Транснациональная Радикальная Партия: История и Принципы

The Transnational Radical Party (TRP), whose official name is Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT), is a political association of citizens, members of parliament and members of government of various national and political backgrounds who intend to adopt nonviolent means to create an effective body of international law with respect for individuals, human, civil and political rights, as well as the affirmation of democracy and political freedom in the world. The TRP does not participate in elections and, despite being named "party", is a non governmental organization (NGO), with consultative status at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations (UN) since 1995, adept in building synergies among political forces aimed at achieving the goals of its congressional motions. The TRP is the direct evolution of the Radical Party, a political party in Italy, active from 1955 to 1989, and is a separate entity from the once connected Italian Radicals party, founded in 2001 as PRT's section in the country. The TRP often advocates the international use of Esperanto in its literature.

The TRP's forerunner, the Radical Party (PR), was established in 1955 by a left wing splinter group from the centre right Italian Liberal Party (PLI), under the leadership of Marco Pannella. In 1989, the PR was transformed into the TRP. In 1992, a majority of Italy's Radicals formed, at the national level in Italian politics, the Pannella List. Since 1999, Radicals ran in elections under the banner of Bonino List, named after Emma Bonino. After a breakthrough in the 1999 European Parliament election, Italy's Radicals formed the Italian Radicals (RI).

In the 1979 European Parliament election, the first in which voters voted directly for the European Parliament, the PR obtained its best result ever countrywide (3.7% of the vote, resulting in the election of three MEPs, including Pannella). Following the election, the PR was involved with the Coordination of European Green and Radical Parties (CEGRP) and its unsuccessful efforts to create a single pan European platform for green and radical politics. More importantly, since then, the party projected itself into international politics. In 1988, after a decade during which transnational issues and values were emphasised, the PR's congress decided that the party would be transformed during 1989 into the TRP and that the latter would not present itself in elections (in order to avoid competition with the other parties and stimulate cooperation instead), while permitting "dual membership" with other parties. The new symbol featuring the stylised face of Mahatma Gandhi was the point of no return in the transformation of the PR into an instrument of political fight completely at disposal of issue oriented campaigns. All this provoked great controversy among Radicals. Some long time members left in order to continue their own activity in other parties or retire from public life. However, also most TRP Radicals continued to be actively engaged in politics, sometimes supported by the TRP itself, sometimes seeking hospitality in traditional parties or creating entirely new electoral lists. In the 1989 European Parliament election Pannella stood as a successful candidate of the joint list between the PLI (his former party) and the Italian Republican Party, some Radicals formed the "Anti prohibition List on Drugs" (1 MEP), while others joined the Rainbow Greens (2 MEPs). In the run up of the 1992 general election the Pannella List was formed. Sergio Stanzani and Emma Bonino were the first secretary and president of the party, respectively. In 1993 Bonino, who would be appointed to the European Commission in 1995, replaced Stanzani, and Pannella became president.

The TRP was soon involved in comparing the conditions of the rule of law among different democracies throughout the world. While its members and economic resources continued to come primarily from Italy, the party strengthened its activities worldwide, especially in the countries of post communist Eastern Europe. In this respect, the TRP launched the Multilingual Telematics System, one of the first bulletin board systems in Italy to allow multiple connections at the same time with the many countries where the party had influence and membership. In 1995, after an intense institutional work, the TRP became a non governmental organization for the promotion of human rights' legislation and the affirmation of democracy and freedom worldwide. As such, it was granted the general consultative status at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations (UN). Also in 1995, Olivier Dupuis, a long time Radical from Belgium and founding member of the TRP who had moved to Budapest, Hungary in 1988 and from there had coordinated TRP's activities in Eastern Europe, was elected secretary of the party, while Jean François Hory, a French MEP of the Radical Party of the Left within the TRP sponsored European Radical Alliance group, was president. In 1996, Dupuis took Pannella's seat in the European Parliament. Within the UN, the party has been involved in a variety of issues: the moratorium on the death penalty and the proposal of a complete abolition, anti prohibition against global mafias, fair justice, freedom of scientific research and the ban on female genital mutilation. Additionally, the TRP has allowed access to UN meetings to some stateless people, including Tibetans, Uyghurs and Montagnards, and led active monitoring of conflicts, such as the case of Ukraine versus Russia, or gave voice to dissidents opposed to authoritarian regimes like Cuba and Turkey. the party has collided with Russia and its members risked expulsion from the country.

Radicals have often accused the Italian media of ignoring their initiatives and focusing merely on internal conflicts within the Radical world. The inadequate information on Radical initiatives by the Italian media has been meticulously verified by the TRP sponsored Centro d'Ascolto dell'Informazione Radiotelevisiva and produced several sentences featuring compensations to be paid by RAI, the Italian public broadcaster, and commercial TV as well. Some confusion came from the fact that since the 2000s, rather than highlighting its expansion abroad, the TRP has preferred to focus on the "Case Italy", emblematic of the decadence of a constitutional political system into a "real democracy", that is to say a formal democracy in which its very institutions substantially act in contrast with the constitution. According to the TRP, Italy has become a "partycratic regime" and, as such, has started to spread the "plague" of "real democracy" around the democratic world. That was denounced by Radicals within international organisations and though the publication of a "yellow book" on the "Italian plague". However, the TRP effectively suffered internal problems too. In 2003 Dupuis resigned from secretary because of serious political differences with Pannella. In 2011–14 Demba Traoré, a politician from Mali, served briefly as secretary: he left the party without officially resigning, after being returned to the government of his own country. The TRP was later provisionally run by a committee, known as the "senate", led by Pannella and composed of the party's leading members.