Yesterday 30 years ago saw the beginning of Tangentopoli. On February 17, 1992, Italian judge Antonio Di Pietro had Mario Chiesa, a member of the centre-left Italian Socialist Party, arrested for accepting a bribe from a Milan cleaning firm.
This led to mani pulite, a nationwide investigation into the extensive problem of political corruption in Italy. Mani pulite brought to an end the First Republic in Italy. The Second Republic was characterised by the appointment of Silvio Berlusconi, a business tycoon, as prime minister in 1994.
The failure to mark certain historical anniversaries risks deleting essential lessons from the collective memory. Tangentopoli is one such anniversary that Europe, and we in Malta, would do well to dwell on.
Corruption has dispersed in a thousand streams. But it exists, it is more hidden, and therefore more dangerous
Today, political analysts ask whether 30 years from the mani pulite investigations, Italian and indeed European politics have been cleaned of the worst forms of corruption.
Transparency International publishes a Corruption Perception Index that ranks countries worldwide based on how corrupt their public sectors are perceived to be. The results are given on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. The 2020 index paints a grim picture of the state of corruption worldwide.
With a score of 53, Malta was one of the worst performers in the EU. Only Greece and some Balkan states performed worse than us. Moreover, in 2020, the business data platform statista.com said 28 per cent of Maltese who took part in a survey believed that corruption in Malta had increased over the previous 12 months, while 49 per cent believed the Maltese government was controlled by private interests.
While there is still no universally accepted system for measuring corruption globally, perception indices are a reliable indication of the evil alliances that pollute politics. Bribery is still commonplace in some EU countries, as evidenced by the almost continual stream of stories of skulduggery involving politicians on all sides of the political spectrum.
An unholy triangle exists between politics, business and organised crime. Malta can hardly claim it is free from the web of corruption that has engulfed some EU countries.
The president of the National Anti-Corruption Authority of Italy, Giuseppe Busia, argues that 30 years after the mani pulite investigation, corruption today is no longer a method for almost systemically financing politics.
He adds: “Corruption has dispersed in a thousand streams. But it exists, it is more hidden, and therefore more dangerous, especially in the phase of large public investments.”
Like all other EU countries served by a parliamentary democracy, Malta needs to learn how corruption erodes trust in public institutions. The country has changed in the last three decades but so have bribes.
We need to adopt new tools and preventive controls to fight corruption in politics. Above all, we need a culture of legality, because corruption feeds a sense of injustice and threatens a precious asset that we all must preserve: trust in institutions.
In his interview with the Italian news agency ANSA, Busia said he believes corruption today has taken new forms. State capture by powerful business interests is facilitated by corrupt public officials who seek to obtain benefits for themselves or their families.
Anti-corruption legislation will never be enough. What is fundamental for this country is that it boosts the culture of legality, enhances the practice of good administration, and puts in place robust checks to ensure public money only benefits citizens.