Today I want to give you two bits of news. One good and the other excellent. The 5 Star MoVement has collected the signatures to present itself at the regional elections in Campania, Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto. It wasn’t a result to be taken for granted. It’s the first tiny massive victory.
The excellent news is, however, the decomposition of the system that is accelerating. The Civil Protection and Fastweb/Telecom are just the beginning. It’s an old generation of thieves and of characters without values that is leaving us clutching to the raft of the “ad castam” laws of the omissions and silences of the media, and of the mess-ups. The parties have arrived at their destination and they don’t yet know that. They will have a nasty wake up. Every pretext is good for delaying the helicopters, even to copy (but only in words) the Programme of the 5 Star MoVement. From Cuffaro’s UDC that wants “honesty and transparency”, to the unpunished of the PDL who are talking about “clean lists”, to the dead spirits of the PDminusL with the “no to nuclear and renewables” (with Bersanertor the sponsor of privatised water and incinerators).
Thanks to the lads and lasses of all ages who suffered the cold and often indifference to collect tens of thousands of authenticated signatures. Even out of respect for them, Ms Bonino should take note that a party exists only in the presence of the consensus of the citizens. After the “ad personam” laws, there’s no need for “ad partitum” laws.

”It’s this morning’s news that Emma Bonino, in the name of the Italian Radicals, has started a fast that excludes food and liquid to protest against the government that is not intervening on the collection of signatures for the presentation of the lists for the regional elections. I am citing word for word what was stated by Bonino who is asking for the intervention of the government “with tools to place a barrier to this discrimination, perhaps abolishing the signatures when a party has Deputies in parliament, halving the number of signatures to be collected or lengthening the timeframe available as has already been done in the past.” To abolish the signatures if a political party is represented in Parliament? And why ever would that be? Are the privileges that they already have not sufficient? Probably, given that the signatures have to be presented this weekend, the Radicals have not collected enough and are asking for the intervention of the government so as to be able to present themselves without the necessary number of supporting signatories. The 5 Star MoVement started the collection of signatures at the beginning of January and finished last week. Our people have spent days and days out in the cold , in the rain and the snow, to collect the signatures from the citizens so that they can authorize us to present ourselves at the Regional elections in March 2010. We have been at those stalls for two months and we were the only ones. Where were the other parties? How have they collected the signatures needed? Now they come and complain and ask for the intervention of the government? Shame on them! I have only one thing to say in this connection: “Dear parties, WE ARE ARRIVING!” A big “thank you” from my heart to all the citizens who came to vote.”
Cesena 5 Star List