monitoring of the functioning of democracy is a necessary requisite that must be met.
Did you notice any frauds on July 29?
I did not testify frauds of a systematic nature, but I saw several example of so called “family voting”, with 2 or 3 people of the same family voting together. But the biggest problem I believe relates to the electoral lists, which in some cases included dead people or people living abroad, and for the access to information during the electoral campaign, which is one of the most important aspects of any election that aspire to be considered legitimate.
What do you think was wrong before and after moldovan		elections?
As I said, the reports produced on the access to the media of the different competitors in the elections, and the way the electors lists have been handled, show that before the elections there was a lack of implementation of some democratic principles. What I can say is that the presence of international institutions monitoring the elections has probably stopped other, and more visible, frauds that might have happened without it. What is now important is that this attention by international institutions does not fade away. International economic aid and institutional international integration, starting from the EU, must be conditioned to the respect of basic principle of democracy and the rule of law, fight to corruption and the respect of human rights, to make sure that these economic supports benefit the whole Moldovan population and not only the political and economic elites that have contacts with the international community.
Now we have the results. 48 mandates for the Communist Party and 53 mandates for the opposition. None of them have enough mandates to vote for the president. What would be the solution so Moldova would not have new anticipated parlamentary elections?
The most important thing now is to form a government that is capable of making necessary legal and economic reforms. Presidents can be elected also by with a wider coalition than that which support the Government, and I believe there could be an effort to identify a personality that could be supported also by the opposition
What would be the lessons of the Orange Revolution from Kiev for Moldova?
The main important lesson is that democracy and the rule of law cannot be conquered in one night and not even in a few months. The affirmation of the rule of law must be accompained by an electoral and istitutional sistem that grant both stability and competition among the political forces. This is especially true for countries where you try to consolidate democracy and my conviction is that a proportional electoral system is dangerous in this respect.
During the April protests approximately thousand persons were detained by police. There is a lot of evidence that the police maltreated and tortured people. In this situation, what do you think the Ministry for Internal Affaires had to do?
The respect of the rights of detained people is essential in any country and the allegations that have been		made against the Ministry of the Interiors are very serious and need to be verified and investigated, especially with the support and assistance on independent international bodies, including NGOs, that are present in Moldova
You are a deputy with the Radical Party from Italy, the party that accused the whole Italian “political device” that it “hides behind of an infamous ideology curtain”. What were the reason for this accusation?
The Italian political system has many flaws. Our party defines Italy not as a “democracy” but as a “partitocracy”, because decisions and laws are approved not on the basis of the vote expressed by the citizens when they elect their representatives, but by later negotiations among the political parties, that often propose something during the electoral campaign, and then do the opposite when they enter the Parliament.
What is the Radical Party position on the legislation for the incomers (immigrants) from Italy?
Legal immigration is an essential resource for Italy, for many reasons. From the economic point of view the immigrants now produce around the 10% of the Italian GDP, and are helping to open the job market - which in Italy is very close to newcomers – to more competition. Socially, immigrants are taking care of jobs that Italians are increasingly abandoning, in the agricultural sector or for example in the assistance to the elderly. The legislation should be reformed to favor and help the immigrants to become Italian citizens with a system that will require more duties (for example basic knowledge of the Italian language and of political system ), but that also will be faster.
Which do you think are five most important Moldovan immigrants problems in Italy? Do they have these problems because they don't know their rights and obligations or because of incoherent Italian law system for the immigrants?

The problems faced by Moldovan immigrants are the same of all other immigrants. Difficulties in the access to the legal job market; frequent changes in the immigrants legislation that create confusion due to the lack of information; lack of an organized social system that aims at rapidly integrating the immigrants in the social structure of the country; this is something that must be addressed by our authorities. Immigration is not going to be stopped, it needs to be regulated properly helping it to produce a better economic and social system for everybody.
Anastasia NANI
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