Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (1940 – 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 Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the Maxi Trial in 1986–1987, on 19 July 1992, Borsellino was killed by a car bomb in Via D'Amelio, near his mother's house in Palermo.
Quotes
[edit]- At least, I said, if he has to be eliminated, the public must know about it, must be aware of it. The anti-Mafia pool must die in front of everyone, it must not die in silence.
- From his last public speech, in a debate organized by the magazine ‘'Micromega’', Palermo Municipal Library, June 25, 1992
- It must be [...] attributed to yet another recognition of Giuliano's investigative skills if what has only now emerged, following complex and exhausting preliminary investigations, had been accurately intuited and framed by him several years earlier. Without wishing to criticize anyone, it must be acknowledged that if other state bodies had adequately understood and supported Giuliano's intelligent investigative efforts, the organizational structures of the mafia would probably not have become so powerful and many brutal murders, including that of Giuliano himself, would not have been committed.
- From the indictment in the maxi-trial against the Mafia; quoted in “Boris Giuliano: the story of the investigator killed by the Mafia,” ilPost.it, May 23, 2016.
- It is beautiful to die for what you believe in; those who are afraid die every day, those who are not afraid die only once.
- Giuseppe Ayala, Chi ha paura muore ogni giorno: I miei anni con Falcone e Borsellino, Oscar Mondadori, Milano, 2009, cover. ISBN 978-88-04-59093-4
- I accept, I have always accepted more than the risk [...] the consequences of the work I do, the place where I do it and, I would say, even how I do it. I accept it because I chose, at a certain point in my life, to do it and I could say that I knew from the beginning that I had to run these risks. The feeling of being a survivor and of finding myself, as is believed, in extreme danger, is a feeling that cannot be separated from the fact that I still believe deeply in the work I do, I know it is necessary for me to do it, I know it is necessary for many others to do it with me. And I also know that we all have a moral duty to continue doing it without letting ourselves be influenced by the feeling, or even, I would say, the certainty, that all this may cost us dearly.
- From an interview with Lamberto Sposini twenty days before his death; quoted in ‘'Santi laici’', p. 360
- The fight against the mafia, the first problem to be solved in our beautiful and unfortunate land, should not have been merely a detached act of repression, but a cultural and moral movement involving everyone, especially the younger generations, who are best suited to immediately appreciate the beauty of the fresh scent of freedom that makes one reject the stench of moral compromise, indifference, contiguity, and therefore complicity.
- From a speech by Paolo Borsellino to the citizens of Sicily. The original recording is also featured in the TV fiction “Paolo Borsellino,” produced by TaoDue Film and broadcast by Mediaset.
- It is normal for every person to feel fear, the important thing is that it is accompanied by courage. You must not let fear overwhelm you, otherwise it becomes an obstacle that prevents you from moving forward.
- Santi laici, p. 356
- (About Rocco Chinnici) [...] neither general indifference nor the dangerous and widespread temptation to coexist with the mafia phenomenon—often bordering on collusion—ever discouraged this man, who had, as he once told me, a “religion of work.”
- From the preface to Rocco Chinnici, “L'illegalità protetta” (Protected Illegality); reproduced in Tsao Cevoli, “Io non dimentico: Brevi storie di mafia e antimafia raccontate alla generazione del '92” (I Will Not Forget: Short Stories of the Mafia and Anti-Mafia Told to the Generation of '92), Liberarcheologia, 2013, p. 117. ISBN 8890572019
- I never asked to deal with the Mafia. I got involved by chance. And then I stayed because of a moral issue. People were dying around me.
- Lucentini et al., Paolo Borsellino, p. 123
- I didn't like Palermo, so I learned to love it, because true love means loving what you don't like so that you can change it.
- Lucentini et al., Paolo Borsellino, p. 12
- Talk about the mafia. Talk about it on the radio, on television, in the newspapers. But talk about it.
- Lavinia Farnese, Borsellino, eroe borghese in prima linea contro la mafia, la Repubblica, 17 July 2006, p. 53
- Politics and the mafia are two powers that live off controlling the same territory: either they wage war against each other or they come to an agreement.
- I complici, p. 36
- If young people deny it their consent, even the all-powerful and mysterious mafia will vanish like a nightmare.
- Nicola Gratteri and Antonio Nicaso, La mafia fa schifo, Mondadori, Milano, 2011, Il libro. ISBN 9788852021176
There has been a total and unacceptable delegation of responsibility to the judiciary and law enforcement agencies to deal solely with the problem of the mafia [...]. And there is a fundamental misunderstanding: it is said that that politician was close to the mafia, that that politician had been accused of having interests that converged with the mafia, but the judiciary, unable to ascertain the evidence, did not convict him, ergo that man is honest... and no! [...] This argument does not hold water, because the judiciary can only make a judicial assessment. It can say, well, there are suspicions, even serious suspicions, but I don't have the evidence and legal certainty to say that this man is a mafioso. However, municipal, regional, and provincial councils should have drawn the necessary conclusions from certain suspicious links between politicians and mafiosi, considering the politician in question to be unreliable in the management of public affairs. They hid behind the ruling, i.e., this man has never been convicted, so he is not a mafioso, so he is an honest man!
- I complici, pp. 6-7
- Giovanni, I have prepared the speech to be given in church after your death: "There are many dickheads: dickheads who dream of emptying the Mediterranean with a bucket... those who dream of melting the polar ice caps with a match... but today, ladies and gentlemen, before you, in this expensive mahogany coffin, lies the biggest dickhead of them all... A man who dreamed of nothing less than defeating the mafia by enforcing the law."
- [...] judges will continue to work and overexpose themselves and, in some cases, end up like Rosario Livatino [murdered by the Mafia] like so many others, politicians will appear at funerals proclaiming unity of purpose to solve this problem, and after a few months we will be back to square one.
- Video available on YouTube.com (min. 5:53)
Quotes about
[edit]- My father loved to use a manual razor to shave rather than an electric razor because that way he was forced to look at himself in the mirror every morning. Looking at his own face every day, if ever there was a need, helped him convince himself that certain things just couldn't be done.
- Fiammetta Borsellino, quoted in Fiammetta Borsellino: «La verità su via D'Amelio? 25 anni di omissioni e menzogne», Corriere.it, 13 September 2017
- I remember perfectly well that on Saturday, July 18, 1992, I went for a walk with my husband along the Carini seafront, without being followed by our bodyguards. Paolo told me that it would not be the Mafia that would kill him, whom he was not afraid of, but that it would be his colleagues and others who would allow this to happen. At that moment, he was both discouraged and certain of what he was telling me.
- Agnese Borsellino, quoted in Giovanni Biancon, E Borsellino disse alla moglie: non sarà la mafia a uccidermi, Corriere.it, 11 November 2011
See also
[edit]Bibliography
[edit]- Lirio Abbate, Peter Gomez, I complici: Tutti gli uomini di Bernardo Provenzano da Corleone al Parlamento, Fazi Editore, Roma, 2007. ISBN 9788881127863
- Beppe Grillo, Santi laici: Storie di uomini e donne che hanno dato la vita per salvare la nostra democrazia, Rizzoli, Milano, 2011. ISBN 978-88-17-05255-9
- Umberto Lucentini, Agnese, Lucia, Manfredi and Fiammetta Borsellino, Paolo Borsellino. Il valore di una vita, Mondadori, Milano, 1994, p. 12. ISBN 9788804379089
External links
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