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Mafia collusion ruling deepens Italy’s political divides

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.

Published: 21 April 2018 15:38 CEST
Mafia collusion ruling deepens Italy's political divides
A painting made by street artist Sirante showing Silvio Berlusconi, Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio featured as in the original Caravaggio painting "I Bari". Photo: AFP

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 anti-Mafia 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.”

Di Maio, who views the 81-year-old 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 4th 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.

The 45-year-old is eyeing elections on April 29th 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.”

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EUROPEAN UNION

Italian PM Meloni to stand in EU Parliament elections

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday she would stand in upcoming European Parliament elections, a move apparently calculated to boost her far-right party, although she would be forced to resign immediately.

Published: 28 April 2024 15:54 CEST
Italian PM Meloni to stand in EU Parliament elections

Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-Fascist roots, came top in Italy’s 2022 general election with 26 percent of the vote.

It is polling at similar levels ahead of the European elections on from June 6-9.

With Meloni heading the list of candidates, Brothers of Italy could exploit its national popularity at the EU level, even though EU rules require that any winner already holding a ministerial position must immediately resign from the EU assembly.

“We want to do in Europe exactly what we did in Italy on September 25, 2022 — creating a majority that brings together the forces of the right to finally send the left into opposition, even in Europe!” Meloni told a party event in the Adriatic city of Pescara.

In a fiery, sweeping speech touching briefly on issues from surrogacy and Ramadan to artificial meat, Meloni extolled her coalition government’s one-and-a-half years in power and what she said were its efforts to combat illegal immigration, protect families and defend Christian values.

After speaking for over an hour in the combative tone reminiscent of her election campaigns, Meloni said she had decided to run for a seat in the European Parliament.

READ ALSO: How much control does Giorgia Meloni’s government have over Italian media?

“I’m doing it because I want to ask Italians if they are satisfied with the work we are doing in Italy and that we’re doing in Europe,” she said, suggesting that only she could unite Europe’s conservatives.

“I’m doing it because in addition to being president of Brothers of Italy I’m also the leader of the European conservatives who want to have a decisive role in changing the course of European politics,” she added.

In her rise to power, Meloni, as head of Brothers of Italy, often railed against the European Union, “LGBT lobbies” and what she has called the politically correct rhetoric of the left, appealing to many voters with her straight talk.

“I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am a Christian” she famously declared at a 2019 rally.

She used a similar tone Sunday, instructing voters to simply write “Giorgia” on their ballots.

“I have always been, I am, and will always be proud of being an ordinary person,” she shouted.

EU rules require that “newly elected MEP credentials undergo verification to ascertain that they do not hold an office that is incompatible with being a Member of the European Parliament,” including being a government minister.

READ ALSO: Why is Italy’s government being accused of helping tax dodgers?

The strategy has been used before, most recently in Italy in 2019 by Meloni’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right Lega party.

The EU Parliament elections do not provide for alliances within Italy’s parties, meaning that Brothers of Italy will be in direct competition with its coalition partners Lega and Forza Italia, founded by Silvio Berlusconi.

The Lega and Forza Italia are polling at about seven percent and eight percent, respectively.

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