‘Mafia, officials colluded’
Ruling deepens Italy’s political divides
ROME, April 21, (Agencies): The deadlock in Italian politics for the past two-and-a-half months shows little sign of loosening after a court ruled that former government officials colluded with Sicily’s Mafia in the early 1990s.
A third round of talks for a new government between the Five Star Movement (M5S) and Matteo Salvini’s nationalist League, which leads a right-wing coalition that includes Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, went nowhere on Friday as M5S leader Luigi Di Maio continues to demand Salvini dump his scandal-dogged partner.
Berlusconi was not involved in the Mafia trial in Palermo, however his close ally Marcello Dell’Utri, fellow Forza Italia founder, was sentenced to 12 years in prison along with other ex-officials and mafia bosses. The verdicts will likely be subject to a lengthy appeals process.
Prosecutors had alleged that after the assassinations of two top antiMafia judges in 1992, senior Italian officials engaged in secret talks with the mob to end its bombing campaign.
“What emerged is that elements of the state acted as a go-between for mafia demands while judges and citizens were blown to bits,” lead prosecutor Nino Di Matteo told daily Corriere Della Sera on Saturday, claiming that a link had been established between the Mafia “and Berlusconi the politician.”
Symbol
Di Maio, who views the 81-yearold ex-premier as a symbol of political corruption, asked supporters late on Friday: “How could I come here if I had made an agreement with Silvio Berlusconi?”
“How could I say that we’re not like those who came before us?” he added at a campaign event in Campobasso, ahead of an election Sunday in the tiny southern region of Molise where his anti-establishment movement faces off against right-wing forces.
Berlusconi, banned from public office following a 2013 tax fraud conviction, on Friday said Italians had “voted badly” in the March 4 general election and that he’d only engage M5S politicians to “clean the toilets.”
He was speaking at an event in support of Forza Italia’s candidate Donato Toma in the Molise election.
Di Maio, 31, and Berlusconi’s bickering has created a roadblock to the formation of a new government and left Salvini with little room to manoeuvre.
Favourite
The 45-year-old is eyeing elections on April 29 in the northeastern region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, where a League candidate backed by Forza Italia is favourite to win.
On Friday Salvini expressed his annoyance that “an ally that up until yesterday asked for cohesion, consistency and loyalty ... spends his time insulting millions of Italians.”
In related news, speaking in a highsecurity “bunker” courtroom on the outskirts of Palermo, Judge Alfredo Montalto ruled that the negotiations had damaged the interests of the state as he shed light on one of the murkiest chapters in recent Italian history.
After the verdict, members of the public clapped and cheered the prosecutors who brought the case to trial five years ago, two decades after a string of mafia bombs and assassinations killed 23 people, including prominent anti-mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
The deadly attacks prompted politicians and state representatives to negotiate with the Sicilian Mafia, then led by the bloodthirsty Corleone crime family. During the tumultuous years of 1992-93 in Italy, the “Bribesville” corruption investigations brought down the political establishment. Media magnate Silvio Berlusconi stepped into the vacuum, winning the national election in 1994.