Interview with Antonio Di Pietro

The story of the property in Monte Carlo no longer convinces anyone. I believe that it is really the time to finish this playacting: let Fini ask his brother-in-law for the name of the actual person with whom he negotiated the tenancy contract for that apartment, because you cannot imagine that signor Tulliani in Rome happened to know by chance that a gentleman from Santa Lucia was renting a home.

He evidently knew it in Rome at the moment when the property was sold. It’s time that we know the full name of the owner and how much he paid for it.

Anyone who has such an important political position has the duty to say this. I believe that right now we are faced with a squalid affair between a blackmailer and one who is being blackmailed: that above all, the blackmailer must be placed in a position in which he can no longer blackmail, after the various precedents that have marked out his way of being, and I am referring to the Silvio Berlusconi government.

If Fini doesn’t want to assume the role of one who is being blackmailed, he has the duty next week to vote “no confidence” in Berlusconi because otherwise, he will become not just one who is being blackmailed but also a moral accomplice of the blackmailer.

Below there’s an Interview with Antonio Di Pietro; I gave that is published in ‘Il Riformista’.

Antonio Di Pietro : “Today Fini made an accurate diagnosis of Silvio Berlusconi. After 15 years, he makes it clear that he has finally realized who “il Cavaliere” is. At this point I am wondering why he doesn’t withdraw his confidence in him.”

Il Riformista: Now you’ve asked the question, are you going to respond?
Antonio Di Pietro: “The response is that having opened one’s eyes in relation to Silvio Berlusconi, today, for Fini , is an aggravating circumstance not an extenuating circumstance. I am saying this clearly. If for15 years he has been an unknowing ally, and let’s make out that we believe that, now he is an accomplice. If before he was a pretend ‘ignorant person’, in the sense that he pretended to not know the true nature of “il Cavaliere”, now he is an accomplice.”

Il Riformista: Are you saying that Fini is blackmailable?
Antonio Di Pietro: “Unless he wants to have it believed that he is a victim of the ‘Stockholm syndrome …’ You see, apart from the documents that have been rigged, here we are faced with 2 crimes. ‘Extortion’, article 629 of the criminal code, and perhaps even ‘private violence’. But the basic problem is that there is a President of the Council who is a blackmailer and a President of the Lower House who is being blackmailed.”

Il Riformista: Do you believe that the really famous document of Santa Lucia is a fake?
Antonio Di Pietro: “Apart from the fake, it’s possible to suspect that the facts told there are true.”

Il Riformista: And that is that the apartment in Monte Carlo is really owned by Tulliani?
Antonio Di Pietro : “Otherwise so many things could not be explained. In the background of that apartment there’s a specific surname: Tul-lia-ni.
Now, if I were Fini, a month and a half ago I would have got the brother-in-law and said: Tullià would you like to tell me who on earth rented this apartment to you?
Can you kindly tell us who is behind those off-shore companies?
If the President of the Lower House has not done this, there’ll be a reason, won’t there?
Anyway, if things were all in order, it would be enough for Fini’s brother-in-law to fish out the tenancy agreement and the affair would have finished there. Whereas …”

Il Riformista: Whereas?
Antonio Di Pietro: “Instead we are at such a point that Fini no longer has the peace of mind to preside over the Chamber of Deputies in an impartial way. He is being blackmailed by Silvio Berlusconi, who is still aiming at getting the constitutional Lodo Alfano onto the agenda for the discussions in parliament. ”

Il Riformista : Are you asking for Fini to leave the position of President of the Chamber at Montecitorio?
Antonio Di Pietro : “We are faced with an anomaly. We can no longer go on like this.”

Antonio di Pietro, Rome, hT2