State-Mafia Pact

"It was a crucial negotiation, a truly significant founding act of the Second Republic for understanding what happened in those years and in the years that followed – to understand, step by step, Licio Gelli’s plan, the deals with Berlusconi, and the fact that there was no opposition in this country. Isn’t Matteo Renzi, too, simply the result of this agreement?"

"It is a shameful and disconcerting fact. Why Nicola Mancino and others yes, but Giovanni Conso no? This completely undermines the credibility of the Palermo Public Prosecutor’s Office. Conso was the one who refused to extend 41 bis to mafia members in prison. [...] If there was a political plot, why is the very person who would have implemented it excluded from the trial? Instead, others are being put on trial and shadows are being cast over those who bear no responsibility. For example, Silvio Berlusconi and Dell’Utri have nothing to do with the alleged State-Mafia negotiations, which are said to have taken place in 1993–94 under the Amato and Ciampi governments, with Scalfaro acting as the chief orchestrator of this affair. It is on them that attention must be focused, not on others."

"I have focused my recollections on Schifani and spoke to the magistrates about him because even before the attack at the Olimpico I knew there were State-Mafia negotiations. When I saw Schifani on television and in political office, it occurred to me that he often frequented the warehouse in Brancaccio, Palermo, where Filippo Graviano used to stop for meetings. And I surmised that Schifani might have been the link in the negotiations."

"For Lupo and Fiandaca, that trial lacks any legal basis: for them, in fact, the negotiations were not only a legitimate initiative, but indeed a necessary, useful and beneficial one, safeguarding national security, as they were the means through which the State, at that precise historical moment, sought to preserve the lives of its citizens."

"Filippo Facci knows that "The Palermo Trial" will go nowhere. Filippo Facci knows that it is not true that Totò Riina wants Nino Di Matteo dead. Filippo Facci knows that there is now no trace left of the Corleonesi’s strategy of mass murder. Filippo Facci knows that anonymous sources, in a country that respects itself, should be discarded. Filippo Facci knows that any tightening of harsh prison conditions for mafia members would be dictated solely by the quest for image and credibility of the Palermo public prosecutors, who have now fallen on hard times."

""Alleged" – I call it "alleged" – negotiations between the State and the mafia."

"I hear talk of negotiations and I do not know if anyone sat down at the table with anyone else; I do know, however, that there was an objective capitulation by the State in the face of organised crime at the moment when, with my removal, we moved from one harsh prison regime to another, vastly softened one."

"The argument, of course, was that the trial should be moved to Rome; in fact, the judges decided it should remain in Palermo. As soon as it began, Fiandaca hastily wrote an "essay" with the historian Salvatore Lupo in which he retracted years of denial: having always referred to the negotiations as "so-called" and “alleged”, he admitted that "the negotiations did take place", but acquitted them on the grounds that they were "not criminally actionable" and "legally legitimate", inspired by a "state of necessity" and "for the greater good". That "good" which cost the lives of 16 people and the health of some forty others in the massacres of Via D’Amelio, Via dei Georgofili and Via Palestro. Collateral damage. And above all, no crime and no culprit."

"The negotiations are also a state of necessity for our ruling classes who, instead of waging war on organised crime to defeat it, tell you, ‘What, are you mad? They’ll start shooting again.” And it matters little that we have 350,000 armed men who could defeat the Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta and Mafia, which together have a maximum of 40,000 men. And so even today, the Italian system for combating organised crime consists solely of striking a deal."

""Alleged" is the word. Fiandaca speaks of "so-called negotiations" and "alleged negotiations". We’re off to a good start. The State-Mafia negotiations are indisputable in legal terms, as confirmed by final rulings of the Court of Cassation on the massacres of 1992–93, as well as by the direct protagonists and witnesses, not just Mafia members: Mori and De Donno state in their official records that there were ‘negotiations’ with the leaders of Cosa Nostra via Vito Ciancimino, and not merely a ‘first contact’, as Fiandaca has them saying. He needs to face facts: if he wants to talk about negotiations, he should at least read the judgments."