Radical Party - With 591 votes in favour, 45 against and 31 abstentions, on the initiative of radical MEPs and members of the ALDE Group Marco Pannella and Marco Cappato, the European Parliament has adopted a resolution calling for “a worldwide moratorium on executions to be established immediately and unconditionally with a view to the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, through a relevant resolution of the current United Nations General Assembly”.
Over the past days, both the European Commission and the German Presidency had sent contradictory and worrying signals indicating the will of some Member States, such as the United Kingdom, to hamper the presentation in the UN General Assembly. Pannella and Cappato underlined that, “after this clear vote, the time has now come for Europe to act courageously. We must not let prevail the objective alliance between those who, assuming a behaviour of accomplice rather than of ‘ally’, seem to give in to the gloomy blackmail of Baghdad (which seems to harbour a Saddam-style legacy, rather than the one of choice for a new and effective democracy) and to the abolitionists proposing the false alternative between moratorium and abolition.”
On the same day, the Third World Congress Against Death Penalty kicked off in Paris. A delegation of the Noviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty and Hands Off Cain took part in it. During a press conference held at the Italian Embassy shortly after having arrived in Paris, Marco Pannella, joined by Marco Cappato and Pasqualina Napolitano, talked about the ongoing initiative. He pointed out that this struggle, which has been endorsed by the Italian Government, is the outcome of more than ten years of intense work carried out by the Radicals.
Meanwhile, the number of signatures, as well as countries where they come from, to the appeal addressed to the UN Secretary General calling for a moratorium is growing. It is worth noting that thus far, it has been signed by 16 Nobel Prizes, 262 MEPs, 261 national MPs and 9 members of governments.
After the vote for the resolution by the overwhelming majority of MEPs, a new goal for the European Union is now being set: to increase the number of countries supporting the Declaration of the EU Presidency against death penalty. By the end of February, a total of 97 countries, namely the absolute majority of the UN Member States, should back the Declaration.
Brussels/Paris, February 1-3