November 10, 2009
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with undersecretary Nicola Cosentino
Anthony M. Quattrone
Carlo Alemi, the president of the Court of Naples, stated, in an interview published in the Naples edition of the national paper La Repubblica on 9 November 2009, that he would prefer that political parties do not put forward as candidates for public offices anyone who was officially under investigation or suspected of having committed a crime. Gianfranco Fini, President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, and co-founder with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of the center-right party, Popolo della Libertà (PdL), stated in an interview with journalist Fabio Fazio, broadcast on 8 November 2009 on Italian national television, that politics will take a big step forward when candidates who have many votes based on “non transparent powers” are excluded from the electoral process.
Approximately 24 hours after the statements made by judge Alemi and president Fini, a prosecutor in Naples, Raffaele Piccirillo, issued an arrest warrant against under secretary for the economy, Nicola Cosentino. The warrant has been sent to the office of president Fini because Cosentino is currently a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and, as such, cannot be arrested without the specific authorization by Parliament. It is not know if the warrant calls for custody in jail, home arrest, or another restrictive measure of a geographical type (limiting his ability to travel outside of a specific geographic area). The warrant should be arriving at Fini’s desk on Tuesday, 10 November 2009.
Cosentino, who is the regional coordinator of the PdL party in Campania, is accused of assisting a Neapolitan mafia clan, the Casalesi, as an external associate, through his political offices. Read whole article
November 7, 2009
Anthony M. Quattrone
Roberto Saviano, author of Gomorrah
The leader of the Italia dei Valori (IDV) party (Italy of Values party), Antonio Di Pietro, stated on Friday, 6 November 2009, that he will support Roberto Saviano for president of the Campania region during the elections that will take place next March. Saviano has gained worldwide fame by authoring a well documented book, Gomorrah, detailing the relationship between politics, industry and the Camorra, the Neapolitan version of the Mafia. Di Pietro is a former magistrate who, in the early 1990s was active in prosecuting major Italian politicians involved in corruption and bribery cases. Di Pietro was part of a wider team of magistrates based in Milan who were known by the press as the “clean hands” pool. The work done by Di Pietro and the other magistrates of the pool eventually led to the dissolution of both the Italian Socialist and Christian Democratic Parties in the mid 90s.
The elections for the presidency of the Campania region will represent a major test for both the governing center right coalition led by media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, which includes the Popolo della Libertà (People of Liberty) and the Northern League, and for the two major parties on the center left, the Democratic Party and Di Pietro’s IDV, which are facing significant difficulties in forming a coalition. The Union of Democrats of the Center led by Pier Ferdinando Casini, formed by remnants of the disbanded Christian Democrats, and a group of smaller leftist parties have not yet announced if they will run on their own, or if they will support a candidate from one of the two major coalitions.
The current president of the Campania Region, Antonio Bassolino, who is a member of the center left Democratic Party, is under heavy criticism for inefficiencies related to the management of the garbage crisis that hit Naples and other areas in the Campania region in 2007 and 2008. He is also criticized for having developed a vast spoils system awarding consultancy and outsourcing contracts to loyal followers. Read whole article
