Antonio Di Pietro (; born 2 October 1950) is an Italian politician, lawyer and magistrate. He was a minister in government of
Romano Prodi
Romano Antonio Prodi (; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician, economist, academic, senior civil servant, and business executive who served as the tenth president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He served twice as Pr ...
, a
Senator, and a
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...
. He was a
prosecutor in the ''
Mani Pulite
''Mani pulite'' (; Italian language, Italian for "clean hands") was a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in Italy held in the early 1990s, resulting in the demise of the so-called "History of the Italian Republic#First ...
'' corruption trials in the early 1990s.
Prosecutor
Di Pietro was born in
Montenero di Bisaccia
Montenero di Bisaccia is a small hill top town and ''comune'' (municipality). It is in the Province of Campobasso, which is in the region of Molise, in Italy. It is about inland from the coast, and about north of Campobasso. The nearest large tow ...
, a ''
comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
'' in the
province of Campobasso
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...
, in the
Southern Italian region of
Molise
it, Molisano (man) it, Molisana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 ...
, to a poor rural family. As a young man he travelled to
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, in the city of
Böhmenkirch
Böhmenkirch is a municipality in the district of Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
History
Böhmenkirch became a possession of the Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 after it annexed Rechberg and Rothenlöwen, but was in 1810 ceded to the K ...
(
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
), where he worked in a factory in the mornings and in a sawmill in the afternoons to pay for his studies. He graduated from night school in Italy
with a degree in law in 1978 and became a police officer. After a few years, he started a judicial career as a
prosecutor.
Mani Pulite
In February 1992, Di Pietro began investigating
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
's politicians and business leaders for corruption and kickbacks.
Together with other well-known magistrates such as
Francesco Saverio Borrelli
Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name "Francis", is the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include:
People with the given name Francesco
* Francesco I (disambiguation), sever ...
,
Ilda Boccassini,
Gherardo Colombo
Gherardo Colombo (born 23 June 1946) is an Italian former magistrate and judge specialized in political corruption cases. He was a member of the Court of Cassation between 2005 and 2007.Marc Leijendekker, ''33 jaar lang corruptie bestrijden'', ''NR ...
, and
Piercamillo Davigo, he worked on the
Mani Pulite
''Mani pulite'' (; Italian language, Italian for "clean hands") was a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in Italy held in the early 1990s, resulting in the demise of the so-called "History of the Italian Republic#First ...
("Clean Hands") team, which investigated political corruption.
As part of this team, he investigated hundreds of local and national politicians, all the way up to the most important national political figures, including
Bettino Craxi
Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi ( , , ; 24 February 1934 – 19 January 2000) was an Italian politician, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1976 to 1993, and the 45th prime minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. He was the first PSI membe ...
.
The Italian press named the investigation "Tangentopoli" ("Bribesville").
He soon became the most popular of the Mani Pulite judges due to his peculiar way of speaking, characterised by a pronounced
Molisan accent and frequent use of vernacular expressions, and his resolute and straightforward attitude. However, Di Pietro was accused by Craxi of having provoked a "false Revolution", and of investigating only some politicians, ignoring the opposition parties. Only in 2012, Di Pietro admitted that Craxi was right when during the
Enimont trial he accused the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy.
The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...
of having received illegal funding from the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. Craxi's sentences seemed to him "criminally relevant", but Di Pietro omitted to investigate that crime.
When the Tangentopoli investigation focused on Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...
, Di Pietro became the focus of a slander campaign and strong political pressure, leading him to resign from the judiciary.
Use of technology
Di Pietro was also known for being one of the first Italian prosecutors to use digital technologies in his work, using computers and visual presentations, which raised some protests (for example, by advocate Guido Spazzali). Di Pietro soon became interested in information technology (IT), and used it actively in his work. Instead of studying the classics—the usual high-school education for lawyers in Italy—he had trained to become an electronics technician (though he has never taken a computer course). He still maintains an interest in IT, with his blog and YouTube conferences.
Once he uttered a famous sentence to describe his own behaviour: "As a
bricklayer
A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsman and tradesman who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of masonry. ...
I tried to build my walls straight, as a policeman I tried to arrest criminals, and as a judge I tried to bring people to trial when there was good reason to do so."(Quoted in 'Running on a clean-up ticket' by Domenico Pacitti, The Times Higher Education Supplement, London, 11 May 2001.)
Minister
After the Mani Pulite investigations resulted in the disbandment of the previous ruling parties (first of all,
Democrazia Cristiana
Christian Democracy ( it, Democrazia Cristiana, DC) was a Christian democratic political party in Italy. The DC was founded on 15 December 1943 in the Italian Social Republic (Nazi-occupied Italy) as the ideal successor of the Italian People's ...
), Di Pietro was called into
Romano Prodi
Romano Antonio Prodi (; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician, economist, academic, senior civil servant, and business executive who served as the tenth president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He served twice as Pr ...
's new governing team as minister for Public Works,
with responsibility for the areas most affected by bribery—all the initiatives financed by the state. Here he tried to impose a controversial project which would have doubled the main national motorway between
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
and
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
. It provoked violent opposition by inhabitants of the interested areas. Ecologists, who had supported Prodi's coalition, protested the plan, which would have destroyed
Apennine valleys and woods.
Romano Prodi had previously been the subject of an investigation run by Di Pietro, but the charges had been dropped before any trial.
Di Pietro came under investigation himself in 1997 for his activities both in the police and as a judge. It was later found that the main prosecutor handling Di Pietro's case,
Fabio Salamone from
Brescia
Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...
, was the brother of a man that Di Pietro himself had prosecuted, and who had been sentenced to 18 months of jail for various corruption charges. Di Pietro was accused of corruption for receiving money from banker Pierfrancesco Pacini Battaglia in exchange of favours. Although it took some time for the authorities to realize this, Salamone was eventually allocated other duties and, after years of trials, Di Pietro was eventually cleared of all charges.
Political career
After being cleared, Di Pietro started a political career, something he had previously excluded on the grounds that he did not want to exploit the popularity he had gained while doing what he perceived to be just his duty. He was elected to the
Italian Senate
The Senate of the Republic ( it, Senato della Repubblica), or simply the Senate ( it, Senato), is the upper house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Chamber of Deputies). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral sy ...
in a by-election caused by the resignation of a senator, and defeated right-wing journalist
Giuliano Ferrara in the
Mugello
The Mugello is a historic region and valley in northern Tuscany, in Italy, corresponding to the course of the River Sieve. It is located to the north of the city of Florence and includes the northernmost portion of the Metropolitan City of Fl ...
constituency, a left wing stronghold.
He later founded his own movement,
Italia dei Valori
Italy of Values ( it, Italia dei Valori, IdV) is a populist and anti-corruption political party in Italy. The party was founded in 1998 by former ''Mani pulite'' prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro, who entered politics in 1996 and finally left the p ...
(Italy of Values), making its main theme the fight against political corruption in Italy. As a protest against the growing tolerance of corruption in most Italian political parties, and the complacent attitude of left-wing politicians like
Massimo D'Alema
Massimo D'Alema (; born 20 April 1949) is an Italian politician and journalist who was the 53rd prime minister of Italy from 1998 to 2000. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008. D'Alema also serv ...
towards Berlusconi, he did not run alongside the left-wing coalition in the Italian
general election of 2001, which was won by
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...
's coalition.
Di Pietro's movement collected just short of the nationwide four-percent limit necessary for entry to the Lower Chamber of the Parliament under proportional representation, and gained a single senator—who immediately defected to Berlusconi's party.
Running alongside the former leader of the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy.
The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...
and founder of the
Democratic Party of the Left
The Democratic Party of the Left ( it, Partito Democratico della Sinistra, PDS) was a democratic socialist and social-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in February 1991 as the post-communist evolution of the Italian Communist Party, ...
,
Achille Occhetto
Achille Leone Occhetto (; born 3 March 1936) is an Italian political figure. He served as the last secretary-general of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) between 1988 and 1991, and the first leader of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), the p ...
, he received two seats in the
European Elections of 2004. The other seat is currently taken by
Giulietto Chiesa
Giulietto Chiesa (; 4 September 1940 – 26 April 2020) was an Italian journalist, author, lecturer, and politician. He was Vice-President of the European Parliament Committee on International Trade, European Parliament's Committee on Inter ...
, a journalist.
Di Pietro was one of seven candidates for leader of the left-wing coalition
The Union for the general election held on 16 October 2005 — eventually won by Romano Prodi — in which he obtained 3.3 percent of the votes, ranking fourth.
On 17 May 2006 Di Pietro was appointed
Minister of Infrastructures by Romano Prodi, as part of his new government.
He is a member of the Bureau of the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE; french: Alliance des Démocrates et des Libéraux pour l'Europe, ADLE) is a transnational alliance between two European political parties, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Euro ...
and sits on the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
's
Committee on Legal Affairs
The Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) is a committee of the European Parliament.
Responsibilities
The main responsibilities of the committee are the interpretation and application of international and European law and the compliance of European U ...
. He is also a substitute for the
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) is a committee of the European Parliament that is responsible for protecting civil liberties and human rights, as listed in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
...
and chairs the Delegation for relations with South Africa.
On 30 January 2006 he published a letter in the Italian newspaper
L'Unità
''l'Unità'' (, lit. 'the Unity') was an Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, Democrats of the ...
, in which he promised to work for a law that will prohibit anyone from being elected more than twice consecutively (although he has been an MP since 1996), and prohibiting anyone who has received a definitive sentence from becoming a candidate in elections.
In September 2010, Di Pietro harshly criticized
Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...
and the parliament for approving a controversial
tax amnesty
Tax amnesty allows taxpayers to voluntarily disclose and pay tax owing in exchange for avoiding tax evasion penalties. It is a limited-time opportunity for a specified group of taxpayers to pay a defined amount, in exchange for forgiveness of a t ...
bill.
In late October 2012 Antonio Di Pietro came under examination in an inquiry by the
Italian national television program ''"Report"'' who questioned the alleged spending of IDV funds for personal use. Di Pietro has denied wrongdoing.
In 2013 he was found guilty of defamation of Totò Cuffaro by the tribunal of Palermo.
At the end of 2014, he left Italy of Values and became an independent.
Vidcast
In December 2006, Di Pietro started a
vidcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
on YouTube. In the vidcast, issued weekly from January 2007, Di Pietro talked about the issues discussed in the weekly Government Cabinet. Other prominent politicians, such as
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...
of Germany, had released one-off vidcasts, but this was perhaps the first time that a minister of a government in office had a regular vidcast.
Career
* 1978:
Graduate in law
* 1978–1979: specialisation in
administrative law
Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of Forms of government, government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are gener ...
* 1980: qualification for court work
* 1981: magistrate
* 1996: Minister of Public Works in the 12th legislature
* 1997: Senator
* since 1998: Chairman of the 'Italia dei Valori' party
* since 1999:
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...
* 1999–2002: Chairman of the delegation for relations with South America and
Mercosur
The Southern Common Market, commonly known by Spanish abbreviation Mercosur, and Portuguese Mercosul, is a South American trade bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full members are Argentina ...
* 2002–2004: Chairman of the Delegation for relations with Central Asia—
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
, Kyrgyzstan,
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...
, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...
, and
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
* Honorary degree from the
University of Thrace (Greece)
References
External links
*
Frasi celebri (unforgettable quotes)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Di Pietro, Antonio
1950 births
Living people
People from the Province of Campobasso
The Democrats (Italy) politicians
Italy of Values politicians
Government ministers of Italy
Senators of Legislature XIII of Italy
Deputies of Legislature XV of Italy
Deputies of Legislature XVI of Italy
Politicians of Molise
Italy of Values MEPs
MEPs for Italy 1999–2004
MEPs for Italy 2004–2009
Italian prosecutors
Italian bloggers
Male bloggers