FdI on Scarpinato: “Out of the Anti-Mafia Commission”. The M5S’s response: “You should resign”

There is a war of words and accusations raging between Meloni’s supporters and the Five Star Movement. At the centre of it all is M5S Senator Roberto Scarpinato and the alleged cover-up he carried out against former public prosecutor Gioacchino Natoli, according to the investigating magistrate in Caltanissetta, who on Saturday filed a motion to dismiss the line of inquiry against persons unknown regarding the 1992 massacres relating to the so-called ‘mafia-contracts dossier’. This refers to the intercepted conversations between Scarpinato and Natoli – who had been colleagues at the Palermo Public Prosecutor’s Office for years – prior to the latter’s hearing before the Anti-Mafia Commission, of which the senator is a member. This matter, which was already public knowledge, sparked considerable controversy, and the senator was accused of having tipped off the former magistrate. The investigating judge clarified that he “cannot (and must not) take a position on whether a member of the National Anti-Mafia Commission (Senator Scarpinato) may agree upon and/or disclose in advance to a person due to be heard (Natoli) the questions he intends to ask him” and that “this is a matter of purely political judgement which falls within the remit of bodies other than the courts”. “What must, however, be pointed out here,” he concluded, “is the attempt by Senator Scarpinato to mislead Dr Natoli.” 

According to Scarpinato, the investigating judge’s statement is “not only grossly false, but also misleading in itself”, he said in an interview with Il Fatto Quotidiano. “Another investigating magistrate from the same office, Graziella Luparello, has already dismissed this line of inquiry as suffering from ‘severe short-sightedness’ and a ‘mystical and dogmatic approach’, ordering new investigations into no fewer than 43 points to address the serious shortcomings of the Caltanissetta Public Prosecutor’s Office,” continued the former Palermo public prosecutor. Centre-right MPs take a completely different view. “What emerges from the Caltanissetta investigating judge’s decision to dismiss the case regarding the ‘Mafia and public contracts’ affair is of such gravity that it cannot be ignored, especially in light of the role that Roberto Scarpinato currently holds within the Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission,” stated Raoul Russo, leader of the Fratelli d’Italia group in the Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission. “For this reason,” he continued, “we believe he should step down from the Anti-Mafia Commission, so that he can finally be questioned and provide all the necessary answers to the Italian people.” A call for clarity also came from Maurizio Gasparri. “The document produced by the investigating magistrate in Caltanissetta has historical significance that cannot be ignored under any circumstances,” said the Forza Italia senator and member of the Anti-Mafia Commission. Sara Kelany, a Fratelli d’Italia MP, was even harsher: “Get Scarpinato out of the Anti-Mafia Commission,” she said. Free the Anti-Mafia Commission from a presence that calls its authority into question and put an end, once and for all, to his theories and conspiracies.” 

These positions have been set out in a letter in which the FdI group leaders in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, Lucio Malan and Galeazzo Bignami, call on the Five Star Movement to replace the senator on the parliamentary Anti-Mafia Committee. The letter is addressed to their Five Star colleagues Luca Pirondini and Riccardo Ricciardi and, for information, to the chair of the Anti-Mafia Committee, Chiara Colosimo, and to all members of the committee. “It is entirely clear that it is impossible to work with peace of mind, let alone safeguard the commission’s full institutional credibility”, if among its members sits someone whom “a judge of the Republic has identified as the perpetrator of a cover-up concerning precisely the facts that the commission is investigating”, argue the two FdI representatives, calling for “the senator to be replaced by another member of your group. You have always declared your respect for the words of the magistrates engaged in the fight against the Mafia. This – the letter states – is an opportunity to demonstrate that through your actions.”

“Resign yourselves,” replied the M5S in a letter of response. “You presume to lecture us on respect for institutions whilst your majority keeps Delmastro’s chat logs and a Camorra frontman like Caroccia under lock and key. Any sensible person would have exercised greater caution; evidently, shame is not a sentiment cultivated in Via della Scrofa,” wrote Pirondini and Ricciardi. “Let’s get to the point. You have suddenly discovered ‘respect for magistrates’. The very same magistrates you attack whenever it suits you. In light of your letter, we eagerly await a show of consistency from you: the resignation of all FdI members of the Anti-Mafia Commission who voted to conceal the chat logs between Andrea Delmastro and Mauro Caroccia, who has been definitively convicted of fictitious ownership of assets with the aggravating circumstance of having aided the Senese clan – the letter reads – We urge that these resignations should specifically include Chairwoman Chiara Colosimo, not least in light of her publicly documented links with the former ‘black terrorist’ Luigi Ciavardini.’ Giuseppe Conte also responded. ‘Dear Fratelli d’Italia, allow me to be frank: you are truly shameless! You are calling for Scarpinato’s resignation because the Caltanissetta Public Prosecutor’s Office eavesdropped on around thirty of his conversations with his old friend and colleague Natoli, during which he urged him to tell the Anti-Mafia Commission everything he knew and had already told him regarding the famous meeting at the Palermo Public Prosecutor’s Office on 14 July 1992,” the M5S leader stated in a note. “I would remind you,” he added, “that all those wiretaps involving a senator were carried out without authorisation from the Senate.” Conte then put a question to FdI: “Why have you shielded the chats between your own Delmastro and the front man for the Senese Camorra clan? Why are you obstructing an investigation into a Camorra clan?”

General Mario Mori, the former head of the ROS who captured the Cosa Nostra boss Totò Riina, also commented on the matter. "Perhaps it is not for me to say this. However, as a citizen, I think that Senator Scarpinato, who is a member of the Anti-Mafia Commission, would do well to take a step back," he said in an interview with Il Giornale. In Palermo, in the 1990s, Mori played a leading role in the line of investigation known as the ‘mafia-contracts’ case. “If they had allowed us to carry on,” he says, “and if Falcone and Borsellino hadn’t been killed, it would have dealt a devastating blow to the mafia system.” Was Borsellino killed because of this? "In my view, yes," replied the general. "Certainly, as both the public prosecutor and the investigating magistrate in Caltanissetta say, this was at the very least a contributing factor in the deaths of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino." When asked whether he had realised that certain elements within the Palermo Public Prosecutor’s Office were obstructing justice, he replied: “Not at first. I realised it when I saw the resistance regarding the ‘Mafia-appalti’ case. After Falcone had gone to Rome.”