Politicians From Italy

"(About wiretaps) Their dissemination, sometimes selective and perhaps manipulated, is a deadly tool for personal and often political delegitimization. These are substantial, almost blasphemous violations of Article 15 of the Constitution, which establishes the secrecy of communications as an interface of freedom."

"Wiretapping is absolutely essential in the fight against the mafia and terrorism; it is fundamental to understanding the movements of people suspected of serious crimes. Wiretapping mafia members helps us understand who they talk to and how they move. :*Paola Di Caro, Sì alle intercettazioni, non agli abusi, Corriere della Sera, January 18, 2023."

"Aiding and abetting does not exist as a crime; it is a creation of jurisprudence. That is, the Supreme Court, the judges, invented this rather evanescent formula, which, strictly speaking, I would call “Popperian,” is an oxymoron. Because the concept of external complicity is contradictory, hence the oxymoron, because if you are a competitor, you are not external, and if you are external, you are not a competitor. Of course, when you discuss all these things from a technical point of view, you find ideological and emotional answers. We do not want to eliminate it; we know very well that you can be a mafioso within the organization and you can be an accomplice outside the organization, but then the crime needs to be completely redefined, which at the moment does not exist either as a specific or a specific offense because it is not in the code. (July 11, 2023)"

"(Regarding the separation of careers between penal prosecutors and judges and its relatiosnhip with the "Plan for Democratic Rebirth) I am not familiar with the P2 plan. I can say that if Mr. Licio Gelli's interpretation, or rather opinion, was a correct opinion, there is no reason why it should not be followed just because he said so. Truths do not depend on who proclaims them, but on the objectivity they represent."

"This book should be studied at the High School of the Judiciary (referring to the book entitled ‘'Il mostro’' by Matteo Renzi)."

"As Minister of Labor, he completed, with the approval of the Workers' Statute, a reform that would enhance the role of trade unions and which, in his opinion, would mark the completion of the system of constitutional freedoms in our legal system."

"The then Minister of Labor did not conclude negotiations with the metalworkers until I agreed, after several hours of resistance, to rehire a hundred workers who had been responsible for violence. I remember that, blackmailed by these conditions, I agreed to the rehiring. And the humiliation was not in accepting, or suffering, this form of blackmail, but in returning to Turin and informing the factory production managers that I had given in and that they had to rehire these hundred violent workers. That was the beginning of ten disastrous years of brutality and violence in the factory, which was only corrected after more than three thousand days."

"His lifestyle had the rare strength of a fundamental choice: the capacity for contradiction."

"(About Arnaldo Forlani) We will not be late today. We must allow the secretary to go to the Pope. At least for a blessing: he needs it. In every respect."

"In recent times, Giovanni Goria has been traveling all over Italy with his traveling theater troupe to promote the biggest deal around today: the 200 trillion lire pie that concerns the health and social security sectors and is tempting to the large private groups that manage insurance companies, namely the Agnelli, Ferruzzi, De Benedetti and Berlusconi families. Goria has been traveling around promoting the merchandise. Sometimes I saw the liberal De Lorenzo with him, the man who is now Minister of Health. :*‘’"Goria propagandista d'affari‘’, ‘'La Stampa’', August 12, 1989."

"The country will have to face great sacrifices, and great sacrifices are accepted when one is guided, in having to make them, by high moral dignity. It is that strength that Alcide De Gasperi had in leading Italy out of defeat and toward democratic reconstruction."

"His intransigence always had popular roots and connections. Alien to secular temptations, freed from instrumental conventions, he strove toward far-reaching ideals. A clear religion. His lesson: never give in."

"Democratic balance is also marked by the fact that, on the one hand, financial power controls the levers of the market economy, while on the other hand, the masses, having achieved universal suffrage, can obtain, through parliamentary representation, civil rights and therefore social rights, the welfare state."

"There is a profile that stands above the political one, and that is the moral profile."

"A man who has constantly fought to maintain a strong link between institutional structures and the needs of the world of work."

"[In 1986] [...] Juventus is a bit like the Christian Democracy party: even when it plays badly, it is always at the top, a little lower, a little higher, but always at the top."

"A life characterized by a refusal to compromise. He paid a heavy price for this conception of political dignity; he was not always understood, and many friends turned their backs on him."

"I once told him, “You're gruff even when you say thank you.”"

"Once there were deviant services, a deviant judiciary, and even deviant journalists, but now the situation is being reversed. The few magistrates who conduct investigations, the few journalists who write, and the investigators who do their duty are the ones who are deviant."

"If half of the funds that arrived had been used, Calabria could have been a small Switzerland."

"There is a new form of organized crime in Calabria, which is not only 'ndrangheta, which tends to manage public funds, those that have arrived, those that are arriving, and those that will arrive. This is the fundamental crux of the matter, because it is there that collusion between institutions, politics, business, and the banking system takes root, grows stronger, and increases."

"Naples is a special city, and has been so throughout history. When the entire continent was experiencing periods of stagnation, Naples marked important accelerations in the world of culture. Its university, one of the oldest in Europe, was a point of reference when the rest of Europe was torn apart by internal wars. It is a city that never allowed the Holy Inquisition to act freely and unchallenged. It is a city that, under foreign and military occupation, liberated itself by autonomously surrendering to those who brought about the retreat of the Nazis in World War II."

"I hope that Ireland votes in favor so that the Lisbon Treaty can come into force and be a step forward for democracy in Europe, because the European Parliament will have more powers and greater importance, and it will not be the governments that are in charge but the people through their representatives in Parliament. In Ireland, Italian-Irish people also play a fundamental role."

"The Master q:it:Aldo Masullo, to whom we recently conferred honorary citizenship of Naples, has left this earthly life. One of the greatest philosophers of the late 20th century, with the highest ethical standards and profound intellectual rigor, we remember his lucid political analyses right up until the last few days. A beacon for many, a solid point of reference for Neapolitan culture."

"They [the politicians] created this terrible climate. We simply uncovered and prosecuted acts that were defined as crimes by law. Then there are still some who are ashamed and commit suicide."

"Evidence is needed for a conviction, and only assumptions and circumstantial evidence were presented at the trial. Among these, one seemed decisive to me, but in the opposite direction to that of the prosecution. The findings showed that just below the window from which Pinelli had fallen there was a cornice that the body had chipped on impact. This proved that he had fallen on it. If it had been a defenestration, the defenestrators would have avoided that impact, which could have compromised the outcome."

"[Regarding the controversy over the publication of telephone wiretaps between the top management of Rai and Mediaset] This is not a matter of the private life of an individual, but of the management of a public information body, and therefore the rules of privacy that apply to individual citizens and their private lives cannot be invoked in this case. It would be unthinkable that this material could not be published. Do we want to go back to the Italy of 80 years ago, when fascist censorship was in force and the press was given directives to follow? This is why Article 21 of the Constitution states that journalists cannot be subject to authorization or censorship. And if someone had prevented the publication of these reports, we would be faced with a kind of censorship."

"The government will fall next week; it is clear that it is now hanging by a thread."

"Here, I want to tell everyone: I didn't write Jo Condor on my head. I learned it as a child and I'll prove it when the time comes, in the sense that we'll play offensively."

"We place our complete trust in you, President Napolitano, with the same fervor as Pope Francis when he addresses the Almighty."

"Primary elections are not mandatory. If winning meant not holding them..."

"In Sochi, I will reiterate Italy's opposition to any discriminatory legislation against gay people, both in sports and outside of sports."

"As Bersani said, we consider it legitimate that, like any defendant, Berlusconi should defend himself in court and against the trial. Of course, legitimate does not mean appropriate or fitting for the behavior of a statesman..."

"(About the Democratic Party) We are not a beached whale; instead, we must become like Nemo the fish."

"[...] I hate House of Cards. I think it's the worst television drama that could possibly be broadcast. The idea of politics that comes out of it is a politics made up entirely of intrigue and terrifying things."

"I am unable to give Renzi's government a rating. Fortune favors the bold, and Renzi, who is undoubtedly talented and bold, has been fortunate."

"The Jobs Act was a step forward, but it wasn't enough: much more needs to be done in the workplace because the real problem today is unemployment, and workers who have lost their jobs need to be protected. There is still not enough protection in place. More protections need to be added."

"I am happy for Enrico Letta. I hope that the new Prime Minister will give a boost to the economy because we desperately need it and the emergencies we face are reflected in some very worrying figures. Continuing like this, with youth unemployment at 35 percent, means there is no hope left. Letta will certainly tackle these issues with rigor."

"Letta is only a transitional leader for a temporary government [the Letta government] with a specific agenda. He will not be useful a second time. For the future, I imagine Gianni Cuperlo as party secretary [the Democratic Party] and Matteo Renzi at Palazzo Chigi."

"We have no problem with the word “merit,” but we have a very clear and simple point: the word “merit” in our Constitution is in Article 34; the principles of solidarity and equality are in Articles 2 and 3, and the point is very clear. (p. 97)"

"Winners normally always try to rewrite history, and you have tried to rewrite the history of the last decade. (p. 97) (Addressing Giorgia Meloni)"

"[...] during the election campaign, Letta was unable to give a single reason why people should vote for the Democratic Party, only reasons not to vote for the others."

"We are proud to have supported the government of Mario Draghi, a government of which we were a committed and successful part. (p. 95)"

"You gave a speech that speaks to a part of Italy steeped in identity. (p. 95) (Addressing Giorgia Meloni)"

"On the subject of taxation, we understood only one word: amnesties, amnesties, and amnesties. (p. 96)"

"(About Vladimir Putin) He has always had a connection with that historical logic, but I was surprised by his irrationality, his thinking that he could get away with it, that the Russian people would not suffer serious consequences that will last for a long time. [...] Frankly, I cannot see where such a plan will lead. And I believe that, in the long run, it will also cause Putin internal management problems in a country that has indeed restored its budget, but which has a very weak structure, with a GDP lower than that of Italy, a country that is all about energy and weapons and has failed to diversify its economy."

"Let me say that the biggest disappointment is to hear that the cornerstone of your environmentalist speech was the phrase: “There is no ecologist more convinced than a conservative.” No, let me say that this is not the case: Bolsonaro is a conservative, not an ecologist; Trump is a conservative, not an ecologist; the Poles of the PiS party are conservatives, not ecologists. (p. 97) (Addressing Giorgia Meloni)"

"Putin must now be stopped. What he has done cannot be excused by any historical reason; it is of endless gravity. It is the most significant event of this century since September 11. I make this comparison not because I consider the Russian president a Taliban, but because of the earthquake he is causing in international relations."

"Back in February last year, Renzi was already trying to bring down the Conte government, and the crisis was prevented by the arrival of COVID in Codogno. This is the story, proof that his criticism of the Recovery Plan is instrumental."

"It seems to me that Renzi has definitively opted out (of the Conte government) and politics is not a Neapolitan drama. The moment you decide to break away, it's over. He should ask himself why there is no leader or foreign newspaper that agrees with him and why only 10% of Italians think he is doing something intelligent."