Mani Pulite - Escalating Conflict Between Silvio Berlusconi and Antonio Di Pietro

Escalating Conflict Between Silvio Berlusconi and Antonio Di Pietro

What began then is what has been described by many as the "Berlusconi-Di Pietro battle". While Berlusconi's industries were being investigated, "inspectors" were sent from the government to the Milanese judges' office to look for formal irregularities. No irregularity were ever found, but this tactic, coupled with Berlusconi's firm grip on the information system, helped spread what is described in other environments as FUD. The battle ended without winners: on 6 December Di Pietro resigned. Two weeks later, the Berlusconi government resigned before a critical confidence vote in the Parliament, which was clearly going to be in Berlusconi's disfavour.

During 1995, many investigations were started against Antonio Di Pietro, who was years later cleared of all charges, while Silvio Berlusconi incurred other charges of corruption. It was later found that the main prosecutor of Antonio Di Pietro in these times, Fabio Salamone from Brescia, was the brother of a man that Antonio Di Pietro himself had prosecuted, and who was sentenced to 18 months of jail for various corruption charges. It took however some time before the authorities realized this and ordered Salamone to other duties even though his investigations had taken a completely different direction: Paolo Berlusconi (Silvio's brother) and Cesare Previti (former minister) were accused of a conspiracy against Di Pietro but the prosecutor who later replaced Salamone asked for their acquittance and so did the court.

After being cleared, Antonio Di Pietro started a political career, a thing he had previously excluded on the grounds that he did not want to exploit the popularity gained doing what he perceived to be just his duty. His movement is named Italia dei Valori ("Italy of values").

In 1998, Cesare Previti, former manager of Fininvest and then sitting in parliament after the Berlusconi government, avoided jailing thanks to parliament intervention, even though Berlusconi and his allies were in the opposition. Bettino Craxi accumulated several years of jailing in definitive convictions and had to escape to Tunisia, where he remained until his death on 19 January 2000.