Ingroia attacks Renzi and insults Napolitano: “He prevented the truth about the State-Mafia negotiations from coming to light”

“Matteo Renzi, with his little party Italia Viva, attacks me by saying that I am a ‘justicialist’, that I created the most serious institutional crisis in the Republic by attacking President Napolitano. In fact – and I say this in parentheses – it was President Napolitano who attacked us at the Palermo Public Prosecutor’s Office whilst we were uncovering the truth about the massacres and the State-Mafia negotiations.” This was Antonio Ingroia’s response to the leader of Italia Viva, who, speaking from the stage at the ‘Festival of Optimism’ in Florence, had addressed the former public prosecutor, saying: “If you’re putting together a reformist coalition, you can’t exactly field Antonino Ingroia as a candidate, given that his investigation created the conditions for the worst institutional crisis of recent years by dragging in a giant of due process such as President Giorgio Napolitano.” As Ingroia himself explained to Il Foglio, in September he chose to join Controcorrente, the Sicilian regional movement led by former Le Iene presenter Ismaele La Vardera, the architect of a civic-centrist bridge stretching from the Strait of Messina to Alessandro Onorato’s Progetto Civico in Rome.

However, in response to the former Prime Minister, Ingroia chose to attack the former President of the Republic as well. “President Napolitano stood in the way, preventing the whole truth from coming to light,” he said. “But that is not the point, given that even the Court of Cassation itself – which acquitted some defendants and ruled that the cases against others were time-barred – acknowledged that negotiations took place, and the most serious aspect is that negotiations took place between the state and the Mafia at the height of the wave of terrorist attacks.” 

In a nine-minute video, Ingroia then directly attacks Renzi. “He wanted to overturn the constitution, but he was defeated. A total political failure, at the end of which he had said that if he lost he would retire from politics – a bit like Totò Cuffaro said after being released from prison, having served his sentence for aiding and abetting the Mafia; he said he would go and work as a commission agent in the Congo, and yet here he is again.” Ingroia therefore continues with the comparison: “Totò Cuffaro, who indirectly governs Sicily through his men placed in the highest echelons of Sicilian politics, and Matteo Renzi, who presumes to lay down rules, to impose vetoes, to dictate who can and who cannot be part of what he calls the ‘broad coalition’. ‘My story,’ Ingroia continues in his video response, ‘is that of a Sicilian who has always been committed to the fight against the Mafia, who has had hundreds of Mafia members arrested. Matteo Renzi, on the other hand, has put some of them forward as candidates.’  

Ingroia then accused Renzi of making false statements, starting with his name. “My name is Antonio Ingroia, not Antonino. I did not question Giorgio Napolitano; I coordinated that investigation which, I repeat, led to convictions at first and second instance, and in the Court of Cassation, though some were declared time-barred with a few acquittals, but – he reiterated – whilst acknowledging that the negotiations did take place, and it is extremely serious that politicians even today, who claim to stand for what is right, for honesty, justice and progressivism, should seek to bury the origins of our Republic – which has been influenced by the Mafia – and not utter a single word to say that we want truth and justice regarding the Mafia massacres”.

Also yesterday, in an interview on Rai Radio 1, the former magistrate said he was fairly certain he would stand with Controcorrente in the regional elections in Sicily. “As for national prospects, it’s all still a work in progress; of course I’d like to – in politics, we need a commitment to fighting the Mafia that has never existed before.” Should he enter the fray at national level, however, he said: “I would certainly be part of the broad coalition”, whilst also expressing a desire to move to Via Arenula as Minister of Justice. Following Renzi’s comments, Senator Ivan Scalfarotto also spoke out on behalf of Italia Viva. “If Ingroia is put forward as a candidate by Onorato and La Vardera, that’s no problem for us. We don’t want vetoes, we don’t impose vetoes,” he said yesterday, adding that “we regret that the glorious symbol of the Socialists is associated with the history of Italian ‘justicialism’. But that is not our problem. We, on the other hand, will not field ‘justicialists’ such as Ingroia.”