1.1 Sigonella

Perhaps, he is best remembered internationally when in October 1985 he stood up to US President Ronald Reagan. Following the highjacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, the highjackers, after protracted negotiations, were given safe passage to Egypt by plane. A squadron of USAF planes forced the plane down to the US military base of Sigonella. Though the Americans demanded that the Italian authorities extradite Mahmoud Abbas of the PLO, Craxi stood firm on the grounds that the Italian Government had jurisdiction over its own territory. He ordered elite Italian troops to surround the plane protecting it from the US military. This move was dictated both by security concerns about terrorists deciding to target Italy if the US had had it their way, and an Italian tradition of diplomacy with the Arab world.

This episode earned him an article in The Economist titled "Europe's strong man" and more tellingly, in the Senate, a full-standing ovation which included his communist opponents.

2 Downfall and Disgrace

2.1 Mani Pulite

The last main turning point of his career began taking place in the early nineteen-nighties. A team of Milanese judges began investigating the affairs of party financing; Milan was then stronghold of the Italian Socialist Party , and for some time Craxi's own son-in-law, Paolo Pillitteri , was the mayor of the city. This initiative came to be called Mani pulite (Italian for clean hands). No party was spared, but in some parties corruption had become more commonplace than elsewhere (either because of more available occasion, or because of internal culture). To this day, some people (especially those who were close to Craxi) argue that some parties (such as the Italian Communist Party were left untouched, while the leaders of then ruling coalition (and in particular Bettino Craxi) were wiped-off the political map.

The judges in Milan were put under scrutiny several times by different governments (especially Silvio Berlusconi's first government in 1994), but no evidence of any misconduct was ever found.

It was also alleged that the Communists could "afford" not to resort to corruption because of financing from the Soviet Union. While this still remains unproven, such a fact would anyway have been covered by a previous amnesty. Furthermore, the public opinion was much less concerned about foreign financing than about the misappropriation of "their" money by corrupt politicians.

In the end, his party fell from 14% of votes to virtual nonexistence. An ironic note was that the shattered remnants party were excluded by seats in the Parliament due to a minimum vote requirement of 4% on national basis, that Bettino Craxi himself had called for when his party was well above that level; the quota was actually lowered from 5 to 4% on the Socialists' request, but this was however not enough.

During the "Mani pulite" period, Craxi tried to use a daring defense tactic: he maintained that all parties needed and took money illegally, however they could get it, to finance their activities. His defense line was therefore not to declare himself innocent, but everybody guilty. While this may have been true to a certain degree, most citizens had anyway a bad feeling toward most politicians, and Craxi's "defense" met no sympathy in the public opinion, if it did not enrage it even further.

2.2 "Midgets and Dancers"

Craxi's lifestyle was perceived to be unjustified for the secretary of a party with so many alleged financial problems: he used to live in an expensive Hotel in Rome's centre ( Piazza Navona), the Raphael, and had a large villa in Hammamet , Tunisia. As the Mani Pulite investigations were to uncover in the nineties, personal corruption was endemic in Italian society; while many politicians, including Craxi, would justify corruption with the necessities of a democracy, many political leaders at many levels enjoyed a lifestyle that should have been well out of their reach, while most parties continued having financial problems. Rino Formica , a prominent member of the Socialist Party in those years, wittily stated that the convent is poor, but the friars are rich.

Furthermore, his arrogant character won him many enemies; one of his most condemned actions were blaming corruption in the socialist party on treasurer Vincenzo Balzamo , just after the latter's suicide, trying to clear himself of any accusation. He had also controversial friendships with Siad Barre, dictator of Somalia, and Ben Ali, dictator of Tunisia. The latter provided protection to Craxi when he escaped from Italy.

Craxi's entourage was sharply defined by a critic as a court of midgets and dancers, indicating the often ludicrous and immoral traits of a system based on personal acquaintance rather than own merit. Among the friends of Craxi's to receive smaller and larger favours, Silvio Berlusconi is perhaps the most known: he received many favours, especially regarding his media empire, and had a decree named after him ("Decreto Berlusconi") long before he entered politics. Other figures were Craxi's mistresses Anja Pieroni , who owned a TV station in the Rome area, and Sandra Milo , who had a skyrocketing career in the state TV conglomerate RAI.

He was also known for never apologizing, as a matter of principle and while some people did like this autocratic trait in his success years, most Italians expected an apology after the corruption system had been exposed. Craxi never apologized.

2.3 Escape to Tunisia

All this resulted in him being considered the symbol of political corruption, and for a time he was probably Italy's most despised man. This was clearly visible when he, coming out of his hotel, received a salvo of coins that students threw to him as as sign of loath. Some of the students sang Bettino, take these too!.

Understanding that the risk of being jailed was growing very real, Craxi escaped to Tunisia in 1994, and there remained, protected by Ben Ali's government, until his death from diabetes complications. He repeatedly declared himself innocent, but never returned to Italy where he had already been sentenced to a number of years in jail because of corruption charges.

Craxi's figure is currently subject of experiments of rehabilitation by supporters of Silvio Berlusconi, who draw a parallelism between how Craxi and Berlusconi were "persecuted" by "red judges" (toghe rosse, lit. "red robes"). Many of his supporters in the socialist party moved to (an Italian pejorative expression is often "recycled themselves into") Berlusconi's right-wing coalition, among others his former foreign minister Gianni De Michelis , political TV journalist Giuliano Ferrara , and former priest Gianni Baget Bozzo , excommunicated when he was elected to the European parliament with Craxi's socialist party.

3 Quotes by and about Bettino Craxi

Dentro Bettino, fuori il bottino ("Bettino (Craxi) in (jail), out with the loot"); popular tag on Milan's walls from 1992 on.

La Maxitangente fu solo una maxiballa ("The maxibribe was just maxibullshit"); uttered in court, about a (then alleged) huge bribe paid to many parties and politicians by Raul Gardini . Craxi was later convicted.

La mia libertà equivale alla mia vita ("My freedom is my life"), epitaph on his tomb.

The Mail Service proposed to release a stamp with Bettino Craxi's profile on it; it was discarded on accounts that people would have spat on the wrong side, the first joke in a book by comics Gino & Michele, that became extremely famous in the late eighties and early nineties.

4 External Links

Craxi Foundation, in Italian.

Craxi: Fallen kingpin. Article on Craxi's death by the BBC.

Craxi, Bettino Craxi, Bettino Craxi, Bettino Craxi, Bettino

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