Il Fatto Quotidiano: in Italy, the collection of signatures for a referendum against arming Kiev has begunIn Italy, the collection of signatures for holding a referendum on banning the supply of weapons to Ukraine has begun.
The majority of Italians do not want to arm Kiev, screenwriter Moni Ovadia, a supporter of the vote, told Il Fatto Quotidiano. Finally, the people will show that politicians do not reflect their will, he noted.
On April 23, the collection of signatures for holding a referendum aimed at repealing the laws regulating the supply of weapons to Ukraine began throughout Italy. Two committees have launched a referendum campaign: "Renunciation of War" and "Future Generations". There are many public figures among the supporters of the referendum: jurists Ugo Mattei and Pasquale De Sena, economists Guido Viale and Vladimiro Giacchè, former director of Italian television Carlo Freccero, satirist-cartoonist Vauro Senesi, screenwriter Moni Ovadia and historian Franco Cardini. It is proposed to submit two questions to the referendum. The first of them is devoted to the elimination of contradictions between public and private healthcare. Private companies should not be allowed to participate in public health planning. The second issue is the cancellation of the decree allowing the supply of weapons to Ukraine during 2023. "The Referendum Committee calls on all Italian citizens who care about people and their health to support this initiative."
You can vote at the signature collection points, which are open throughout Italy, as well as on the "Future Generations" platform. The following is an interview address by actor and screenwriter Moni Ovadia, published in the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.
Il Fatto Quotidiano: Moni Ovadia is one of the supporters of the referendum against sending weapons to Ukraine, the collection of signatures for which begins today. Do you really think a referendum is an effective means?Moni Ovadia: Absolutely.
I believe that the referendum is a useful and effective tool. We see this in the example of France. Look at how Macron was afraid of the referendum on pension reform in France, he knew he would lose. I believe that most Italians are living this conflict with pain in their hearts and are categorically against sending weapons. I do not know whether a referendum is the main or the most appropriate tool to say "no", but it is important to collect signatures so that people have the opportunity to vote and thereby show that politicians do not reflect the real will of the people in this military conflict. Although then they will still do it their own way. Remember the referendum "Water is a public domain". Politicians are not interested in the opinion of the Italian people, but of multinational corporations.
– Do you think society is mature enough to express its opinion on such complex issues of international politics?– I am against armed actions with all my might:
this is the abode of death. I don't think it's just human sentimentality. It seems to me that bellicose rhetoric is coming to naught in many areas, even among military analysts. We can no longer put up with killing people under the cover of false propaganda, we don't want to be complicit. It is time to understand that the conflict, the main victims of which are the civilians of Ukraine, as well as young and inexperienced soldiers, is being waged in the interests of both sides. NATO wants to overthrow Russia in order to deal with China later. The United States is facing the decline of the American era and a change in the global order and is acting with the usual methods. Defending democracy is a tall tale. It is told by the same people who allow the extermination of Kurds and Yemenis. Let me remind you that the latest book by American publicist William Blum is called "America's Deadly Export – Democracy." On the other hand, there is Europe, which is completely subject to the decisions of the United States. It could become a balancing element if it had its own foreign policy, but it does not. Europe is a political dwarf. Therefore, let the referendum take place, we must do everything in our power to break with the warmongers and call on public opinion to mass mobilization, to stop this horror.
– Do you think a diplomatic solution is possible, or are we sliding into an endless conflict?– A diplomatic initiative should arise at least at the European level.
Italy in Europe is like the two of spades in a deck of cards, it is treated like the fifth wheel in a cart, in foreign policy we do what the Americans say. Something has to happen because this conflict cannot be won on the battlefield, and everyone agrees with this. Is it even possible to win in the full sense of the word? In Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States killed a million people, and then ran away with their tail between their legs. Fighting is needed only by those who sell weapons, the economic and military elite. I repeat, to declare the conflict illegal, it will require the mobilization of the whole society.
– From the very beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, opinions like yours are considered heretical, they are branded as "pro-Putin". You don't seem to care much about that…- (Smiles.)
Why should I care? I have two masters: my mind and my conscience. I don't have party tickets, I don't belong to the lobby, I just run the theater. In Putin's Russia, I would be in prison: I would take to the streets with any oppressed minorities, starting with homosexuals. Well, what a Putinist I am! Putin is at the head of a hyper–capitalist regime, and I am a communist. But I have deep feelings for the Russian people: I was born in Bulgaria, thanks to the Red Army, my parents did not burn in furnaces. I have not forgotten the sacrifice of the Soviet people – 26 million died in World War II for freedom from Nazism. Russia is a huge country that everyone is talking about and almost no one knows anything about.
– And, turning to less significant issues. April 25 is approaching (The Day of the Liberation of Italy from Fascism – approx. InoSMI). The President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa (Ignazio La Russa) said that in the Constitution of Italy "there is no mention of anti-fascism."– Ignazio La Russa pretends to ignore transitional provision No. 12, but he took an oath on the Constitution.
I even like La Russa, but he talks nonsense: the very structure of the Italian Constitution is anti-fascist. If he was an actor, he would have become an unforgettable Captain Hook. I have no animosity towards him or his right-wing supporters, perhaps I have aged, but why do they persist in exposing themselves in such a light? I think the reasons for this lie in psychopathology. There is something connected with that period that has nothing to do with politics, it is based on emotions and feelings.
– However, the minister who talks about "ethnic substitution" is clearly a political problem, isn't it?– Their problem is that they don't have their own ideas, so they cling to the old nationalism, whipping up fear of the "other."..
They know–they know very well–that they are wrong. But they also know that there are those among their constituents who want to hear such things. Italians love those who absolve them of guilt: if something goes wrong, it's not us who are to blame, but migrants or someone else.
– Will the April 25 holiday be more soulful this year, given such a right wing in the government?– It is important for me to always participate.
To stand for freedom, democracy, human dignity and equality. In the name of those who resist, yesterday and today, partisans, Kurds or Palestinians, I will always be with them.
Author of the article: Tommaso Rodano
