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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters From Tangentopoli to Tunisia
By Samia Nkrumah
Mention Bettino Craxi and you conjure up the Tangentopoli, or Bribesville, scandals that shook Italy in the early 1990s. Former Socialist Italian Prime Minister Craxi, who died in Tunisia on 19 January at the age of 65, was a powerful political figure in the 1980s. But his political achievements are somewhat overshadowed by his involvement, and that of his party and associates, in bribery and kickbacks. Craxi became the focus of investigations into illegal financing of parties and politicians begun in 1992 by the Mani Pulite, or Operation Clean Hands, as the investigation led by a group of Milan prosecutors became known. These events effectively ended his political career and, in 1993, he resigned as leader of the Socialist Party. A year later, he went into exile in Tunisia where he spent the last years of his life.
Craxi was not the only casualty of the Tangentopoli investigations. The Socialist Party, the third-largest party after the Communists and Christian Democrats, broke up. The Christian Democrats, who had dominated the Italian political scene with the Socialists since the war, then split into two parties that would align themselves to left and right coalitions.
Of the hundreds investigated, around 25 leading businessmen, politicians and their associates committed suicide during the period before their arrest or during their detention for questioning.
The spotlight, however, remained fixed on the former prime minister because he uncompromisingly challenged the validity of the judiciary and the magistrates investigating him. While admitting illicit party financing, he insisted that it was common practice for all political parties to accept illegal funds and that it was a well-known fact. He further counter-attacked, claiming that the investigations were politically motivated and were being manipulated by his opponents.
While living in Tunisia, Craxi was tried, convicted and sentenced in absentia to almost 10 years for taking bribes of millions of dollars from businessmen in exchange for stakes in state companies or favourable bids in major projects. What was perceived as defiance, arrogance and a lack of contrition led many to be less sympathetic to his position and earned him a measure of public disfavour. In one incident, shortly before he left Italy, Craxi was once pelted with coins outside his Rome home.
In recent months, as his health deteriorated from complications of diabetes and heart problems, there was talk of allowing him to come home for treatment under house arrest. The ex-prime minister chose to die away from his homeland rather than return under these conditions. "I will only return [to Italy] as a free man. There is no other way I'll return, not alive or dead," said Craxi in a recent interview with RAI, Italy's state television. But Craxi supporters failed to get an amnesty for his return.
Craxi served as a member of parliament for 10 years before becoming Socialist Party leader in the early 1980s. He broke ranks with the Italian Communists and excluded them from the government in the 1970s and 1980s, probably sensing that at the height of the Cold War era, they would not have been permitted to assume power in a Western nation. Instead, he and his Socialist Party formed two successive governments with the Christian Democrats, lasting from 1983 to 1987. Craxi, who headed the two governments, remains the longest-serving Italian prime minister to date. During this period, he is credited with ensuring relative stability and eliminating the scala mobile, the mechanism that linked wages to price increases.
Craxi's defiance stood him in good stead in better days. While the Cold War raged in the early 1980s, Craxi allowed NATO's nuclear-tipped missiles to be stationed in Italy against the wishes of the former Soviet Union, a feat commended by the United States. Yet Craxi chose on occasions to chart a foreign policy opposed to that of the Christian Democratic line. Just in case anyone thought he was doing America's bidding, Craxi surprised many by refusing to hand over the Palestinian kidnappers of the Achille Lauro cruise liner in 1985 when their plane was forced to land in Sicily. He refused to accede to former US President Ronald Reagan's request to allow the US servicemen stationed in Sicily's air base to arrest the kidnappers, maintaining that the hijacking was carried out on Italian soil. The US soldiers were held off at gunpoint and the kidnappers were subsequently flown to an unidentified location in Yugoslavia.
Shortly after his death, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat said that Craxi was a great friend to the Palestinians. The Italian news agency ANSA reported that Arafat had pledged to erect a monument in honour of Craxi.
Interestingly, Craxi managed to maintain good relations with the Vatican despite his overseeing the negotiations that officially separated the state from religion. He is credited with the smooth running of the negotiations and with the accord governing relations between Italy and the Vatican. The talks ended successfully with the Vatican agreeing to the removal of Catholicism as the religion of the state in 1984. Despite this concession, the Vatican commented on his death that Craxi contributed to good relations between the state and the church.
Craxi's family, principally his widow, son and daughter, had rejected an offer by the Italian government to hold a state funeral in Italy for the former prime minister. "Now, this [Tunisia] is his country," said his daughter, who was at his side before he died. A funeral was held at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Tunis. Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini attended on behalf of the government. In Rome, Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema acknowledged that despite their political differences, "I always recognised his strong political personality and I was moved by his human suffering."
While no one doubts that wide-scale corruption permeated the old patronage system in Italy over the last few decades, a first step was taken towards creating a commission to study the Tangentopoli scandal. The question now is whether Craxi's death will precipitate a mood of reconciliation to end the fractious discord between political parties over the political motives of the Tangentopoli magistrates or further fuel the bitterness.
