Italy’s left hit by kickback scandals
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AFP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 23, 2008 00:00
ROME - Italy faces a series of corruption scandals similar to those that engulfed the country in the 1990s. But, the country’s history is repeating itself with a slight difference as the actors involved are the members of the opposition party.
A series of corruption scandals rocking Italy has revived memories of the "Clean Hands" campaign of the 1990s that drove the long-ruling conservative Christian Democratic party out of power.
"History Is Repeating Itself," headlined the daily La Stampa - except that the current crop of figures implicated in contract-rigging and bribery scandals include elected officials of the opposition center-left Democratic Party, or PD.
Naples' center-left mayor, Rosa Russo Iervolino, suspended two members of her inner council last week after they were placed under house arrest in a corruption probe.
A third, Giorgio Nugnes, committed suicide after being accused of playing a key role in the kickback scam involving a powerful local entrepreneur.
Democratic Party lawmaker Renzo Lusetti was also named in the case, as well as ruling People of Freedoms Party MP Italo Bocchino.
Also this week, the PD's regional secretary in Abruzzo, Pescara Mayor Luciano D'Alfonso, resigned after being placed under house arrest in connection with another alleged kickback scandal.
And another PD member, lawmaker Salvatore Margiotta, was implicated in a bribery scandal involving the French oil company Total's operations in southern Italy.
Known to detest judges, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a self-made billionaire with a sprawling media empire, has faced trial numerous times since he burst onto the political scene in the mid-1990s, but he has never been definitively convicted.
In a rare display of solidarity with the left, Premier Berlusconi on Friday denounced a media feeding frenzy - which he said "doesn't help the country" - that has seen newspapers publish entire transcripts of damning wiretaps.
Perennial problem
In many ways, Berlusconi owes his entry into politics to the Clean Hands operation.
Launched in 1992, the operation dismantled a deep-seated system of patronage between politicians and business leaders dubbed "Tangentopoli" (Bribery City).
Upwards of 1,000 people were convicted as the Christian Democratic party, which had dominated Italian politics since World War II, was consigned to history.
"The problem of corruption has still not been resolved since the time when Berlusconi used to say in Milan that you can't build anything without waving a cheque-book," the leading daily Corriere della Sera said in an editorial.
According to the annual index of Transparency International on perceived corruption around the world, Italy ranked 55th this year with a score of 4.8 out of 10, compared with 5.2 out of 10 last year.
It is far behind Germany, which was the 14th "cleanest" at 7.9 and Britain, which was 16th, ahead of 23rd-ranked France.
Italy ranked 26th among 31 European countries.
"Tangentopoli was a great lost occasion," economist Marco Vitale said in a recent interview. "The salutary actions of the judges... conveyed a need for renewal. Unfortunately the political and cultural response was inadequate." "Corruption was just as dangerous for Italy as the Mafia," he added.
"Several local situations were allowed to rot, such as in the Naples area, instead of addressing them. The leadership of the Democratic Party is very weak, and the local elite has taken advantage of it," said Roberto D'Alimonte, a political scientist at the University of Florence.
The press already has a name for the new wave of corruption scandals: Tangentopoli Rosso (Red).
"History Is Repeating Itself," headlined the daily La Stampa - except that the current crop of figures implicated in contract-rigging and bribery scandals include elected officials of the opposition center-left Democratic Party, or PD.
Naples' center-left mayor, Rosa Russo Iervolino, suspended two members of her inner council last week after they were placed under house arrest in a corruption probe.
A third, Giorgio Nugnes, committed suicide after being accused of playing a key role in the kickback scam involving a powerful local entrepreneur.
Democratic Party lawmaker Renzo Lusetti was also named in the case, as well as ruling People of Freedoms Party MP Italo Bocchino.
Also this week, the PD's regional secretary in Abruzzo, Pescara Mayor Luciano D'Alfonso, resigned after being placed under house arrest in connection with another alleged kickback scandal.
And another PD member, lawmaker Salvatore Margiotta, was implicated in a bribery scandal involving the French oil company Total's operations in southern Italy.
Known to detest judges, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a self-made billionaire with a sprawling media empire, has faced trial numerous times since he burst onto the political scene in the mid-1990s, but he has never been definitively convicted.
In a rare display of solidarity with the left, Premier Berlusconi on Friday denounced a media feeding frenzy - which he said "doesn't help the country" - that has seen newspapers publish entire transcripts of damning wiretaps.
Perennial problem
In many ways, Berlusconi owes his entry into politics to the Clean Hands operation.
Launched in 1992, the operation dismantled a deep-seated system of patronage between politicians and business leaders dubbed "Tangentopoli" (Bribery City).
Upwards of 1,000 people were convicted as the Christian Democratic party, which had dominated Italian politics since World War II, was consigned to history.
"The problem of corruption has still not been resolved since the time when Berlusconi used to say in Milan that you can't build anything without waving a cheque-book," the leading daily Corriere della Sera said in an editorial.
According to the annual index of Transparency International on perceived corruption around the world, Italy ranked 55th this year with a score of 4.8 out of 10, compared with 5.2 out of 10 last year.
It is far behind Germany, which was the 14th "cleanest" at 7.9 and Britain, which was 16th, ahead of 23rd-ranked France.
Italy ranked 26th among 31 European countries.
"Tangentopoli was a great lost occasion," economist Marco Vitale said in a recent interview. "The salutary actions of the judges... conveyed a need for renewal. Unfortunately the political and cultural response was inadequate." "Corruption was just as dangerous for Italy as the Mafia," he added.
"Several local situations were allowed to rot, such as in the Naples area, instead of addressing them. The leadership of the Democratic Party is very weak, and the local elite has taken advantage of it," said Roberto D'Alimonte, a political scientist at the University of Florence.
The press already has a name for the new wave of corruption scandals: Tangentopoli Rosso (Red).