"It is clear that if the political climate leads, shall we say, to a thaw in relations between the opposition and the new majority, Schifani has had friendships with mafia figures... I do not write that Schifani has had friendships with mafia figures because neither the right nor the left wants it, and what do I have to do with the right or the left? Let them take whatever political stance they wish, but I have to be a journalist. I have to report it; Lirio Abbate reported it in the book he wrote with Gomez, and he is rightly celebrated as a heroic journalist threatened by the Mafia. So, either they have the courage to say that Lirio Abbate is a scoundrel, a liar, or they have the courage to take note of what he writes about the second-highest office in the state, and simply ask the second-highest office in the state to explain those relationships with those gentlemen who were subsequently convicted of mafia involvement; instead, we, unfortunately, are simply following the political climate. If there were a clash, some would say: ‘Oh well, it suits the left, so I’ll write it.’ Today, when not even the left wants to hear about certain things, nobody talks about them anymore: it’s a tragedy."