Falcone, this outsider to the anti-Mafia Politburo

There is nothing surprising about the move by which Marco Travaglio, in order to legitimise the ‘brotherly’ and family-like ties between his friend Ranucci and Lavitola, dragged poor Giovanni Falcone into the fray. The fact that Falcone headed the Criminal Affairs Office at the Ministry of Justice at the behest of Justice Minister Martelli in the Andreotti government means, in Travaglio’s binary logic, that he must be regarded as a close associate of the ‘divo’ Giulio who was in cahoots with the Mafia – no more and no less than Ranucci and Lavitola in the tavern. Maria Falcone has already told Travaglio exactly what he deserves. I wish to emphasise the absolute rationality, the Euclidean logical consistency of this outburst. Giovanni Falcone, symbol and champion of the state’s most virtuous struggle against Mafia crime, was never loved by the gloomy, menacing and, above all, self-proclaimed Politburo of the P.U.A. (the Single Anti-Mafia Party). Of course, his personal and professional history, and his terrible martyrdom, mean he cannot be expelled – as many would prefer – from the pantheon of true civilian heroes in the fight against the Mafia. Impossible.

However, as his sister Maria was keen – and not by chance – to point out, the self-appointed leaders of the P.U.A., in collusion with opponents of various stripes, opposed him in every way and even denigrated him whilst he was still alive (“Italy’s most hapless magistrate”, Maria Falcone remarked bitterly). The unforgivable fault, in the eyes of the anti-Mafia Politburo, was precisely the one to which Travaglio now alludes venomously in defence of Sigfrido – the very same fault that had already earned Giovanni Falcone a spiteful and underhand attempt to discredit him at the time. Lawyer Alfredo Galasso, one of the earliest and most active leaders of the P.U.A., verbally attacked him in a memorable episode dedicated to the fight against the Mafia, hosted by Maurizio Costanzo and Michele Santoro (“Falcone would do well to leave the government buildings; the air there really isn’t good for him’), words met with thunderous applause from the mindless crowd, whilst the honourable man tried to defend the dignity of his work in the service of the state, with a bewildered and dismayed look that even today, when watching that video again (please do so), sends shivers down your spine. Shortly before, Leoluca Orlando had accused him of defending Salvo Lima (though at least he, after the massacre, apologised publicly). In short, in an episode dedicated to the fight against the Mafia, Giovanni Falcone paradoxically found himself cast in the role of the accused, pilloried by those unyielding censors: a perfect snapshot of the aberrant anomaly that Leonardo Sciascia was able to capture when he denounced the ‘professionalism of the anti-Mafia movement’. Less outbursts, but no less venomous, Corrado Augias (12 January 1992) put this question to him on television: “Perhaps we have mythologised him a little… now that he is at the ministry… I wouldn’t want to say that he has disappointed us somewhat of late, but he has certainly changed: are you aware of that?” Six months later, he would be murdered, along with his wife and bodyguard, in Capaci.

Was that post at the ministry his only fault? Not at all. What was truly unforgivable, in the eyes of the anti-Mafia Politburo and law-and-order zealots of every stripe, was that Giovanni Falcone proved that one can be a lethal and relentless enemy of the Mafia – even at the cost of one’s life – without compromising the liberal principles of the Constitution and the rule of law. The evidence is unequivocal, as the editor of this newspaper rightly pointed out just a few days ago: “The culture of suspicion is not the antechamber of truth; it is the antechamber of Khomeinism”; “It strikes me as profoundly immoral that charges can be brought and allegations made when the outcome of the judicial process is entirely uncertain. One cannot reason: ‘I’ll allege the offence first and then we’ll see.’ Because these allegations then give rise to incalculable consequences”. Not only that: he was an outspoken advocate, right from the launch of the Vassalli reform, of the separation of careers – a fact that the ‘No’ camp has, of course, hysterically denied – and continues to deny, as the president of the ANM, Dr Tango, did just a few days ago – with an unprecedented campaign of misrepresentation, against the most irrefutable documentary evidence, both written and oral. Among many examples, La Repubblica, 3 October 1991: “The public prosecutor in a trial must have no family ties whatsoever with the judge and must not be, as is the case today, a sort of quasi-judge… Given that their training and careers are unified… they are in reality indistinguishable”, whereas they must instead be “two figures structurally differentiated in terms of competences and career paths”. So, what should we be surprised about? Falcone is perceived as a foreign body, if not downright hostile, by the Politburo of the P.U.A.

To put it plainly, Falcone causes these people more trouble than, say, a figure like Giorgio Bongiovanni – the anti-Mafia activist who frequently takes centre stage at public events alongside the Politburo elite – could ever cause, even though he delivers his impassioned speeches with his hands bandaged to conceal the stigmata which, he claims, were bestowed upon him directly by the Virgin Mary at Fátima in 1989. Bongiovanni, moreover, informs us that he is in daily contact with the Virgin Mary and with Jesus, and above all with the leaders of superior extraterrestrial civilisations (whom he assures us are called Setun Shenar, Brother Ithacar, Adoniensis and Adonis). Against this backdrop, he assures us that the Mafia – fuelled by international Masonic lodges and rogue secret services of all kinds, which take on the faces and guises of all manner of ‘powers that be’ – will ultimately be defeated by the imminent Second Coming of Christ to earth. And whilst he’s at it, he warns us about the real reason behind the war in Ukraine, namely the hoarding of billions of dollars’ worth of unused weapons (“Gratteri said so too”, he helpfully points out, so we all feel completely in the clear), a global trafficking network that links Putin “for messianic reasons”, Trump “for business reasons”, and above all Zelensky, “a puppet of the Antichrist’s entire global power, arms trafficking, organ trafficking – the Antichrist’s global abomination” (source: interview with Arcoiris, 29 August 2025). He then concludes – would you believe it? – that, for the time being, we should “resume our partnership with Russia and start buying Russian gas again”. A character with all the right credentials, in short. Now, these are the sort of connections one should have, quite unlike the Criminal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Justice. Somewhat colourful, granted, but essentially orthodox, lucid, passionate, and unwaveringly on the side of Good against Evil. Anti-Mafia in its purest form, without those ambiguities and pseudo-liberal, due-process weaknesses on which Giovanni Falcone – not by any means coincidentally a government ally of the ‘Divine’ Giulio – used to go off the rails, all too often, unfortunately. With all due respect to his memory, of course.