(ANSA) - Rome, 7 April 09
"It is important that the parties are democratic and that they can take advantage of public funding only if they give guarantees of democracy". Thus the UDC leader Pier Ferdinando Casini, in the context of a conference of the Ethics Foundation on the 'Law on parties and public funding in the implementation of art. 49 of the Constitution. Casini said he was convinced that the funding, "provided it is clear, is not a cause for scandal, but on the contrary stimulates competition, competitiveness, because it gives everyone the opportunity to participate". The UDC leader gave the example of the electoral reimbursement for the European elections also recognized to parties that we have not had elected, but which have exceeded the 1% threshold. "In an electoral competition a party may not win - explained Casini - but if it does not succeed it cannot also end up with debts, because then politics can only be made by those with large incomes". Casini said he was in favor of a law that finally implements article 49 of the Constitution and establishes that in order to have access to funding "the parties must guarantee an internal democratic system". Instead, he said he was against the possibility of introducing a limit to the mandates of parliamentarians. Finally, words of criticism for the current system "in the current phase of public life, whereby the relationship between parties and country is replaced by that between leader and country, a model that Berlusconi and the Democratic Party have supported and to which a Parliament is functional of nominees".
