Between the memory of a “valiant” politician who did not bow to the mafia and the request for the full truth The 45th anniversary of the killing of Piersanti Mattarella was celebrated in Palermo, the former president of the Sicilian Region, brother of the current head of state, murdered before the eyes of his wife, daughter and mother-in-law on 6 January 1980 while he was going to mass. One of the first “excellent crimes” of Cosa Nostra of which only some aspects have been clarified.
Only a few days ago was the news that the Palermo magistrates had identified the two killers of the Christian Democrat exponent who was trying to free Sicilian politics from the mafia yoke, who had remained unknown for years. Both – these are the bosses Antonino Madonia And Giuseppe Lucchese – serve dozens of life sentences in prison. A development that breaks the darkness of the many mysteries – only the instigators were convicted – surrounding a murder which, investigators have always hypothesized, would not have been convenient only for Cosa Nostra.
Yesterday morning the son of the former president, Bernardo Mattarella, his nephews, magistrates, representatives of institutions and many ordinary citizens wanted to pay homage to the figure of the politician during a ceremony organized on the site of the massacre, which took place in via Libertà, near the victim’s home. And if the Minister of the Interior Piantedosi defined Mattarella as an “example of commitment and dedication to the common good”, the presidents of the Senate and of the Chamber La Russa and Fontana spoke of a “symbol of courage”, “civil integrity” and “dedication to service to the institutions and the community”.
Dozens of politicians from all sides wanted to pay homage to Piersanti Mattarella, many hope that the latest developments in the investigations will provide citizens and family members with the full truth about the ambush.
«We welcome with hope and confidence the new investigation launched by the Palermo Prosecutor’s Office to finally shed full light on the perpetrators of his barbaric murder. It is a necessary step to restore truth and justice, not only to the memory of Mattarella and his family, but to all Sicilians who believe in a future of legality and progress. In his memory we strongly reiterate our commitment to building a better Sicily, in the wake of the values that he embodied”, wrote in a note the president of the Sicilian Region Renato Schifani who delegated councilor Scarpinato to attend the ceremony. As well as the absent mayor of Palermo, Roberto Lagalla, who sent a councilor from his council.
And the secretary of the Democratic Party also sees glimmers of light in an investigation that has remained on a dead end for too long. Elly Schlein. “After 45 years we are starting to see, thanks to the complex and difficult work of the judiciary, a glimmer of truth and justice on one of the most dramatic political crimes in our history,” he wrote.
The analysis of the former president of the anti-mafia commission is more detailed, Rosy Bindi, which focuses on a political interpretation: «I think that Piersanti Mattarella was killed for two reasons, both profound. He was working for a Region with all the necessary credentials. He was convinced that if Sicily had started to respect the laws – he adds – the mafia would no longer have oxygen. He was not a rhetorical anti-mafia man.”
There is also a political reason behind his murder, «because Mattarella was Moro’s true heir. In Sicily he had completed the Morotea operation, launching a junta with the external support of the PCI. We are on the eve of the DC congress, the one in which Donat Cattin leads the DC to break with the PCI. If Mattarella had been alive, this turning point probably wouldn’t have happened.”
According to Bindi «the judicial truth may come out but we already know the historical truth. The project of full implementation of the Constitution has always been opposed in these eighty years. The enemies have always been the same, overt and hidden; the mafia, terrorism, deviant secret services, deviant freemasonry and massacre neo-fascism. There is still someone who continues to work against that democracy project.” And he concludes: «I see forces at work that have never accepted our anti-fascist Constitution. I’m not talking about the fascism of the Twenty Years. These are the heirs of another fascism – concludes Bindi – that of the seventies, which always fought the Constitution. And that cord doesn’t seem to me to have ever really been severed.”
‘