Issue: 13 November 2004	PAGE 1 of 2 next >>

Martyrdom often seems to bring, at the end, a sense of elation. Thomas More was plainly on a high as he was led to the block, getting off a couple of memorable quips to the headsman. Rocco Buttiglione is in a similar mood. Buoyed up by the unwonted attention that followed his exclusion from the European Commission, he is launching a pan-European campaign for liberty of conscience. Supportive emails are flooding in, people are cheering him in the street and, according to the polls, three out of four Italians back him. Shortly before leaving for Brussels, he had told a journalist, ‘I am nobody in Italy, but in Europe I shall be somebody.’ Like a prophecy in an old legend, that promise has come true in an unexpected way. So is he pleased at how things have worked out?

‘I shall not say that I am happy. I feel I should have made a good Commissioner. But others have given up their heads for their faith; all I have given up is a Commissioner’s salary.’

Not just the salary, though, eh? The car, the driver, the entertainment allowance, the most generous pension in the world. Surely he must have some regrets.

‘Politics is about idealism. I was put to trial, and I tried to remain true to the faith that made sense of my youth and that I have done my best to follow in adulthood.’

If you had never heard of Buttiglione before last month, these words may strike you as sanctimonious drivel. We all tend to hear people in the context of what we already think of them, and Buttiglione, according to which newspaper you read, is either a holier-than-thou prig or an outright bigot. For what it’s worth, I remember Buttiglione from our time together in the European Parliament as a courteous and gentle professor. In the current climate, though, even his supporters tend to concede that he has been unwise.

They say this because they have read that he ‘denounced homosexuality as a sin’ at his hearing before MEPs. Had he done so, he would indeed have been, to say the least, extremely rude. But it is worth looking at what he actually said. It was a left-wing MEP who introduced the s-word, asking Buttiglione how he could reconcile his role as the anti-discrimination Commissioner with his adherence to a doctrine which taught that homosexuality was sinful. Rocco replied by quoting Kant to the effect that there is a difference between morality and legality. Whatever his personal convictions, he said, he would uphold the equality of all citizens, adding, ‘The state has no right to stick its nose into these things. Nobody should be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation. That stands in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and in the [EU] constitution, and I am pledged to defend this constitution.’

The truly outrageous part of that statement went unnoticed: namely Buttiglione’s assumption that the constitution was already in force, even though not one country has yet ratified it. Like almost all his fellow nominees, Buttiglione had declared that there was no need to wait for the national referendums before implementing large chunks of the document. But no one objected to this contempt for the democratic process, or to the conflicts of interest that at least three Commissioners brought to their portfolios, or to the fact that seven out of the 25 had been communists. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

It still seems odd, though, that the row should concern something of essentially national concern. There are plenty of Catholics in Brussels. Why pick only on Buttiglione? ‘I was a suitable target because I offended two lobbies: the anti-Christian lobby and the anti-Berlusconi lobby.’

Is this a dig at Martin Schulz, the prissy leader of the Socialist MEPs, who has been nursing a grudge ever since Berlusconi proposed him for the role of a concentration camp commander last year?

‘It was an ambush prepared in Italy at least as long ago as July. The Left have used the row to establish the principle that the EU may intervene in questions of family policy and personal morality. They have also created the precedent that states may no longer nominate their own Commissioners. To do this, they needed to portray me as a homophobe. But I still don’t believe that I did anything wrong.’

More sinned against than sinning, you might say?

‘Ha, ha.’

There is probably something in the ambush theory. After all, the sin question was a googly: as a Christian, Buttiglione could not conscientiously have given a different answer. Within the hour, left-wing Euro MPs had circulated a press release giving their version of his comments — the one that almost everyone now believes. Anticlericalism is a surprisingly strong force among southern European socialists. Many of them still see politics in almost 19th-century terms, imagining themselves engaged in a struggle to eliminate obscurantism and liberate the workers from a superstition that distracts them from their poor conditions in this life. Is this what did for Buttiglione?