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High-profile mafia trial opens in Sicily

A high-profile trial opened in Sicily on Monday on alleged negotiations between government officials and mafia godfathers following a series of bomb attacks and assassinations in the 1990s.

Published: 28 May 2013 14:44 CEST

Marcello Dell'Utri (L): Marcello Paternostro/AFP. Toto Riina (R): Ho/AFP

Ten people including then interior minister Nicola Mancino and then mafia leader Toto Riina are on trial and prosecutors have called as witnesses top figures like President Giorgio Napolitano.

"I fought against the mafia. I cannot be in the same trial as mafia bosses," Mancino said before the start of the hearing, Italian media reported.

"We will ask for the trial to be scrapped," said Mancino, who is only charged with false testimony.

A few anti-mafia activists heckled Mancino as he came out of the courtroom after the hearing shouting "Shame!" and "Mafia out of the state!"

The hearing was immediately adjourned to Friday following a request by prosecutors and defence lawyers for more time to consider applications submitted for civil plaintiffs in the trial.

The far-left Rifondazione Comunista party is so far the only plaintiff. Party leader Paolo Ferrero told reporters he was taking part in the trial in honour of "all the people killed by the mafia".

Prosecutors allege that after the assassinations of a top anti-mafia judge in 1992, senior Italian officials engaged in secret talks with the mafia.

The accusation is that they agreed to be lenient, allowing for fewer trials and easier prison conditions, in exchange for an end to the attacks.

Mancino is being tried with ex-senator Marcello dell'Utri and three former top police officers: Antonio Subranni, Mario Mori and Giuseppe De Donno.

Former mafia bosses Riina, Leoluca Bagarella and Antonio Cina, as well as mafia turncoats Giovanni Brusca and Massimo Ciancimino, are also on trial.

As part of the investigation, prosecutors wiretapped a private conversation between Mancino and Napolitano, which created a stand-off between the prosecutor's office and the Italian presidency.

After a court ruling, the wiretap has been destroyed and its contents have not been revealed.

Collusion between Italian officials and the mafia has often been alleged but few cases have gone to trial and even fewer have resulted in convictions.

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From Swexit to Frexit: How Europe's far-right parties have ditched plans to leave EU

Whereas plans to leave the bloc took centre stage at the last European polls in 2019, far-right parties have shifted their focus to issues such as immigration as they seek mainstream votes.

“Quickly a lot of far-right parties abandoned their firing positions and their radical discourse aimed at leaving the European Union, even if these parties remain eurosceptic,” Thierry Chopin, a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges told AFP.

Britain, which formally left the EU in early 2020 following the 2016 Brexit referendum, remains the only country to have left so far.

Here is a snapshot:

No Nexit

The Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) led by Geert Wilders won a stunning victory in Dutch national elections last November and polls indicate it will likely top the European vote in the Netherlands.

While the manifesto for the November election stated clearly: “the PVV wants a binding referendum on Nexit” – the Netherlands leaving the EU – such a pledge is absent from the European manifesto.

For more coverage of the 2024 European Elections click here.

The European manifesto is still fiercely eurosceptic, stressing: “No European superstate for us… we will work hard to change the Union from within.”

The PVV, which failed to win a single seat in 2019 European Parliament elections, called for an end to the “expansion of unelected eurocrats in Brussels” and took aim at a “veritable tsunami” of EU environmental regulations.

No Frexit either

Leaders of France’s National Rally (RN) which is also leading the polls in a challenge to President Emmanuel Macron, have also explicitly dismissed talk they could ape Britain’s departure when unveiling the party manifesto in March.

“Our Macronist opponents accuse us… of being in favour of a Frexit, of wanting to take power so as to leave the EU,” party leader Jordan Bardella said.

But citing EU nations where the RN’s ideological stablemates are scoring political wins or in power, he added: “You don’t leave the table when you’re about to win the game.”

READ ALSO: What’s at stake in the 2024 European parliament elections?

Bardella, 28, who took over the party leadership from Marine Le Pen in 2021, is one of France’s most popular politicians.

The June poll is seen as a key milestone ahead of France’s next presidential election in 2027, when Le Pen, who lead’s RN’s MPs, is expected to mount a fourth bid for the top job.

Dexit, maybe later

The co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, said in January 2024 that the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum was an example to follow for the EU’s most populous country.

Weidel said the party, currently Germany’s second most popular, wanted to reform EU institutions to curb the power of the European Commission and address what she saw as a democratic deficit.

But if the changes sought by the AfD could not be realised, “we could have a referendum on ‘Dexit’ – a German exit from the EU”, she said.

The AfD which has recently seen a significant drop in support as it contends with various controversies, had previously downgraded a “Dexit” scenario to a “last resort”.

READ ALSO: ‘Wake-up call’: Far-right parties set to make huge gains in 2024 EU elections

Fixit, Swexit, Polexit…

Elsewhere the eurosceptic Finns Party, which appeals overwhelmingly to male voters, sees “Fixit” as a long-term goal.

The Sweden Democrats (SD) leader Jimmie Åkesson and leading MEP Charlie Weimers said in February in a press op ed that “Sweden is prepared to leave as a last resort”.

Once in favour of a “Swexit”, the party, which props up the government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, in 2019 abandoned the idea of leaving the EU due to a lack of public support.

In November 2023 thousands of far-right supporters in the Polish capital Warsaw called for a “Polexit”.

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