Enzo Cappucci: Minister Di Pietro, the election campaign has started, so I can ask you a provocative question. Well Minister, are you getting ready to be a candidate for the position of President of the Council?
Antonio Di Pietro: Above all I hope that it is possible to find a shared programme and a renewal of the management class with that reforming party that Walter Veltroni wants to create. Up until now, he has shown himself to be courageous. We are courageous by definition. We are. And Italia dei Valori will present itself at the next elections with its own symbol, with its own candidates, a young team to renew politics starting with the faces, but within a project because we want to govern the country in a transparent way. And we want to do that with the professionalism that Walter Veltroni will be able to put together. For this reason, before asking electors to just vote for Italia dei Valori willy nilly, we want to check whether the Democratic Party is willing to give itself the responsibility with us to offer an alternative to the 15 years of tired faces that there are in the Centre Right, always the same, made up of politics that is full of conflicts of interests, of private interests, of “ad personam” laws. So basically that’s what’s new.

Enzo Cappucci: OK. When you make a declaration, in a way, you have already an idea how the other will respond. How do you think the Democratic Party will respond?
Antonio Di Pietro: No I don’t know. There has never been a show of intention on this issue. In the meeting of Italia dei Valori’s executive committee we decided to be present at the next elections with a programme that we have already signed up to, made up of 10 points that are in defence of the most vulnerable classes, but also in defence of the rule of law and of the functioning of the system, starting with a free market, in a market that respects the laws, starting with jobs that are flexible but not precarious.
In this way we are putting forward to Veltroni, in a transparent way, a project to win the elections, but above all for good government. We want to be judged for what we have done, for what we are, not because we have been sent home by one, two, three floor crossers, some for personal and judicial interests, others to gain a place in the sun.

Enzo Cappucci: Minister, let’s do some election forecasting. Let’s say that the Centre Left gets through all the polls that today sees it as a loser. How can it one day get to the 51% it needs to get to govern the country in the end?
Antonio Di Pietro: Look, the Centre Left that we are used to seeing in the last 15 years, no longer exists. The extreme Left, maximalist, the No-global one, the one of counterpositions, of vetoes, is off on its own journey, with its hammer and sickle. I respect that. Some of the battles it takes on are also very just, however, if ideologically, structurally, you are created to be in opposition, you can’t be in government in the day and in opposition in the night, as has happened in this coalition that has now gone by. In this way, the Centre Left no longer exists.
What exists is a reforming force that right now can be represented by the Democratic Party, but also by Italia dei Valori, and in this way, we want to play our cards basing ourselves on credibility, and on the image that we present.
Do you know how many people I have seen, heard and read about that entered as Popes in a conclave and yet came out as Cardinals? So to cardinal Berlusconi: Forewarned is forearmed..