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Renato Schifani

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Renato Schifani in 2008

Renato Maria Giuseppe Schifani (born 11 May 1950) is an Italian politician who has served as the president of Sicily since 13 October 2022. Schifani was Silvio Berlusconi's chief whip and was a prominent member of the Senate of the Republic from 1996 to 2022. From 29 April 2008 to 14 March 2013, he was the president of the Senate of the Republic.

Quotes

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  • Li abbiamo fregati con l'emendamento Carrara. Siamo cresciuti e siamo diventati più furbi di loro.
  • [Maria Falcone e Rita Borsellino] hanno offeso la memoria dei loro eroici fratelli. Le due signore, entrambi militanti a sinistra con una disinvoltura che preferisco non commentare, hanno strumentalizzato due eroi civili che, per fortuna di tutti, sono patrimonio della collettività.
  • (Maria Falcone and Rita Borsellino) have dishonoured the memory of their heroic brothers. These two women, both left-wing activists with a self-assurance I prefer not to comment on, have exploited two civilian heroes who, fortunately for everyone, belong to the collective heritage.
  • The Supreme Court’s ruling finally does justice to Mr Previti. It is just a pity that it has taken more than ten years. We are delighted for our friend Cesare Previti and hope that this case will help shed light on the conduct of those who, for purely political reasons, have over the years denied the plain facts and the law.
  • Sarò il garante di tutti, il massimo garante delle regole.
  • [The judiciary] appeals to me most when it engages in a direct and uncompromising fight against the Mafia to dismantle its territorial structure by uprooting its deep-seated, toxic roots. I like it less, however, when certain individual magistrates, following convoluted and nebulous lines of inquiry and relying on statements from state witnesses who speak from hearsay, tend to put forward political theories by conjuring up ghosts from a distant past that allegedly saw conspiracies against the proper functioning of institutions.
  • We are in the final stages of a tax reform. The public is well aware that once it is enacted, there will be no room for clemency.
  • Craxi was a man who knew how to make decisions and with his government – remarkable in itself for its longevity, from 1983 to 1987 – he restored the central role and authority of Palazzo Chigi.
  • From Corriere della Sera, 19 January 2010.
  • The passage of time allows us to view the past with greater clarity and objectivity. It is up to each of us to reflect on Craxi and that dramatic period. He was shown no leniency; he paid more than anyone else for the failings of the entire political system of the time. He was a scapegoat.
  • From Corriere della Sera, 19 January 2010.
  • (About Cosa Nostra) We are all defeating it, but above all the Sicilians. Consciences and attitudes have changed. Before, there was fear and the code of silence; even obvious facts were denied, and the facts themselves were simply ignored. Of course, we had to pay a huge price with the deaths of people like Judges Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone. But all this has changed the conscience of the Sicilians.
  • There is nothing worse than trivialisation and generalisation, which, unfortunately, Roberto Vecchioni has fallen into. From such a highly regarded singer-songwriter, we would have expected more profound and less stereotypical assessments, not least given the venue where he delivered his speech.

Quotes about

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  • Ho messo a fuoco i miei ricordi su Schifani e ne ho parlato ai magistrati perché già prima dell'attentato all'Olimpico sapevo che c'era una trattativa Stato-mafia. Quando ho visto Schifani in televisione e con incarichi politici, mi è venuto in mente che frequentava spesso il capannone di Brancaccio a Palermo dove Filippo Graviano si fermava a fare incontri. Ed ho ipotizzato che Schifani poteva essere l'anello di congiunzione per la trattativa.
  • I focused my recollections on Schifani and spoke to the magistrates about him because, even before the attack at the Olimpico, I knew there were negotiations between the state and the Mafia. When I saw Schifani on television and in political office, it occurred to me that he used to frequent the warehouse in Brancaccio, Palermo, where Filippo Graviano would stop to hold meetings. And I surmised that Schifani might have been the link in the negotiations.
  • Apologising for the intrusion, and without wishing to spoil this fine atmosphere of bipartisan deference towards the new President of the Senate, Renato Schifani, we would like to offer a few biographical notes on the well-known statesman from Palermo who now presides where De Nicola, Paratore, Merzagora, Fanfani, Malagodi and Spadolini once sat. He is not a namesake of the man who insulted Rita Borsellino and Maria Falcone ("they make political use of their surname", sic) because they had protested when Berlusconi described magistrates as “mentally disturbed, anthropologically alien to the rest of the human race”: it is indeed him. He is not a namesake of the author of the unconstitutional ruling which, in 2003, granted impunity to the five highest offices of state, particularly one of them—namely Berlusconi—and verbally attacked Scalfaro in the Senate because he dared to dissent: it is still him.
  • It is clear that if the political climate leads, shall we say, to a thaw in relations between the opposition and the new majority, Schifani has had friendships with mafia figures... I do not write that Schifani has had friendships with mafia figures because neither the right nor the left wants it, and what do I have to do with the right or the left? Let them take whatever political stance they wish, but I have to be a journalist. I have to report it; Lirio Abbate reported it in the book he wrote with Gomez, and he is rightly celebrated as a heroic journalist threatened by the Mafia. So, either they have the courage to say that Lirio Abbate is a scoundrel, a liar, or they have the courage to take note of what he writes about the second-highest office in the state, and simply ask the second-highest office in the state to explain those relationships with those gentlemen who were subsequently convicted of mafia involvement; instead, we, unfortunately, are simply following the political climate. If there were a clash, some would say: ‘Oh well, it suits the left, so I’ll write it.’ Today, when not even the left wants to hear about certain things, nobody talks about them anymore: it’s a tragedy.
  • It is very instructive when the highest offices of state are filled, because the newspapers publish all the names of the figures who have held that office in the history of the Republic, and one realises – because it slips our minds when we see certain faces – that we once had De Gasperi, Einaudi, De Nicola, Merzagora, Parri, Pertini, Nenni... I don’t know, we could make a long list – Fanfani – I mean, you see the whole line-up, then you arrive and see Schifani. There’s an element of originality: the second-highest office in the state, Schifani. [...]
No, I wonder who’ll be next. In this downward spiral – I mean – after that there's probably just mould, the earthworm as a credible form of life. [...] Penicillin is derived from mould, so that was a bad example.
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