Tangentopoli
Tangentopoli ( pronunciation : [ tandʒen'tɔpoli ]; literally city of bribes from Italian tangente , bribe money) is a term that the Italian press used to describe the city of Milan in the early 1990s when the then prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro was a system of corruption , Abuse of office and illegal party funding. The word later became a synonym for the criminal entanglements that shaped the political system of the so-called First Republic , i.e. the time before the collapse of the party landscape as a result of the judicial investigations Manipulite and the 1993 electoral reform.
Origin of the term
On February 17, 1992 in Milan, the boss of the old people's home Pio Albergo Trivulzio and exponent of the Partito Socialista Italiano Mario Chiesa was caught collecting bribes. The testimony of Chiesa after his considerable fortune, amassed through bribes, was confiscated, and the numerous indications of other irregularities and links with many politicians, enabled the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office to expand its investigation, which over the course of a few months has included hundreds of politicians and entrepreneurs . Prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro's investigations went under the name Mani pulite ('clean hands'). A massive system of corruption, abuse of office and illegal party funding was soon revealed to investigators, which led to Milan being referred to as Tangentopoli in various newspapers .
Expansion to all of Italy
The expansion of the investigation to all of Italy led to several national politicians being sued. It soon became apparent that many MPs, senators, state secretaries and ministers were deeply involved in the scandal. This led to a political earthquake, the collapse of the old political party landscape, and a new suffrage law that introduced majority voting. For the time before the collapse of the political landscape, the term First Republic became common; Tangentopoli was the name given to the criminal entanglements that shaped the political system of that time.
literature
- Jens Petersen : Quo vadis, Italia? A state in crisis (= Beck series. Volume 1108). CH Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-39208-3 (Italian edition: Quo vadis Italia? Translated by Gerhard Kuck. Laterza, Rom et al. 1996, ISBN 88-420-4875-5 ).