I’m publishing an interview I gave to Radio Città Futura about the event on 8 July.

Cittàfutura: The security decree, the save-the-trials, the “lodo Alfano” have given you the momentum to go back into the streets on 8 July. There will be this demonstration with a bit of a mish-mash poster, we’re seeing the return of the roundabouts, and Grillo as well as yourself. Are you not worried about instrumentalisation or distortions about this participation?
Antonio Di Pietro: Before starting off, let’s clear up one thing: Italia dei Valori is not a negative political formation. We are convinced, in fact, really convinced that there’s a need for urgency procedures and legislation to tackle the real problems of security in the country. And this legislation could have been done in the first few days of the government, in fact, we would have been able and we should have done this, we of the Centre Left and stupidly some of us did not have the courage to do it with a decree.
The Berlusconi government has done it with a decree, but in the good container they’ve put in rotten grapes. They have inserted a measure that has nothing to do with the security of the citizens, with the reasons for poverty, with the relaunch of the economy, with the salaries that don’t let you get to the end of the month and all the other urgent things that there are.
It has inserted a series of measures that interest just him. First they did a law by which only he can make information even if it violates the verdict of the European Court of Justice.
Then they did a law by which, given that he has said some crazy things and he has been intercepted, it’s best that the intercepts are not published. Then they do a law in which, given that he is on trial, they put forward the idea of having him not on trial.
All these problems about security are blocked by these things. On 8 July, from 6:00pm onwards in Piazza Navona, we will be present to send a signal: please, can you bother about the citizens on the topics of the economy, about housing, about the most normal and necessary things? I’m keen to point out that we of Italia dei Valori don’t want to be the party of “no” as we are described. We are not antiberlusconian, obsessed or the rest.
With reference to the security decree we have already presented, and we will talk about it tomorrow in the Chamber, an alternative decree structures in the same way that Berlusconi has done, with at the side of each article another one written. Not necessarily another one, at least 50 per cent.

Cittàfutura: It sounds like a shadow government.
Antonio Di Pietro: No. Effective opposition. The shadow simply makes a shadow and that’s all.
An article in the regulations of the Chamber allows us to present a counter-decree and to ask for it to be discussed. You will see that 50 per cent will be the same as theirs, not because it is copied, but because they copied mine that I had deposited earlier.
There are good things, that should be done, but there’s the need to remove those things that have no relevance to security and with the urgency of the measures and that are of interest only to him. In this light, we will start this discussion in the Chamber so that Parliament can take on its responsibilities and so that the country can be informed about what we are capable of doing and better than them.
Do you know what will happen the day after tomorrow? That since they won’t know how to react in relation to the merits of this, since we have right amply on our side, they will slap on a “vote of confidence” so that there’s no discussion. This however will demonstrate that we are in the waiting room of the regime: there is no democracy and the possibility of hearing the others, by using the “vote of confidence” to silence the opposition and the allies.

Cittàfutura: You have also written to Veltroni asking the PD to participate. The orientation however seems opposed. According to you, does the Democratic Party have a weak position in relation to the topic of justice?
Antonio Di Pietro: I have great respect for the Democratic Party, great respect for its voters and great respect for the leadership. I reaffirm here that it is my commitment, and that of Italia dei Valori, to create and keep this alliance intact, with the opening that it will see appropriate towards other bodies, so that it can offer an alternative to the government on the basis of that manifesto programme that we have written together.
I reaffirm this here, even when Veltroni shows a certain reservation. I have no reservations, but I invite the readers and the listeners to look at today’s newspapers where there are two photos. One of Veltroni who says he is not going out into the streets, and above all not for free “alla romanesta”.
The other is a photo of masses of demonstrators of the Democratic Party in Bologna. Perhaps it’s necessary to ask oneself a question, you of the leadership: to which Democratic Party do you belong?