Antonio Di Pietro

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Antonio Di Pietro (2010)

Antonio Di Pietro (born October 2, 1950 in Montenero di Bisaccia , Campobasso province ) is an Italian politician and former public prosecutor. In the early 1990s he was the lead investigator in the Tangentopoli scandal (see also Mani pulite ). In 1996 he went into politics, became a non-party senator and was Minister for Public Works for six months. In 1998 he founded the Italia dei Valori (IdV) party, which he led until 2013. From 1999 to 2009 he was a member of the European Parliament and from 2006 to 2008 Minister of Infrastructure in the second Prodi government .

Prosecutor

Born into a poor rural family in the Molise region , Di Pietro worked briefly as an electrician , then went to Germany as a very young man to earn the money for his studies as a waiter . He completed his degree in law and was in the police set. A few years later he began his new legal career as a prosecutor .

Together with other well-known prosecutors such as Francesco Saverio Borrelli , Ilda Boccassini , Gherardo Colombo , Piercamillo Davigo and others, he founded the Mani Pulite ( Eng . “Clean hands”) team, which investigated political corruption .

In this role he investigated hundreds of local and national politicians right up to the most important personalities, including Bettino Craxi ; it is believed that he sent Silvio Berlusconi the famous “ Investigation Warning ” (a legally formal act to inform citizens of an investigation against them) while the Prime Minister was holding an international police cooperation meeting.

The investigation warning or Avviso di garanzia in Italy (later reformed by parliament and renamed Invito a comparire , dt. "Invitation to the apparition") was in the years 1992 to 1994 for many Italians as good as a guilty verdict, as they many saw hated politicians exposed by this procedure. Since this cannot exactly be taken as a sign of respect for the elementary law of the presumption of innocence (" innocent until proven guilty "), it must be remembered that the corruption was so blatant and outrageous that even politicians were embarrassed when it did had to justify themselves on these charges. At that time, anyone who was investigated was required to be notified within three months of the investigation.

Di Pietro quickly became the best known among the Mani Pulite lawyers because of his strange way of speaking with a clearly audible accent, numerous dialect colourations and dialect expressions, combined with a determined disposition. Yet political opponents often saw this quality as a sign of ignorance, and some observers were disconcerted that a high-ranking official and candidate for the Italian parliament showed such a crude and precarious knowledge of the Italian language.

The conflict between Di Pietro and Silvio Berlusconi

When Silvio Berlusconi stormed into politics in 1994 on the occasion of the elections for the Chamber of Deputies, many suspected that this was only done to protect his companies from allegations of corruption. This suspicion was reinforced on February 11th when Berlusconi's brother Paolo admitted corruption offenses. Berlusconi once offered Di Pietro the Ministry of the Interior, but the latter did not accept it. On July 13, 1994, the Berlusconi government submitted a bill to avoid imprisonment for most corruption offenses and grant a new amnesty . The submission of the bill was carefully placed after the semi-final between Bulgaria and Italy , which was victorious for Italy at the football World Cup in 1994 , which the government probably promised itself that in the event of a possible final victory of the Italian national team in football-mad Italy, the bill would pass silently through the Institutions would be waved. However, when Roberto Baggio missed the final penalty against Brazil and the news showed pictures of the hated corrupt politicians escaping from prison, public opinion became quite furious; In particular, images of former Health Minister Francesco De Lorenzo were terrifying as the public viewed the theft of funds intended for hospitals as particularly hateful behavior.

A few days later, the arrested police officers spoke about corruption at Berlusconi's largest and most important company, Fininvest Mediaset. Most of the Manipulite investigation team said they would respect and enforce state laws, but they could not work in a situation where duty and conscience were at odds: they asked for transfers because they were going through the Berlusconi government saw disavowed. Since the government could not afford to be seen as an opponent to the popular team of judges and prosecutors, the bill was withdrawn and labeled a " misunderstanding ", with Interior Minister Roberto Maroni of the Lega Nord emphasizing that he had not had an opportunity to read it. Since Alfredo Biondi was Minister of Justice, allegations that Cesare Previti , the lawyer at Berlusconi's company Fininvest, was the author of the bill are ultimately credible. On July 28 Berlusconi's brother was arrested and shortly thereafter released.

Then began what was commonly referred to as the Berlusconi-Di-Pietro battle. While Berlusconi's companies were being investigated, the government sent "inspectors" to Milan to examine the judicial offices for formal irregularities. No irregularities were discovered, but the tactic, coupled with Berlusconi's constant access to the information, helped spread what is otherwise known as fear, uncertainty and doubt . The battle ended in a draw: Di Pietro resigned on December 6th . Two weeks later, the Berlusconi government resigned shortly before a critical vote of confidence, which would certainly have come at the expense of Berlusconi.

Di Pietro himself was the subject of an investigation into his work in the police and the judiciary in 1997 . The public prosecutor's office relied on telephone recordings and witness statements. But the allegations had to be withdrawn one after the other as baseless and politically motivated, as the investigating prosecutor Fabio Salamone from Brescia later turned out to be the brother of one of Di Pietro's accused, who had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for numerous corruption offenses. It was quite a long time before the authorities realized this, transferred Salamone and, years later, acquitted Di Pietro of all charges.

minister

After Mani Pulite's investigation swept away the previously ruling parties (first the Democrazia Cristiana , then the PSI ), Romano Prodi appointed Di Pietro as Minister of Public Works to his government team with responsibility for everything that was the primary object of bribery, i.e. everyone government funded initiatives. No one was better placed to demonstrate to the public that the new government on the left was serious about cleaning up corruption once and for all.

Here Di Pietro tried, as an "independent", to push through a controversial section of the main highway between Bologna and Florence , which provoked both violent protests from the residents of the area in question and terrified protests from environmentalists who politically supported Prodi's coalition, but such a plan, that would destroy the magnificent valleys and forests of the Apennines , could not accept. When he was preparing to pass under the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome with a tunnel, he was seen by environmentalists as a “ guarantee for cement and as much asphalt as possible ”.

It must be mentioned that Di Pietro himself had previously initiated an investigation against Romano Prodi, who was exonerated by the court.

Political career

After Di Pietro was acquitted of all charges, he began a political career, which he had previously ruled out.

In 1998 he founded the Italia dei Valori party (dt. Italy of Values), which wanted to continue the fight against political corruption in Italy, and joined the Democratic alliance of Romano Prodi, on whose list he was elected to the European Parliament in 1999 .

In protest against the growing tolerance of corruption in most political parties and the condescending stance of the political left like Massimo D'Alema towards Berlusconi, he did not allow his party to run in the 2001 elections to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in the left alliance with L'Ulivo was won by Silvio Berlusconi's coalition.

Di Pietro fell below just under 4% nationwide, a quorum that has to be achieved at least in order to be able to take advantage of the proportional share of seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Only one senator was elected from his list, and ironically, he immediately defected to Berlusconi's party.

In the 2004 elections to the European Parliament , his party Italia dei Valori won two seats. Di Pietro and Giulietto Chiesa , a former communist journalist, represented their party in Strasbourg .

In September 2005 , Di Pietro ran in by-elections for the Roman Senate on the list of L'Ulivo in the constituency of Mugello in Tuscany .

In the primaries of the left-wing party alliance L'Unione on October 16, 2005 Di Pietro achieved 3.3% of the nationwide votes and thus landed in fourth place out of seven, far behind Romano Prodi, who decided the candidate primaries for himself.

He was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and was a member of the European Parliament's Justice Committee.

He was also a delegate on the Committee on Citizenship, Justice and Home Affairs and headed the delegation for relations with South Africa .

On May 17, 2006, Di Pietro was sworn in as Minister of Infrastructure in the Romano Prodis government and held the post until the change of power on May 8, 2008.

In the parliamentary elections in 2008, the Di Pietros party concluded an electoral alliance with the PD (Partito Democratico). His party Italia dei Valori (IdV) achieved 4.4% in the Chamber of Deputies and 4.3% in the Senate, which meant a doubling of the votes.

In February 2013, Di Pietro resigned as president (chairman) of Italia dei Valori after Italia dei Valori did not win a single seat in one of the chambers of parliament in the left-wing alliance Rivoluzione Civile under the leadership of former judge Antonio Ingroia .

Career

  • 1978 exam in law
  • 1978–1979 specialization in administrative law
  • 1980 Qualification to practice as a lawyer
  • 1981 judge
  • 1996 Minister for Public Works during the 12th legislature
  • 1997 Senator
  • since 1998 chairman of the Italia dei Valori party
  • Member of the European Parliament since 1999
  • 1999–2002 chairman of the delegation to the EU-Kazakhstan, EU-Kyrgyzstan and EU-Uzbekistan parliamentary cooperation committees and for relations with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Mongolia
  • 2002–2004 chairman of the delegation for relations with South America and Mercosur
  • Honorary Doctorate from the Democritus University of Thrace ( Greece )
  • 2006–2008 Minister for Infrastructure in the Prodi II cabinet

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Di Pietro, Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian judge on the Mani Pulite team and politician, MEP
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Montenero di Bisaccia , Molise , Italy