Italy's Radical Party has accepted an offer from the new Democratic Party (PD) to be on its ticket in the upcoming general elections.
The decision by the small civil liberties party came at the end of a seven-hour meeting which lasted late into the night. While accepting the PD's terms, the Radicals reiterated their view that the ticket would be ''less efficient'' without their well-known party symbol, a rose in a fist.
The PD is adamant about standing alone in the April 13-14 elections and has invited prospective allies to give up their individual party symbols and platforms and adopt those of the PD. A Radical Party spokesman said the accord with the PD was ''a starting point. It will now be necessary to hammer out a political-electoral identity''.
The accord will become official when PD leader and candidate for premier Walter Veltroni meets Friday with Emma Bonino, the Radical Party's representative in the outgoing government of Romano Prodi, where she served as minister for foreign trade and European affairs. According to the Radical Party's charismatic leader Marco Pannella, the alliance with the PD ''will be a a difficult, laborious and exhausting relationship, but also an important one''.
In regard to the condition that the Radicals drop their party symbol, Pannella observed that ''sometimes one must be humble and submit to the reasoning of others''. Well-informed sources said that in exchange for joining the ticket, the PD guaranteed the Radicals at least nine seats in parliament, a percentage of campaign spending reimbursements and a ministerial portfolio for Bonino, who won international respect when she served as European commissioner for human rights.
Speaking on the campaign trail in southern Italy, Veltroni said his party welcomed the participation and collaboration of the Radical Party ''now that the conditions exist for them to adopt our platform and our rules''.
The ex-Rome mayor confirmed that Bonino would be offered a ministerial post, should the PD win the elections, and recalled that as foreign trade minister ''she was excellent, something which all Italian businessmen recognise, and contributed to expanding our exports''.
The PD was formed during the outgoing legislature through the merger of the Democratic Left and the centrist Daisy Party.
Early elections were called after Prodi last month lost the support of centrist elements in his nine-party coalition.
The prospect of the Radicals joining the PD ticket met resistance from Catholic elements in the party because of the Radicals' positions in favor of divorce, abortion and the right of the terminally ill to refuse life-prolonging therapy.
