Mani pulite

"This network unravels with the arrival of the investigations in February 1992. Parliamentary immunity, which had been abused, was revoked. The judiciary, which had provided protection, regained its role as guarantor of legality. This caused consternation, and for some time there was hope that a new era had truly begun. But the old resistance was far from defeated, as the difficulties in reforming the law on public procurement immediately demonstrated. A new strategy was on the horizon, and it found a favourable climate in Berlusconism."

"I am well aware that a judicial “truth” does not exempt us from the obligation to go further. But it almost seems that, through these explanations, we are trying to free ourselves from the burden of analysing specific facts and personal responsibilities. An old vice of our political culture resurfaces: talking about general things to avoid concrete ones. Just as the far left did, everything is attributed to the dynamics of the “system”, which is invincible in its own way. The result is either a great condemnation or a great acquittal: conclusions that are apparently antithetical but essentially coincidental; which embody a political will, even understandable, to turn the page and start a new era, but which can become an obstacle to in-depth, detailed analysis. Many of the theses mentioned resemble an alibi rather than an explanation. Some, incidentally, do not even stand up to a trivial test based on the principle of non-contradiction. It is recalled, for example, that it was impossible for the PCI to enter the government. And then the PCI is blamed for not having made possible the alternation that would have immunised the system from the virus of corruption. Since the supporters of such arguments are not stupid (or, at least, not always), it is clear that their only aim is to prevent any distinction or gradation of responsibility, lumping together government and opposition parties in a single condemnation."

"(About the investigations of the television programme Samarcanda) Our analysis is correct: Judge Di Pietro has shown that it was much worse than we imagined."

"In political terms, getting caught up in Mani Pulite means not having been able to offer any viable alternative to the Italian model of underdevelopment."

"The judges of Mani Pulite should be arrested; they are a criminal organisation with a licence to kill that aims to subvert the democratic order. (16 July 1994)"

"The system of corruption and illegal financing of the First Republic ended with Mani Pulite."

"During those years, a great social and political transformation was underway. The Christian Democrats, the Italian Socialist Party, the Italian Republican Party, the Italian Democratic Socialist Party and the Italian Liberal Party were in decline. The Italian Communist Party was changing its name and nature. The Northern League was born, then Silvio Berlusconi arrived with his party. It was not Mani Pulite that caused all this; Mani Pulite was, at most, the midwife, the birth assistant."

"Mani Pulite grew enormously on the confessions of those under investigation. An investigation based not on investigations but on confessions is not a good investigation."

"Mani Pulite was like this: a container investigation, from which the various trials were opened at will by the Trio Lescano [Antonio Di Pietro, Gherardo Colombo, Pier Camillo Davigo]."

"Mani Pulite was largely played out with confessions and plea bargains. The only real trial was the Cusani trial, with Di Pietro exhibiting ultra-modern means never before seen in a courtroom, such as computer projections of diagrams. But then he would conclude with phrases like “What does that have to do with anything?”. And he won over the TV audience."

"Twenty years after Mani Pulite, there are those who refuse to accept the obvious: that Tangentopoli erupted because there were bribes."

"Behind the lights of the city, behind its desire for Europe, behind the triumphs of its fashion designers, behind its super-elegant streets, there is a powerful network of bribes and corruption that has spared nothing and no one. For at least a decade, a sort of double-breasted mafia has imposed a system of bribes everywhere."

"Yes, those were terrible years. I was the editor of L'Unità and I think I can say that we kept the newspaper out of the judicial frenzy that was going on, even going against the arrest of Berlusconi's brother; this is because I find it difficult to accept the extension of preventive detention for those who have not committed acts against other people. I am convinced that corruption and the unscrupulous use of power should be strongly condemned: because yes, in those years the judges went beyond their boundaries, but then there was an unacceptable campaign against the magistrates; and for this reason, that period should not be repeated, in the sense of the use of judicial instruments (which, in my opinion, were disproportionate to the situation) and in the sense that the appalling corruption that this country has known and experienced, and which I cannot even say has completely ended, should not be repeated either."

"A parliamentary commission of inquiry into Tangentopoli would truly be a test not only for the majority but for the entire country. This would put an end to thinking in terms of opposition between the persecuted and the persecutors, and we would probably discover that there are many cheats."