"Interviewer: Can what happened in ’92–’93 be defined as a kind of coup? Veltroni: In short, let’s be clear. Do you believe that Totò Riina was really the head of the Mafia? A Mafia that moves 130 billion euros a year? Do you believe that Riina or Provenzano had ever heard of the Velabro or the Georgofili in their lives? Is it conceivable that the Mafia, with its centuries-old codes, adopted the terrorist language of massacres for the first time since Portella della Ginestra without a strong, political reason? [...] Those were the days of Tangentopoli, the end of the parties of the First Republic, and the devaluation of the lira. We were emerging from that earthquake with the Ciampi government. Ciampi took office in April 1993. On May 27, there was the attack in Florence; on July 27, those in Milan and Rome. Then there was the failed attack at the Olympic Stadium [...]. And then the massacres ended. Why? There are two questions, and the answer, I fear, is one. Why did the Mafia start carrying out the massacres? Why did the Mafia stop carrying out the massacres?"