Silvio Milazzo (Caltagirone, September 4, 1903 – December 24, 1982) was an Italian Christian Democrat politician and the President of the Regional Government of Sicily from 1958 to 1960.

Sicilian deputy

Milazzo was a landowner from

Caltagirone Caltagirone (; scn, Caltaggiruni ; Latin: ''Calata Hieronis'') is an inland city and ''comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administ ...

and sat in the Sicilian regional parliament since 1947 for the

Christian Democrat Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social ...

(DC) in the political current of

Mario Scelba Mario Scelba (5 September 1901 – 29 October 1991) was an Italian politician who served as the 33rd prime minister of Italy from February 1954 to July 1955. A founder of the Christian Democracy, Scelba was one of the longest-serving Minister of ...

. He was the Regional Minister for Public Works and for Agriculture in the regional governments of

Franco Restivo Franco Restivo (25 May 1911 – 17 April 1976) was an Italian politician. Biography Franco Restivo was son of Empedocle Restivo, a jurist and national deputy. He studied law at the University of Palermo and in 1943 he became a professor of const ...

(1949-1955), Giuseppe Alessi (1955-1956) and

Giuseppe La Loggia Giuseppe La Loggia (May 1, 1911 – March 2, 1994) was an Italian politician. Biography Giuseppe La Loggia was lawyer and university professor of labor law at the University of Palermo. Son of Enrico La Loggia (born 1872), Enrico La Loggia, Und ...

(1956-1958). He was a reliable party loyalist up to the time former Italian Premier

Amintore Fanfani Amintore Fanfani (; 6 February 1908 – 20 November 1999) was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as 32nd prime minister of Italy for five separate terms. He was one of the best-known Italian politicians after the Second World War an ...

began to bring in bright young men from Rome into Sicily's Christian Democratic organization. Outraged by this infringement on Sicilian autonomy and threat to Sicilian patronage, Milazzo became the gullible protagonist of Sicilian autonomy.The Third Choice
Time, June 22, 1959 After the regional elections of 1955, Milazzo, supported by the left and dissident Christian democrats, surprisingly had won the vote for head of the regional government against the outgoing president Restivo. However, the DC did not give its consent and after 37 minutes Milazzo was forced to renounce the appointment. He became vice-president under Giuseppe Alessi.
di Fara Misuraca, September 2006 It would be a prelude for the years to come.

Regional president

In October 1958, Milazzo formed an atypical coalition government that was supported by

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...

Monarchists Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...

Neo-Fascists Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, Nativism (politics), nativism, xenophobia, and an ...

and dissident Christian Democrats, breaking the power monopoly of the DC, that had ruled Sicily since 1947. Despite the expulsion of Milazzo and his followers from the party, he continued to head the Sicilian regional government. The expelled members formed a new party, the Social Christian Sicilian Union (''Unione Siciliana Cristiano Sociale'', USCS), in December 1958. He competed in the regional elections in June 1959 under the slogan "Sicily for the Sicilians. Down with the mainland."The Night Visitors
Time, February 29, 1960 The Christian Democrat party establishment appealed to the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

to counter Milazzo. Armed with a papal decree banning Catholics to vote for any candidate allied with Communists, Sicily's Cardinal

Ernesto Ruffini Ernesto Ruffini (19 January 1888 – 11 June 1967) was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Palermo from 1945 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1946 by Pope Pius XII. Biography Ruffini was ...

sent

Catholic Action Catholic Action is the name of groups of lay Catholics who advocate for increased Catholic influence on society. They were especially active in the nineteenth century in historically Catholic countries under anti-clerical regimes such as Spain, Ita ...

groups from door to door to campaign against Milazzo. In the US, the

Hearst press Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televis ...

implored its Italian-American readers to send anti-Milazzo letters and telegrams to Sicily; advising the use of night-rate cables. The

New York Journal American :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...

pleaded: "Even $2.75 is a small price for preserving democracy." "They have called me a

Trojan horse The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...

," Milazzo said. "But I am not that. I am a pure-blooded Sicilian horse, a noble animal. I am an anti-Communist leading only a rebellion against the injustices of Rome." After the indecisive regional elections in June 1959 in which the UCSC gained 10 per cent of the votes, Milazzo again succeeded in forming a majority coalition with the aid of Christian Democratic defectors.

Downfall

Milazzo was under constant pressure from the Vatican and the Christian Democratic national government led by

Antonio Segni Antonio Segni (; 2 February 1891 – 1 December 1972) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the president of Italy from May 1962 to December 1964 and the prime minister of Italy in two distinct terms between 1955 and 1960. A memb ...

, and spent most of his time trying to defend his two-vote majority in Sicily's regional Assembly. In February 1960, Milazzo resigned, after a regional deputy revealed that he was approached to change allegiance for a substantial amount of money by one of Milazzo's top aides, the Communist Ludovico Corrao. The nation's anti-Communist press and politicians seized the occasion to remove the Italian Communists from their one real foothold in Italy. "An unheard-of attempt at corruption," Milan's

Corriere della Sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...

headlined. The Communist maintained a bewildered silence. Rome's pro-Communist newspaper

Paese Sera Paese ( Venetian: ''Paexe'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Treviso in the Italian region Veneto, located about northwest of Venice and about west of Treviso. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 19,898 and an area of ...

claimed that Milazzo was the victim of a

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

plot.

Mafia backing?

On the contrary, rumours about Mafia backing of Milazzo's government were confirmed in the 1980s by several Mafia turncoats (

pentiti ''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...

), such as

Tommaso Buscetta Tommaso Buscetta (; 13 July 1928 – 2 April 2000) was an Italian mobster and a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He became one of the first of its members to turn informant and explain the inner workings of the organization. Buscetta participated i ...

and

Antonio Calderone Antonino Calderone (October 24, 1935January 10, 2013) was a Sicilian Mafioso who turned state witness (''pentito'') in 1987 after his arrest in 1986. Antonino was born in Catania, the brother of Giuseppe Calderone, the boss of the local Mafia. ...

. Both the Mafia clan in

Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

and the Cosa Nostra-backed entrepreneur Costanzo campaigned for Milazzo. The Salvo cousins supported the Milazzo government as well as the old Mafia families of

Greco Greco may refer to: People * Greco (surname), a list of people with this surname * a masculine variant of Greca (given name), an Italian feminine given name * Greco Mafia clan, one of the most influential Mafia clans in Sicily and Calabria Wine ...

and Bontade.Seindal, ''Mafia: Money and Politics in Sicily'', pp. 128-29Paoli, ''Mafia Brotherhoods'', p. 195-96 The Operation Milazzo, as it was called, was something of a clientelist “coup”, according to scholar René Seindal. The Christian Democrats lost control of the region's resources and the various parts of Milazzo's coalition strengthened their negotiating position towards the Christian Democrats. The Salvos, for instance, gained control over the private concession for collecting taxes in Sicily with extremely favourable conditions. To consolidate the privilege, the Salvos unscrupulously withdrew their support for Milazzo to ally themselves with the mainstream Christian Democrats which tried to regain control of the region to maintain their cliental power base. From then until the mid-1980s the Salvos were among the most powerful businessmen in the economic, political and social life of Sicily – until they were prosecuted by Palermo's Antimafia pool that included

Giovanni Falcone Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...

and

Paolo Borsellino Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; scn, Pàulu Borsellino; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying t ...

. They controlled the Christian Democratic party branch in the

Province of Trapani Trapani ( it, Provincia di Trapani, scn, Pruvincia di Tràpani; officially ''Libero consorzio comunale di Trapani'') is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, southern Italy. Following the suppression of the Sicilian provinces, it ...

that guaranteed them great influence over the regional decision making of the DC. After initially supporting Milazzo, the Mafia was not opposed to the fall of his government as well – and Mafia boss Francesco Paolo Bontade and later his son

Stefano Bontade Stefano Bontade (23 April 1939 – 23 April 1981) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. His actual surname was Bontate. He was the boss of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo. He was also known as the ''Principe di Villagrazia'' (Prin ...

sustained a close relationship with the Salvo cousins, which allowed them access to regional politics.

History of 'Milazzoism'

In Sicily on October 30, 1958 the regional deputy Silvio Milazzo of DC was elected president of the Sicilian Region with the votes, in the Sicilian Regional Assembly, of the parties of the right and the left, against the official candidate of his party,

, indicated by the national leaders of the DC, then led by

. Silvio Milazzo, exponent of the most extensive autonomism, was at odds with the strongly centralizing direction given to the organization of DC by Fanfani, then also President of the, while the position of the President of the Republic Gronchi

The first milazzo junta

The first junta milazzo was attended together by representatives of the

PCI PCI may refer to: Business and economics * Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards ** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors * Pro ...

and the MSI, allies "in the name of the superior interests of the Sicilians", said the regional secretary of the PCI Emanuele Macaluso (who had been given the green light by Palmiro Togliatti) and the group leader at the ARS of the MSI Dino Grammatico, with the consent of

Giorgio Almirante Giorgio Almirante (27 June 1914 – 22 May 1988) was an Italian politician, the founder and leader of neo-fascist Italian Social Movement until his retirement in 1987. Early life Almirante was born at Salsomaggiore Terme, in Emilia Romagna, ...

. Silvio Milazzo was immediately expelled from DC, then created with a group of regional deputies a new political party, the Sicilian Christian Social Union (USCS). Dino Grammatico in his memoirs defined that first phase of milazzismo as a "Sicilian Revolt",

The Church's opposition

The Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a p ...

was strongly criticized with the operation and in April 1959 the Holy Office renewed the

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

to the

extending it to those, such as the Milazzo movement, who allied with them and a few months later, on the eve of the regional elections, the Sicilian episcopate expressly invited not to vote for the USCS.

Milazzo second junta and crisis

Milazzo, after the June 1959 regional elections, where his movement won 10 ARS deputies, formed a second junta on August 12, 1959, in which the MSI did not enter, which returned to opposition, along with DC. This second junta had a varied support around the USCS, the left, the

monarchists Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...

, the top of Sicindustria, then led by Domenico La Cavera,who had already broken with Confindustria, up to exponents close to the

. The ideologues at that stage were Ludovico Corrao and the national deputy Francesco Pignatone. This brief second term at the head of the Milazzo Region, came into crisis due to a scandal, with an attempt at corruption organized by two deputies, one of the PCI (Vincenzo Marraro) and one of the USCS (Ludovico Corrao), denounced by a DC deputy, Carmelo Santalco, who were promised 100 million to vote in favor of the junta, a conversation that he recorded. The crisis ended in February 1960, when a member of his movement, Benedetto Majorana della Nicchiara, was persuaded by D.C. majors to accept the office of president of the region, in a majority of

Christian Democrats __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

, liberals and

, with the external support of the MSI. Milazzo also resigned as a regional deputy in 1962. The USCS disbanded after the 1963 regional election, where it did not win a seat.

References

* Paoli, Letizia (2003).
Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style
', New York: Oxford University Press * Seindal, René (1998).
Mafia: Money and Politics in Sicily, 1950-1997
', Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press

External links

*

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Profilo Deputato Milazzo Silvio
Assemblea Regionale Siciliana {{DEFAULTSORT:Milazzo, Silvio 1903 births 1982 deaths Presidents of Sicily People from Caltagirone Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians 20th-century Italian politicians Politicians from the Province of Catania