According to allcountrylist, the statements of the resigning president of the council were in tune with the widespread considerations on the epochal turning point that culminated in the referendums. In reality, the change had just started and the resistance put in place to hinder it was very strong. However, the aspiration of public opinion was very strong to see the collapse of a political-party structure present everywhere in the country and in power for too long. Revolution is certainly a term disproportionate to the events of those months, but it recurred with singular frequency in many comments to signal the surprise of observers more in the face of the rapid and progressive disintegration of a regime than the depth of the transformations taking place. In reality, the resignation they had been forced to, starting in February,
On February 10, C. Martelli, socialist, the recipient of a guarantee notice for fraudulent bankruptcy of Banco Ambrosiano, resigned from the office of Minister of Justice: he will be replaced by G. Conso, jurist, former president of the Constitutional Court. On 11 February Craxi left the office of secretary, held continuously since 1976, in the face of a lost and divided Socialist Assembly which the next day elected G. Benvenuto at the head of the PSI. On the 19th the Minister of Finance G. Goria and the Minister of Health, the liberal F. De Lorenzo, resigned. Two days later Amato was forced to reshuffle his government: F. Reviglio moved from Budget to Finance, R. Costa from Community Policies to Health, while P. Baratta entered with the delegation for Privatization, B. Andreatta to Budget, G. Ciaurro to community policies. The trickle of resignations continued, on the 25th, with those of G. La Malfa, secretary of the PRI, reached by a guarantee notice for an illicit loan, however small, to his party. On 2 March C. De Mita left the presidency of the Bicameral after the arrest of his brother for crimes concerning the reconstruction in Irpinia, and after the commission had not unanimously ruled against his resignation.
On March 5, the government approved the so-called ” Conso package ” for a ” political ” solution of bribes: it contained, among other things, a decree-law, also aimed at recovering the amount paid in bribes, which decriminalized illegal loans to parties, it introduced only administrative sanctions, removed the ongoing trials from the criminal judge, repealed the 1974 law which had established public funding. When the text of the measures began to be known, indignant reactions were recorded in the face of what appeared to be a self-acquittal of the political class. The oppositions invited Scalfaro not to sign the decree: and the President of the Republic, on the 7th,
However, it should be remembered that some of the same Milanese investigating magistrates (including G. Colombo and the best known of them, A. Di Pietro) had explicitly expressed their opinion for a political solution of tangentopoli. Aware of the enormous size of the problem and the ever-increasing number of possible defendants, they suggested penalty discounts for those who confessed and an extension of the rules of the plea bargain, combined with the suspension from public offices, in order to streamline the proceedings and close in a reasonable time. quick the story. However, it did not seem possible that a Parliament with a very high number of suspects (about a hundred will be counted for bribes to the Chamber) was the most suitable forum for dealing with the very delicate matter. In the month preceding the referendum, other warranties led to new resignations and accentuated public confusion. In mid-March it was the turn of the secretary of the PLI, R. Altissimo, to resign: resignation rejected by his party, but made definitive in May. On 21 March, the Minister of Agriculture, the Christian Democrat G. Fontana, who was accused of receiving stolen goods, resigned. On March 27 a guarantee notice for mafia association reached G. Andreotti, called into question by some repentants. The next day it was learned that the former Christian Democrat ministers A. Gava, PC Pomicino and V. Scotti were under investigation, along with numerous other Campania parliamentarians from all parties. On the 30th Minister Reviglio resigned, accused of the ” black funds ” of ENI, of which he had been president. On April 5 a
With these precedents it was difficult to imagine a different outcome of the referendum on the electoral system. And the head of state accepted the requests for change by instructing the governor of the Bank of Italy, CA Ciampi, to form the new government (April 26). Ciampi was the head of a public institution of great prestige and undisputed seriousness (although not immune from some rigidity in the conduct of monetary policy). His designation therefore appeared as a response to the crisis of the parties and as a credible guarantee, on the international level, to economic difficulties.
