There is oceanic solidarity with Cuffaro from our employees. Today it his turn, tomorrow its mine? Solidarity becomes automatic, a Pavlov reflex. A survival instinct. The togas {of the magistrates} are always red. Either with blood or because they hand out sentences. The world of politics is one in which only the one who can be blackmailed is safe. Hes not a danger for the others. He cannot denounce. The politician who can be blackmailed is obliged to maintain omertà.
Cuffaro in himself is not the problem. Hes not the first nor will he be the last to be convicted. The silence of the institutions is serious. They are abdicating from their role of guarantors of justice and social order. If one who has been sentenced to 5 years can continue to be the President of the Region, nothing is illicit.
Antonio Di Pietro has sent me a letter in which he has asked Romano Prodi to oblige Cuffaro to resign as laid down by law and the President of the Council can ensure that it is enforced. Let Prodi do this. If he leaves the scene he will be remembered for an act of justice.
To the President of the Council of Ministers, Honourable Professor Romano PRODI
As you know, on 18 January, the Palermo Tribunal pronounced judgement and convicted the President of the Region of Sicily for helping the mafia and revealing secrets.
The facts that have been verified by this trial have emerged and are extremely serious. This is seen not just from the important sentence handed out (five years in prison and perpetual prohibition to hold public office) but above all in as much as it is a question of helping the mafia and revealing official secrets in relation to investigations regarding mafia affiliates. I am keen to underline two considerations about this.
Firstly, the agreement on the modality for intervention in the affair, specifically applying what is already obligatory according to the regulations in force. In fact, in relation to this, article 15, comma 4-bis of law number 55 dated 19 March 1990 sets out the need for suspension, even in the case of a conviction which is not definitive.
As is well known, the institutional route to take is for the President of the Council, having listened to the Minister for Regional Affairs and the Minister of the Interior, adopts the measure that ensures the suspension.
For facts that are clearly serious, this outcome comes from the need to guarantee the protection of the public interest, which has been damaged by his staying in his position and carrying out the related institutional functions by a person for whom it has been verified that he does not have the essential requisites to hold an elected public office. But, above all, it is urgent that I put forward a second consideration.
As a Minister of the Republic and above all as a citizen, I am disconcerted by the reaction that has been the characteristic of the behaviour of the President of the Region of Sicily with respect to the conviction and that for anyone with dignity and respect towards the institutions should have only suggested the need to offer his resignation.
I believe that the Government cannot remain inert in relation to this affair and that it is indispensable to take concrete measures, in conformity with what is laid down by the regulations, so as to ensure the primacy of law and the full respect of the principles of the rule of law, and in this way, restoring credibility and the authoritativeness of the institutions of the State.
It is a question of an action that is imposed by duty for the respect that we all owe to the institution and the law. But even before that, for the moral debt that we have to make good for the many, too many, victims of the mafia and their close family.
Never as in this affair, is there the need to act and to act fast and it is the duty-bound form of fulfilling the requirements of the law that must distinguish a governing class that is worthy of this name, from one that is hypocritical and mean. I am convinced that you are not deaf to these needs, and in a manner that we agree on we will be able to express the response that is the most convinced and worthy of respect for anyone that has preferred to sacrifice themselves to the mafia rather than reveal official secrets to them. Antonio Di Pietro