Nicola Mancino (born 15 October 1931) is an Italian

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

. He was President of the Senate of the Republic from 1996 to 2001. He was also president of Campania's regional parliament from 1965 to 1971, governor of

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

from 1971 to 1972 and

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

from 1992 to 1994.

Early life

Mancino was born in

Montefalcione Montefalcione (Irpino: ) is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. The town lies on a hill which at its summit is above sea level. In 1861 it was the location of a revolt against the newly f ...

, province of Avellino (

). He became first provincial and then regional secretary of

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 ...

(Italy's Christian Democratic Party), being elected for the first time in the Italian Senate in 1976. So far he had been reconfirmed in all subsequent elections.

Minister of the Interior

He was

from 1992 to 1994. On 1 July 1992, magistrate

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 ...

had a meeting with Mancino, who at the time had just been named as Minister; Borsellino would be killed just over two weeks later with a car bomb, on 19 July. Mancino however always denied that he had met Borsellino. In a television interview of 24 July 2009, judge

Giuseppe Ayala Giuseppe Ayala (born May 18, 1945 in Caltanissetta) is an Italian politician and magistrate. He was known as an "anti-mafia" magistrate, and served as "anti-Mafia" judge. He raised doubts about whether it was only the Mafia that was involved in ...

said that: However, later Ayala refuted these words in an interview to magazine ''Sette''. A personal agenda in possess of Borsellino's family, has an annotation by the judge saying: "1 July h 19:30 : Mancino". Vittorio Aliquò, the other magistrate who was interviewing Mutolo at the time of ministry's phone call, later declared that he had accompanied Borsellino "up to the threshold of the minister's office". In 2007 a letter from Paolo Borsellino's brother, Salvatore, was published. Entitled ''19 luglio 1992: Una strage di stato'' ("19 July 1992: A state massacre"), the letter supports the hypothesis that Minister of Interiors Nicola Mancino knew the causes of the magistrate's assassination. Borsellino's brother wrote: A law enacted and signed by Mancino in 1993 during his tenure as Interior Minister permits the prosecution of those involved in racial, ethnic and religious discrimination and the incitement of hate crime. This law is commonly called the "Mancino law".

Later career

In 1994, after the dissolution of Democrazia Cristiana, Mancino adhered to the Italian People's Party (PPI), collaborating with its secretary, Mino Martinazzoli. In July of the same year, he opposed the alliance with the right-wing coalition led 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 f ...

, and also opposed the election of

Rocco Buttiglione Rocco Buttiglione (; born 6 June 1948) is an Italian Union of Christian and Centre Democrats politician and an academic. Buttiglione's nomination for a post as European Commissioner with a portfolio that was to include civil liberties, result ...

as PPI secretary. Later, he became a member of '' La Margherita'' (The Daisy) coalition of parties born out of the left wing of the PPI. After the victory of the center-left coalition led by

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 ...

in the 1996 elections, Mancino was elected

President of the Italian Senate The President of the Senate of the Republic ( it, Presidente del Senato della Repubblica) is the presiding officer of the Italian Senate. The President of the Senate is the second highest-ranking office of the Italian Republic (after the Preside ...

, and served from 9 May 1996 until 29 May 2001. On 24 July 2006, he left the Senate and became deputy-president of the '' Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura'', Italy's senior council of justice. In July 2012, prosecutors in Palermo ordered Mancino to stand trial for withholding evidence about the alleged talks between the Italian state and the Mafia during the latter's bombing campaign in 1992 that assassinated, among others, the judges

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

.Italy: Ex-interior minister implicated in mafia negotiations
Adnkronos, 25 July 2012 On 20 April 2018, he was acquitted.

References

External links

Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura
at Italian Senate, XIII Legislature
Nicola Mancino
at Italian Senate, XIV Legislature
Nicola Mancino
at

Radio Radicale Radio Radicale is the official radio station of the Italian Radical Party. Founded in 1976 as part of the ''Radio libere'' ("Free Radio”) movement, it has no commercial advertisements and is partly funded by the party, with support from the Ita ...

, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Mancino, Nicola 1931 births Living people People from the Province of Avellino Italian Ministers of the Interior Presidents of the Italian Senate Presidents of Campania Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century Italian politicians Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy politicians 21st-century Italian politicians