Post 124. Who needs a Dictatorship in a Mafia Democracy?

from Beeppe er' Grillo-:

WHO NEEDS A DICTATORSHIP
IN A MAFIA DEMOCRACY ?

Text:
"Good day to you all. Let’s use the “Passaparola” of this holiday period to be a bit shorter than usual and to sort out a few issues that are outstanding. These are things that often have been coming out of the questions you have been asking, that are in your blog posts and your requests for explanations.
What I want to talk to you about today is the Mondadori affair, because the verdict is soon to be issued – we don’t yet know whether this will come before or after the holidays – it is an event that could put a lid on the famous “guerra di Segrate” {Segrate war}, the war that , between 1989 and 1990 saw De Benedetti against Berlusconi in the battle for the ownership of Mondadori. Some of you will remember how it started off. I will give a brief summary for you.

The theft of Mondadori-:

In 1989, Berlusconi bought a small fraction of the Mondadori shares. The mandate that he gave himself and that even Craxi gave him after the occupation of all the private TV stations was that of also getting his hands on the biggest Italian publishing group that, at that time published Repubblica, Espresso, Epoca, Panorama, and about 15 local newspapers, the newspapers of the Finegil Group and then the whole book division, because it was a Group in which the freedom of the press was something serious and thus it was a journalistic and editorial Group that went nitpicking in the “CAF” (the Craxi-Andreotti-Forlani axis) and that consequently, Craxi wanted to bring to heal, as he had done with the commercial TV stations. Berlusconi did not have the hope of 100% occupation of Mondadori and nor did he hope to get a majority shareholding, because the Mondadori heirs, the Arnoldo heirs, the Mondadori Formenton family had already given a written agreement to hand over to De Benedetti the majority shareholding of those packets of shares before 1990 and thus Berlusconi would only have been able to have a minority shareholding. But he didn’t lose heart and with his usual persuasive arts, (to use a euphemism) he convinced the Mondadori heirs to give a written promise to himself for just what they had promised in writing to De Benedetti. A dispute. It was decided by the two parties to the litigation to entrust the matter to arbitration, that is, an alternative dispute resolution. The three arbiters, of whom one was chosen by one side, one by the other side and the third chosen by the Tribunal, the Chair of the arbitral tribunal, issued the famous “Lodo Mondadori” and found in favour of De Benedetti and so he once more gained ownership of the publishing house. At that point, Berlusconi turned the tables upside down and took everything to the Civil Section of the Court of Appeal in Rome. It was asked to uphold or overturn the “Lodo” and the person called to deal with this was judge Vittorio Metta who was a friend of Cesare Previti. In a lightening verdict, the judge managed to overturn the “Lodo” and thus he extracted Mondadori from De Benedetti’s hands and hand it over to Berlusconi.
Straight after this verdict, Metta received 420 million lire in cash. This was money coming from “black” funds originating from the Fininvest Group in Switzerland. To get the money into Italy was a complex financial operation that involved all three of the Fininvest lawyers: Previti, Pacifico and Acampora.
The fact that this verdict was rather smelly comes also from the fact that in the first few days of 1990, 24 hours after retiring to the Judge’s chambers , that is the judge went into chambers and 24 hours later, he came out with a handwritten reason for his verdict that was 180 pages long: it is a sign that either he was better than Balzac and he managed to write 180 pages by hand in a single night, in fact, apologies it was 169 pages, or he had written that verdict earlier or perhaps he hadn’t even written it himself and , in effect, it seems that it was written (or suggested) by the Fininvest lawyers, who then corrupted him in exchange for that purchased verdict. Result: Berlusconi found the Mondadori Group in his hands. This shocked that part of the Christian Democrats that were suspicious of the rise of Craxi and thus, in the end, Andreotti obliged the thief to return a part of the booty. It’s a bit like obliging a thief who has stolen a car to give back the exhaust pipe, the gearbox and the steering wheel. Berlusconi and mates gave back Repubblica, L’Espresso and the Finegil newspapers, while the Mondadori Group held on to all the rest of the newspapers, including Panorama and Epoca that at that time were going really well, and then all the book division. Since 1990, Berlusconi has been the owner of a publishing house that was stolen from De Benedetti with a verdict that was purchased: this is the basic picture.
... "

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 07:42 PM in Information

Comment-:
Please remember, the little haunchback from Sardinia, Andreotti ( There was a collusion at the time, of a large number of Lawyers born, bred and educated in Sardinia, seeking election to the Parliament, or the House of Senators, by good or foul means, including the support of the Mafia ), who actually governed Italy as a Prime Minister and who, a few years ago, was proven in Court to have actually been affiliated to the Sicilian Mafia ( La PIOVRA= The Octopus ).
I can understand the rise and desperation of the Brigate Rosse and of anti-Mafia terrorism.