Politicians From Italy

"Ho capito, ad esempio, che Bettino Craxi e Claudio Martelli c'erano dentro fino al collo con Gelli e Ortolani. Ad esempio, la storia dei 30 milioni di dollari, del conto Protezione, mica è uno scherzo. C'è da credere davvero che in quegli anni, con tutti quei soldi, si siano comprati il PSI."

"Ho pensato di iscrivermi a quella loggia come ci si iscrive al Rotary, ai Lions. Così quando è scoppiato lo scandalo P2 non mi restava che il suicidio..."

"[About a wiretap of Giuseppe Graviano] No one has shown us this conversation. If it existed, we would have to listen to it to verify Graviano’s actual words. In any case, he knew he was being recorded and might have misled them. I am not aware of any meeting between Berlusconi and Graviano or anyone directly or indirectly linked to him. Much less with a well-known cousin of him."

"Se io, Signorile e De Michelis fossimo rimasti insieme, saremmo riusciti a contrastare Craxi. Insieme funzionavamo, purtroppo andò in maniera diversa e per me alla rottura contribuì anche un problema finanziario."

"(About Bettino Craxi) A giant, a part of the country’s history. To criminalise him is a vulgar act. How many crimes did Togliatti commit or cover up in the 1930s and 1940s? Yet he is considered part of our history. Craxi’s true ‘crime’ was to restore ideological autonomy to the Socialists, dismantling the myth of Lenin and indeed that of Gramsci as well."

"Previti can’t be judged because he’s a defendant, but also a member of parliament. But if I saw him near my car, I’d call the police."

"Gruber is a smug little saint."

"(About Valerio Zanone) The least liberal of them all. A liberal is humble. He is limited by his arrogance."

"Fede is grateful to Berlusconi because he never abandoned him. Berlusconi is good. He never abandons anyone."

"The monsters are the secret services, an increasingly substantial and dynamic structure that intervenes continuously, massively and oppressively in political and social reality [...] In 1968–69, the protest movement shook the established order, which, in turn, sought to recover in various ways, one of which was the systematic, provocative and violent terrorist activity of specific sectors of the separate bodies of the State [...] The monsters fabricate opposing extremisms: the regime’s darling, Rai TV, is responsible for amplifying the distortion, presenting it as objective; Sid and Rai TV, two very different entities and yet so close when it comes to supporting, in critical decisions, the DC regime. [...] True to form, the Red Brigades reappear on the eve of every election. (1975, introduction to Marco Sassano’s book “Sid and the American Party. The role of the CIA, the secret services and the separate corps in the strategy of subversion", published by Marsilio. Quoted from “”Micromega“”, 16 December 2009)"

"I’ve figured out the mystery of why Scajola fell in love with Berlusconi. His dream was to become important in Liguria. He succeeded by placing his people everywhere."

"Fazio is the mellifluous leftist. His eyes look like two eggs in a frying pan."

"Being notoriously a troglodyte, Francesco Speroni is incapable of speaking about the First, Second or even Third Republic. Fortunately, the Lega in the Chamber, the Senate and local authorities has a political class of a different calibre."

"It is clear that the current electronic voting system is unable to effectively safeguard the secrecy of MPs’ votes and, consequently, it would be appropriate to use another system for this purpose, for example, one involving black and white balls to be placed in the ballot box, perhaps inside mobile booths."

"(About Bruno Vespa) He is too accommodating. He doesn’t put his guests on the spot. He hosts well but with a loose rein. Everyone leaves satisfied and even reimbursed."

"(About the incident involving the Italian fishing boat fired upon by a Libyan patrol boat) We are dealing with a counterpart who is addafi, a man with unique characteristics but one with whom we must reckon. He could dump thousands and thousands of immigrants on our shores. The whole fishing boat incident must be condemned; it is deplorable, but a break with Gaddafi and with Libya would have disastrous consequences for our country."

"Bondi is an offshoot of Berlusconi. In fact, Bondi is Berlusconi. Bondi is the boss at the disposal of the periphery. He listens to everyone."

"As long as the presiding judge is a colleague of the prosecutor—whom she might even marry—then I wonder if they hold their chambers in bed."

"I worked for years for Berlusconi; I know his strategies. When I was his legal advisor and he asked me to draft laws that would protect him from the magistrates, he certainly made no secret of their ad personam purpose. And I drafted them even better than Ghedini and Pecorella do now. The one on legitimate suspicion—I think it was 2002—he needed to move his trials from Milan to Rome. He asked us for it openly, and we, faithful executors of the prince’s will, set about writing it. And we did a pretty good job, I must say: everything seemed in order. Then one evening in late October, around 11 p.m., a call came from Ciampi. I told Berlusconi that with that amendment, it wouldn’t serve any purpose anymore. He thought about it for a moment and then replied: “Let’s do it this way for now, and we’ll see.” I was right: in fact, the law passed with those amendments and was of no use to him."

"Criminals judge judges. We want to be judged by whoever we choose. Previti wants to be judged by a judge who thinks like him. But if the judge thought like Previti, he wouldn’t be a judge—he’d be a criminal."

"(About the case of Eluana Englaro) A genuine murder has taken place. [Even] Parliament itself has been taken for a ride. My complaint would have been for attempted murder; now it will be different—namely, premeditated murder. And it will be filed against the girl’s father Beppino Englaro, against the doctors who treated her, and also against the Public Prosecutor of Udine for abuse of office or for whatever crimes may be identified. As for the prosecutor in Udine, who has been completely inactive, I will request the intervention of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Milan, which has jurisdiction over crimes committed by the judges in Udine. This barbaric murder, this attack on life, must be punished and brought to justice."

"(About the deaths of Ilaria Alpi and Miran Hrovatin) They were on vacation in Somalia; they were not conducting any investigation: the Commission has established this (January 2004)."

"(Regarding the secret dossier on Ilaria Alpi) I have absolutely no recollection of having given that document to the then-Chief of Police, and I certainly did not grant any investigative authority to Gianni De Gennaro."

"There are many things I did during that period that I would never do again. I have no qualms about saying that I went through a moral crisis, which culminated when I saw how the Cavaliere's inner circle was taking shape."

"I have said before that there was a bond of psychological homosexuality between Berlusconi and Putin: they admired one another and theirs was a relationship of absolute equality. Putin regarded this Italian entrepreneur, who controlled the television networks and had managed to make a name for himself in politics, as a genius. In turn, Berlusconi regarded him as a pragmatist, capable of running a country like Russia and with whom one could do many things together: from business to women."

"Putin wanted to get back into the big game. And he used Berlusconi and his connections with the Americans to return to the inner circle from which Russia had been excluded after the end of the Soviet Union."

"Berlusconi has a very strong ego. But the party has faded without him."

"He is a cheerful man, even a bit of a joker, prone to sudden outbursts of anger and just as quick to forget them. He served as a minister in both the First and Second Republics, as Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies, and as secretary of the PLI. When I was editor-in-chief of *Cuore*, he sued me, though neither of us remembers why. He is dogged by an undeserved reputation as a heavy drinker and a well-deserved one as a witticism-spinner."

"Daniele Capezzone. He’s a cleric, a young man of rare intelligence who strikes me the same way as those learned priests who become cardinals."

"Berlusconi should choose people capable of saying no to him. And besides, he works too much. He invites me to long dinners at his house where we talk only about politics. But he should go to a trattoria, to chat, to watch people."

"Forza Italia lacks internal debate. Because of a vision I call “leadercratic.”"

"The law is the same for everyone, but its application is not necessarily so."

"Ciancimino’s statements regarding Milano Due are completely devoid of any factual basis or logic, and can be refuted with documentation at any time. All financial flows related to Milano 2—a real estate project that even today is considered one of the finest achievements in our country—are more than transparent and have repeatedly been subject to thorough audits and verifications. [...] All findings have demonstrated the entirely lawful origin of all the money used.[7]"

"The Lega aspires to a fragmented, quasi-feudal world of city-states, and yearns for a sort of autarky: with a “yes” to polenta and a “no” to pineapple, as if this were a problem of the future..."

"I believe I have made my opinion of Mr. Previti clear in terms so explicit that they may seem—to more than a few—brutal: a man who, just by looking at his face, makes you want to slap handcuffs on him before you even know who he is or what he has done."

"It is no coincidence that the lawyer defending Zappadu is a member of the European Parliament from Antonio Di Pietro's Italia dei Valori party. He wears two hats—lawyer and parliamentarian—that should not be confused. I mean: if the victim is the Prime Minister and the defendant is being defended by a member of an opposition party... well... it’s as if I were to bring a civil action in any trial against, say, D’Alema, Fassino, or Prodi."

"I once saw it on TV—there was Previti, Ferrara, and Ignazio La Russa; oh, I thought it was an episode of Star Trek."

"Even if this girl’s allegations were true—and they are not—the Prime Minister would, according to the reconstruction, be the end user and therefore never criminally liable."

"Santoro is a great professional; I appreciate him; he’s someone who does his job very well. He may well be biased, but he does so clearly. He doesn’t deceive the viewer. Interviewer: Did you enjoy going there, Ghedini? Ghedini: It was an exhausting battle, but a good one. I preferred it to so many self-righteous shows."

"Scalfaro remains right-wing and fundamentalist even though he joins the protests. Just like what happened to Montanelli or Federico Orlando. They’re characterized by moralistic rigor. Bigotry. The secular kind is worse than the religious kind."

"(About the description of Silvio Berlusconi as a liberal) In economic terms. Otherwise, he's a bit of a Christian Democrat and a bit of a Craxi supporter."

"(About the Biondi decree) I had protested, saying that in matters of justice, one cannot legislate by decree. But Biondi, who partly shared my position, explained to me that Berlusconi, alarmed by the possibility of his brother Paolo’s arrest, had exerted enormous pressure to have such a measure passed. (2 February 1995)"

"(About the debate between a hard line and negotiation during the Moro case) There is no need to divide ourselves into hawks and doves; there is no need to misrepresent the spirit of renunciation and submission as warm humanitarianism, or, as cold statism, the basic requirement of not compromising on inalienable rights and duties, such as the duty to deliver justice and ensure the equality of citizens before the law."

"The liberals are in the government, but Forza Italia is controlled by the Christian Democrats, the Socialists, the Communists, and former Fininvest employees."

"(About Silvio Berlusconi) Now he has to deal with what he calls the “theater of politics,” which requires dialogue, while he prefers monologues."

"I say that among the motives cited (for the murder of Don Peppino Diana) in the trial records, there are some of the most diverse. During the trial, some spoke of revenge out of jealousy, others reported that he was killed because they wanted to divert the investigations that were underway regarding another criminal group. And others also reported that he kept the clan’s weapons. No one has ever said why this murder took place, given that there were no precedents to reconstruct the facts. If one is familiar with the trial documents, one knows that various motives are cited by different sources. [...] There are various motives; there is also the one—which did not emerge at first—that he was engaged in anti-Camorra activities. To tell the truth, even this did not emerge very clearly as a motive during the trial. It is pointless for us to build fantasies around hypotheses. His anti-Camorra activism is among the hypotheses. But during the trial, it did not emerge in a striking way; there was never any mention of mass mobilization or people taking to the streets. It’s not as if there had been public demonstrations or documents. Someone also cited this reason. As you can see, there are many motives. Certainly, he was killed by the Camorra. Anyone killed by the Camorra is a victim of the Camorra. Now, if he is a martyr, we must understand that from the motive, which has not been clarified."

"This ruling [on the unconstitutionality of the Pecorella Law] could reopen trials already before the Court of Cassation, and the decisive factor will once again be not the oral and public trial in the first instance, but the appeal based on written documents."

"A paid sexual encounter not with a 14-year-old but with a girl who was six months shy of being of age. Legally, that’s how it is [a minor]. But she was six months away, and it doesn’t seem to me—allow me the irony regarding my surname—that she was some poor lost lamb. As for me, though this is a personal opinion, I believe that today the age of majority is too high compared to the maturity young people have reached."

"Previti is something of a Lombrosian symbol of the Italian political system's ills. He is the person most responsible for the situation in Italy, second only to Berlusconi."

"Once the [PSI] party was dissolved, some became Muslims, some Jews, some Catholics. But we have always remained socialists."