Mani pulite ( Italian: Ã, ['ma: ni pu' li: te] , Italian for "clean hands") is a national judicial inquiry into political corruption in Italy held in the 1990s. Mani pulite caused the collapse of the so-called "First Republic", which resulted in the loss of many political parties. Some politicians and industry leaders commit suicide after their crimes are revealed. Antonio Di Pietro is the main judge in charge of the operation.
In some accounts, as many as 5,000 public figures fall into suspicion. At one point, more than half of the members of the Italian Parliament were under indictment. More than 400 city and city councils were dismissed for alleged corruption. Estimates of the value of bribes paid annually in the 1980s by Italian firms and foreign firms bidding for large government contracts amounted to US $ 4 billion dollars (6.5 trillion lire).
The corrupt system invented by the investigation is referred to as Tangentopoli (Italian pronunciation : Ã, [tand? En't ?: Poly] ). This term is derived from tangente , which means "bribe" and in this context refers to bribes given for public works contracts, and poly which means city; so it's sometimes translated as "Bribesville" or "Kickback City" .
Video Mani pulite
Penangkapan Mario Church
The Tangentopoly began on 17 February 1992 when Judge Antonio Di Pietro had Mario Chiesa, a member of the center-left Italian Socialist Party (PSI), who was arrested for taking bribes from a Milan cleaning company. PSI distanced themselves from Chiesa, with PSI leader Bettino Craxi calling him mariuolo, or "criminal", "splinter wild" from a clean party. Upset over this treatment by former colleagues, Chiesa began to provide information about the corruption that involved them. This marks the beginning of the investigation of the pulmonized maniacs; news of political corruption began to spread in the Italian press.
Maps Mani pulite
Expansion of anti-corruption investigation
In the 1992 elections, right-center Christian Democracy held power when the coalition government retained a small majority, while the leftist opposition party gained support. However, the Italian Communist Party broke out after the collapse of the Soviet Union, seizing the leadership clash. Many people chose to go to the right-wing Lega Nord, which was not likely to form an alliance with other parties at the time. Therefore, the resulting parliament is weak and difficult to reach an agreement.
During April 1992, many industry figures and politicians from both the government and the opposition were arrested on corruption charges. While investigations began in Milan, they quickly spread to other cities as more politicians confessed. One strange situation occurred when a Socialist politician immediately confessed all his crimes to two Carabinieri who came to his house, only to later find out that they had come to impose a fine for a traffic violation.
Fundamental to this increased exposure is the general attitude of the main politicians to drop support for the captured subordinates; this makes many feel betrayed, and they often associate many other personalities, which in turn will have more implications. On September 2, 1992, Socialist politician Sergio Moroni, accused of corruption, committed suicide. He left the letter pleading guilty, stating that the crime was not due to his personal gain but for the party's gain, and accused the system of financing all political parties.
Effects on national politics
In the local December elections, DC lost half of their votes. A day later, Craxi was officially accused of corruption. After many other politicians were accused and imprisoned, Craxi finally withdrew from the PSI.
On March 5, 1993, the Italian government Giuliano Amato and his Justice Minister Giovanni Conso tried to find a solution with a decision, allowing criminal charges for some bribery-related crimes to be replaced by administrative allegations; in the popular opinion of Italy at the time, it would result in a de facto amnesty for the vast majority of corruption allegations. Amid public outrage and national rallies, Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro refused to sign the ruling, deeming him unconstitutional. The following week, a $ 250 million affair involving Eni, a state-controlled national energy company, was revealed. The flow of accusations, confessions and imprisonment continues.
On 25 March, the Italian parliament changed the city's election law in favor of the majority system. Then, on April 18, the public strongly supported the repeal of the proportional parliamentary electoral legislation contained in the referendum (a mixed system introduced in August), which caused Amato to resign three days later. Still shocked by recent events, parliament can not produce a new government. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, former governor of Bank of Italy, was appointed head of government; he appoints a technical government without political influence. Meanwhile, Craxi's investigation was blocked by parliament. Several members of the government, who had just been in power for three days, resigned in protest; among them are Environment Minister Francesco Rutelli and Finance Minister Vincenzo Visco. In a new local election on 6 June 1993, DC lost half of his vote once more; PSI almost disappeared. Instead Lega Nord, a rightwing protest movement, became the strongest political force in Northern Italy. The left-wing opposition approaches the majority, but still lacks unity and leadership.
Finally, the four parties in the 1992 government disappeared, at different times in different ways: DC, PSI, Italian Socialist Democrats, and the Italian Liberal Party. The Left Democratic Party, the Republic of Italy and the Movimento Sociale Italiano are the only surviving national parties; The Republicans are the only ones who have retained his name ever since.
The Cusani trial
On July 20, 1993, Eni's former president, Gabriele Cagliari, committed suicide in prison. His wife then returned the illegal funds of US $ 3 million. Meanwhile, Cusani faces trial and is accused of crimes related to Enimont, a joint venture between Eni and another energy company, Montedison. The trial was broadcast on national television, and was a kind of old political show brought to their responsibility. While Cusani himself is not the main character, his crime relationship with the Enimont business summoned all the great politicians of the nation as witnesses.
A high note was reached in Cusani's trial when former head of government Arnaldo Forlani, answering questions, simply said, "I do not remember"; He happens to be very nervous and does not realize that sweat accumulates in his lips, and the picture by many people is considered a symbol of society's hatred of a corrupt system. Craxi, on the other hand, admitted that his party received $ 93 million in illegal funds, defended his actions by saying that "everyone is doing this." Even Lega Nord was involved in the trial; secretary Umberto Bossi and former treasurer Alessandro Patelli were found guilty of receiving 200 million illegal funding lira (about $ 100,000 at the time).
Bribes to the Italian Communist Party were alleged, but it was not determined who committed the offense. A number of Milan members from the Left Democratic Party were accused of corruption during their time as PCI members, but they were released. As the prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro stated, "Criminal liability is private, I can not bring someone with a Communist first name and last name Party". ( La responsabilitÃÆ' penale ÃÆ'¨ personale, non posso portare di giudizio una persona che si chiami Partito di nome e Comunista di cognome. )
The Enimont trial itself was conducted after the Cusani trial, with little public interest.
Investigations in other fields
Meanwhile, the investigation expanded beyond political reach: on September 2, 1993, Milan judge Diego CurtÃÆ'² was arrested. On April 21, 1994, 80 financial regulators and 300 personality industries were charged with corruption. A few days later, Fiat's secretary admitted corruption with a letter to a newspaper. Media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi entered politics at the end of that year and won the 1994 election, in what many thought was a move to protect many of his business problems from possible oversight. This suspicion was reinforced on February 11, when brother Berlusconi, Paolo, admitted corruption.
On July 13, 1994, Berlusconi's government made a new law to avoid imprisonment for most of the corruption crimes, which part of the time coincided with Italy's defeat of Bulgaria in the 1994 World Cup semifinals in the hope that the public would be disturbed.. However, when Roberto Baggio shot a high penalty against Brazil, and the newscast showed a picture of a corrupt politician leaving the prison, public opinion became very angry; the image of Francesco De Lorenzo, the former Minister of Health, is striking, as the general public considers stealing money from hospitals a very heinous act.
A few days earlier, the arrested regulator had been talking about corruption in Fininvest, the holding company controlled by the Berlusconi family. Most of the group of judges stated that they would respect state law, but they could not work in situations where task and conscience were contradictory: they were asked to be reassigned to another task. Since the government can not be seen as an enemy of a popular judge pool, the decision was quickly revoked and marked a "misunderstanding"; Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, of Lega Nord, claimed that he did not even have time to read it. While the Justice Minister is Alfredo Biondi, the allegation that the decision was written by Cesare Previti, a lawyer from Fininvest, is at least credible.
On July 29, Berlusconi's brother was arrested again and immediately released.
Increased conflict between Berlusconi and Di Pietro
At this point a public conflict erupted between Berlusconi and Di Pietro. While Berlusconi's company is being investigated, "inspectors" are sent from the government to Milan's judicial office to look for a formal irregularity. Nothing was found, but this tactic, coupled with Berlusconi's strong grip on the media, helped spread what was described in other environments as fear, uncertainty and doubt. The battle ends without a winner: Di Pietro resigns on December 6, two weeks before Berlusconi's government resigns in front of a vote of critical belief in parliament that is expected to fight them.
During 1995, many investigations began against Di Pietro, who several years later would be released from all charges. Meanwhile, Berlusconi issued another corruption indictment. It later emerged that the man who sued Di Pietro, Fabio Salamone of Brescia, was the brother Di Pietro himself had been prosecuted and sent to prison for corruption allegations. However, soon the authorities became aware of the conflict of interest and reassigned Salamone, although his investigation had taken a completely different direction: Paolo Berlusconi and Previti were accused of conspiracy against Di Pietro, but the prosecutor who substituted Salamone for their release and so did the court.
After being released, Di Pietro plunged into politics, although previously not wanting to exploit his popularity, he did what he regarded as his duty. His movement was named Italian dei Valori ("Italian Value"). In 1998, Cesare Previti, who later sat in parliament after the Berlusconi government, was spared from prison thanks to parliamentary intervention, although Berlusconi and his allies were in opposition. Craxi was sentenced to several years in cumulative prison in definitive conviction and fled to Tunisia, where he remained until his death on 19 January 2000.
Legal term strategy
After 1994, the trial tended to be canceled due to the expiry of legal provisions. The government ignored the appeal of the judicial system to get more funds to buy equipment, and passed a law that made the Italian legal system sluggish even slower and subject to previous recipes. The complicated nature of this law allows lawyers to use many delaying tactics: an instructive example is Berlusconi's prosecution, where he is accused of misusing Fininvest funds for setting up black funds that can be used for bribery or other illegal purposes; on the last possible day, a lawyer from Fininvest appears in court and complains that his company has not been officially informed about the trial. Although the trial was well publicized in the media, the formalities forced the trial to resume from the beginning, and Berlusconi was eventually released due to legal expiration. Being released in this first trial, he can then benefit from a reduction in the general requirements for other trials, which in turn end up more quickly with domino effects.
After Berlusconi's victory in the 2001 elections, public opinion has changed greatly against the judges, in which he not only can be openly accepted to criticize them for having implemented the Mani pulite, but it is also increasingly difficult to broadcast opinions supports Milan Pool. Some people blame Berlusconi's media influence for having played a role in this change, or the inability of the opposition to get conservative voter approval. Even Umberto Bossi, the Lega Nord has become an opposition party, becomes very critical of judges.
Lottizzazione
The term lottizzazione , which means the way a field is divided into small parts or lotti , comes to show the top positions procedure in important state conglomerates such as IRI, ENEL or ENI to figures political, or at least a manager with a clear political orientation. It usually trickles down to a lower level, creating power centers depending on the political party that controls an important part of the production system. Available seats are usually provided so that the government parties (and opposition parties such as the Italian Communist Party) will get a share of power in accordance with their influence in government.
In modern culture
In 2005, artist Gianni Motti made a piece of soap, named Mani Pulite , based on the scandal. This piece is claimed to have been made from fat from liposuction Silvio Berlusconi. It was sold in the Art Glas 36 edition for 15,000 euros.
The 2015 television series titled 1992 is based on the mani pulite event.
See also
- Italian history as a Republic
- Giovanni Falcone
- Bancopoli (Italian scandal of 2005)
- Calciopoli
- Tangentopoly
- -And the suffix
References
Further reading
- Nelken, David (1996). The legal revolution? The judges and Tangentopoli. New Italian Republic: From the fall of the Berlin Wall to Berlusconi . Routledge. pp.Ã, 191-205.
- Buonanno, Paolo; Prarolo, Giovanni; Vanin, Paolo (January 2016). "Organized crime and electoral results Evidence from Sicily at the turn of the XXI century". Journal of European Political Economy . Elsevier. 41 : 61-74. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2015.11.002.
External links
- (in Italian) Tangentopoli e il crollo dei partiti
- (in Italian) Mani Pulite
- (in Italian) [1]
- Italian 'Handyness' Judge Bites Their Nails - New York Times
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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