Last weekend, I did a blog entry looking at how Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed to strangle writers who write books or who make films about the mafia. Apparently that was bad for Italy’s reputation.
Well, his reputation has taken a backward step with a mafia hitman telling a court that Berlusconi made commitments to Sicily’s Cosa Nostra when he was entering politics 15 years ago. Gaspare Spatuzza claimed he had been told by a top Sicilian mobster in January 2004 that Mr Berlusconi and his long-time business associate, Marcello Dell’Utri, had given “everything” the Mafia had wanted. Mr Spatuzza said he was told: “Thanks to the seriousness of these people, they have practically put the country in our hands.”
Now, one has to take some of this with a grain of salt. Spatuzza is serving a life sentence for two murders so he has nothing to lose.
But then, this is not the first time this has come up. Students of Italian politics will remember that back in 2006, questions were being raised whether the Mafia had provided funds for Fininvest, the parent company of Silvio Berlusconi’s business empire.
So where there’s smoke….
no comment untill now