People From Italy

"If Salvo Lima hadn't died, I would have asked Parliament to arrest Andreotti. [...] In reality, I never had a relationship with Craxi. I was targeting the criminal environment surrounding Andreotti. [...] Andreotti's case was time-barred in 1980; it's not that he was acquitted. And on the other side there was the mayor, Vito Ciancimino, and Salvo Lima. So, I mean: that was the real power. [...] Mani Pulite was not stopped by politics: it was stopped by the judges. It's a story that needs to be rewritten sooner or later."

"I didn't discover Mani pulite: it came about as a result of the investigation into the maxi-trial in Palermo, when Giovanni Falcone received confidential information from Tommaso Buscetta that an agreement had been made between the Ferruzzi Group and the mafia. That's where it began. Falcone tasked the ROS (Special Operations Group) with compiling what would become a 980-page report, which was supposed to go to Falcone, but he was transferred."

"The M5S has done one positive thing: it has contributed to the renewal of the ruling class. I don't agree with statements like those made by Di Maio, who says that the Five Star Movement is the best. That's a statement that scares me."

"(About the political consequences of Mani pulite) Mani Pulite created a vacuum: that's when personal parties began, starting with me. But these parties last only a morning, and I am living proof of that."

"I would do it all again. I have had many jobs, as a police officer, a magistrate, a politician, and I do not regret anything, least of all Mani Pulite. But as a magistrate, I convicted people, not a system. Those people represented political ideas. Some put them into practice by doing their duty, such as Aldo Moro or Giorgio La Pira, while others used their position for personal gain."

"I have always found the conflict between those who defend civil liberties and those who defend justice misleading. I am and always have been in favor of respecting the law."

"From the end of the First Republic onwards, new ideas and people to carry them forward should have emerged. Instead, that investigation created a huge void, and figures appeared on the political scene who were there more for themselves than for anything else, starting with me. I am thinking of Berlusconi, Bossi, Salvini, and Renzi."

"I attribute a fundamental role to Grillo. In moments of total disappointment, protest explodes. I remember 1968 well, even though I was on the side of the police. Grillo deserves credit for channeling the protest."

"I am at an age where I have to look ahead to the years that remain, and before I leave, before I close my eyes, I would very much like to shake hands with all those who have had dealings with me, even those who opposed me."

"We did what any radiologist does when you go for an X-ray to see if you have a disease; we discovered that our country was sick with endemic corruption."

"(About Raul Gardini) Fifteen minutes earlier, I spoke with his lawyer and we agreed that he would come to me, of his own free will and with his hands free, and he would tell me how things stood. Then, evidently out of pride, he committed suicide."

"I also read in the newspapers that the Clean Hands investigation was an investigation into corruption; you know that's not true, right? It's an investigation into false accounting."

"Before I leave, I would like to put everything online so that one day someone can read it and see a different truth from what has been told."

"That those in politics betrayed me is understandable; politics is made up of traitors."

"It's not a day of celebration 25 years later. Twenty-five years have passed, but it seems to me that when I open the newspaper every morning, everything is the same as before."

"(25 years since the beginning of Mani pulite) From then until now, the only thing that has changed is that now there is desolation on the part of public opinion."

"They wanted to stop us. They sprang into action as soon as they realized we were about to reach the upper echelons of power. Clean Hands was stopped, partly because while we were investigating the bigwigs in the north, we ended up touching those who had contacts with the mafia in the south."

"I understand that it's hard to accept something so simple; that a magistrate, a public prosecutor, gets it right for once and uncovers a series of crimes by conducting a thorough investigation."

"There is no doubt that knowing that a Minister of the Interior (Claudio Scajola) was aware and had knowledge of people who were risking their lives (Marco Biagi) in a concrete way and did not intervene, as he did to help fugitives involved in organized crime, makes me feel humiliated as a citizen and as a representative of the institutions. We have had people like this even in the Ministry of the Interior. I hope that, beyond earthly justice, divine justice will send him to Hell."

"Does Monti have a dog? Well, I have 13, and then cats, sheep, a goat, 120 pigeons and a pregnant cow. (February 22, 2013)"

"The death of Gardini is the real, great regret I have about the Mani Pulite season. For two reasons. The first: on July 23, Gardini was supposed to tell me everything: who he had given the billion lire he had brought to Botteghe Oscure, the headquarters of the Italian Communist Party, to; who the corrupt economic journalists were, in addition to those already revealed by Sama; and who the beneficiaries of the bulk of the Enimont bribe, safely stored in the Ior, were. The second reason: I could save Gardini. On the evening of the 22nd, shortly before midnight, the Carabinieri called me at my home in Curno to inform me that Gardini had arrived at his home in Piazza Belgioioso in Milan and asked me, “Doctor, what shall we do, shall we arrest him?” But I had given my word to the lawyers that he would arrive at the prosecutor's office on his own two feet the next morning. So I told them to let it go. If I had had him arrested immediately, he would still be here with us. :*, July 21, 2013."

"There should not even be a need for a law to prohibit torture. Already today, there are specific types of crimes with which it is technically possible to punish a person who tortures. Nevertheless, if you want to introduce the crime, I agree...."

"Many people must apologize for the actions of the police. Just as many people must apologize for the actions of the demonstrators. Many things happened in Genoa, but one does not justify the other. It is too easy to say that now only the police must apologize. Each act must be judged on its own merits, but I will never allow anyone to say that because the police did what they did, what happened the day before is justified."

"I have always maintained, and still maintain today, that we did well to let the judiciary do its job, because only justice could ascertain the truth [about the events of the G8 in Genoa]. Today, with the cards on the table and the final measures in place, we have proven evidence of how the events unfolded. If there had been a parliamentary commission, there would have been a majority report and a minority report, and in parliament there would have been those who sided with one side and those who sided with the other, based on partisanship and not on the ascertainment of the facts. Today, the cards are on the table, and everyone must bow their heads and apologize."

"What is the point of a commission today? There is a final criminal judgment that also establishes the civil and moral responsibility of the State. There is a risk of calling into question the truth of the trial, especially by entrusting it to a biased body representing the current political majority. It seems masochistic to me: it would only serve to give those who have already been convicted by the judiciary the chance to rewrite a different page of that story."

"Absolutely opposed [to amnesty], because – first of all – people should not commit crimes. Secondly, if they do commit crimes, they must be placed on a path of punishment and rehabilitation so that when they are released, they are able to find a job and change their lives. Amnesty releases both good and bad people indiscriminately, which is of no benefit to either prisoners or society."

"Craxi described Napolitano, a leading member of the PCI and president of the Chamber of Deputies, as a man who was very attentive to the system of the First Republic, especially in cultivating his relations with Moscow. I believe that in that formal interrogation, which I conducted before the judge, Craxi was revealing true facts because he accused himself and then others of illegal party financing. Now, one of two things: either those facts were not criminally relevant, or I don't see why double standards were used."

"(During the debate on the approval of the anti-corruption bill) You know that there are many cases in which loans or grants are awarded to people who apply to the public administration for a variety of reasons. Well, we ask you why, when it comes to a person convicted with a final criminal sentence for mafia activities, corruption, aiding and abetting embezzlement, or other very serious crimes, they should be allowed access to contributions from the state and the public administration, funding, charitable donations, and so on. Why can't we establish a principle whereby those who are honest, fair, and respect the law can access benefits, while criminals are denied them? It is a straightforward, formal, and precise request. Don't tell us, once again, that there is a delegation! Why don't we decide here? We are adopting a measure, so why do we have to postpone it to another date? Take on this responsibility too!"

"Even stones know it, so imagine if foreign and Italian investors do not know the reasons why Italy is in recession. The reasons are slow and exasperating bureaucracy, rampant corruption, and entrepreneurs who, instead of doing business, have been forced or reduced to acting as “bribe-takers” and fixers. This is why our country is not working. Our country does not work because there is an exasperating tax system. Our country does not work because the Italian state and public bodies, after requesting orders for work and products from companies, do not pay them. There are companies that are going bankrupt because the state does not pay for the products they have supplied or the work they have done. These are the reasons why our country does not work."

"(About the Monti government) We contested another thing about Berlusconi: he made us ashamed on a human level, he thought about ‘'bunga bunga’'. We, on the other hand, contest the policies you are pursuing. Above all, we contest the decision to continue Berlusconi's approach, from the Istituto Luce, from propaganda, in making people believe that everything is fine."

"(About the Monti government at the session to approve the law converting the simplification and development decree) It is good for Italians to know that you will be good fathers in your own homes, but you are bad fathers to Italians, because you do not think of all Italians, you only think of some of them, you only think of the lobbies, the caste, of doing favors for some and destroying the weakest part of the country. Let's be clear, Italia dei Valori knows very well why you were put there. You had to put the accounts in order, but you also had to make those who could pay the bill pay it, and not always the weakest and, above all, the most honest. We dispute the political choices you have made in your work."

"(About Oscar Luigi Scalfaro) He was able to give us that sense of security that allowed us to work calmly even when they tried to stop us [...]. It was essential that he was the one to take on the role of President of the Republic during those years. He carried out his role independently, both as a politician and as a magistrate."

"I can't stand some of Maroni's racist remarks about immigrants, as I was one of them myself. But I was also a policeman. I appreciate the way Maroni defends his ministry."

"There is the Lega of the leadership, which seems to me to be closed off in the Roman Palace and torn apart internally. But there is the Lega of the mayors, the councilors, the territory, the militants. I know them well: they are people who love their land, and they have my respect. You can't throw the baby out with the bathwater."

"More than Videla, Berlusconi is Do Nascimiento."

"Berlusconi today is essentially a lonely person, trying to buy a happiness he does not have. My feelings for him are of humana pietas. And anger towards the courtiers who take advantage of him, who feed off him, who further humiliate the institutions, hiding behind his face."

"Faced with human suffering and fragility, only a miserable person rejoices and wishes for the worst. A man, if he is a man, expresses solidarity."

"I was an emigrant, and I had no time for ideologies, neither communist nor fascist."

"However, I come from there. From the Catholics, from the moderates. I studied in a seminary. I am not a man of the left."

"Carelli: “Mr. Di Pietro, have you ever been to Oxford to give a lecture?” Di Pietro: “No, look, I am aware of my limitations.”"

"(Referring to the episode of Annozero aired on December 16, 2010) Last night, in front of several million television viewers, the Minister of Defense in the government of Berlusconi, Ignazio La Russa, responded to my specific accusation that he was behaving like a Fascist by saying, "Yes. I am a fascist. I am proud to be a fascist." Can a minister of the Republic, the Minister of Defense, defend fascism, having the armed forces at his disposal? I want to appeal to President Giorgio Napolitano. The Minister of Defense of the Italian Republic has defended fascism. What are we waiting for to react? The return of a new fascism?"

"When they said, “Fascism is over, but what does it mean to be a fascist?” Well, it means being La Russa: tonight he is a fascist. From the television program ‘'Annozero’', December 16, 2010. Video available on ‘'Rai.tv’'."

"Of course, you, Mr. Berlusconi, are not a prime minister, but a rapist of democracy, a rapist who, after the rape, made a law, or rather, twenty laws ‘'ad personam’' so as not to answer for his rape. You are not, as they have defined you, one of the many tentacles of the octopus... You are the head of the political octopus that in the last twenty years has appropriated the institutions in an anti-democratic and criminal way, to bend them to your personal interests and those of your accomplices, those of the deviant Masonic sect to which you belong. Today you spoke to us about the government's willingness to implement the fight against corruption, tax evasion, and the economic crimes of the cliques: and what are you going to do, arrest yourself? Or have you decided to slap yourself every morning when you get up and look in the mirror?"

"I consider Travaglio one of the few free voices in the world of information, a serious professional who fully performs the role of watchdog of democracy. Marco's observations and criticisms, of which I myself have often been the subject, should serve as a warning to politicians."

"(About the 'President of the Italian Republics message about Bettino Craxi) I prefer not to comment. I do not want to argue with the Head of State. [...] while everyone is competing to remember a fugitive, we at Italia dei Valori prefer to remember the journalist Beppe Alfano, who was killed because he denounced those who committed crimes, rather than committing them himself."

"(About Bettino Craxi) We believe that what is happening is a violation of history: making people believe that a person must be rehabilitated, without informing citizens that this person has indebted the country politically, has been a fugitive from justice, and has used institutions to steal money and cheat citizens out of their money. Using this person as a reference point for the country's redemption is like using Lucifer to praise God."

"In reality, Berlusconi is not interested in the good of the community, but only in his own impunity."

"I pensieri stretti e il viso sciolto will go safely over the whole world."

"There has never been any division between my life and my work."

"From the saints I must take the substance, not the accidents of their virtues. I am not St. Aloysius, nor must I seek holiness in his particular way, but according to the requirements of my own nature, my own character and the different conditions of my life. I must not be the dry, bloodless reproduction of a model, however perfect. God desires us to follow the examples of the saints by absorbing the vital sap of their virtues and turning it into our own life-blood, adapting it to our own individual capacities and particular circumstances. If St. Aloysius had been as I am, he would have become holy in a different way."