Memories of Falcone and Borsellino

 

 

 

Antonio Ingroia

Sostituto Procuratore presso la Procura della Repubblica di Palermo.

 

Exactly ten years ago, on May 23, 1992, an awful explosion shook the motorway which goes to Palermo airport, killing the man who was the symbol of the Antimafia fight, Giovanni Falcone, his wife and his body guards. Less than two months later, on July 19, 1992, a car bomb destroyed an entire building of the city centre, killing Paolo Borsellino and his escort and tearing apart, at the same time, all hope that the Italians may have had of being able to fight the mafia.

 

Nobody could have guessed, during those terrible hours, that, in the years which followed, the most impressive results of the recent history of the anti-mafia fight would be achieved: the arrest of Toto Riina who had been in hiding for decades and of so many other bosses who operated freely in the zone; the identification and condemnation of the executors and instigators of those two and other massacres committed during the tragic years of 1992-93; the confession of so many mafiosi; the reconquest of the territory by the state, thanks to the united efforts of the police and the army; the effective application of sentences for mafiosi who were no longer treated as "bosses" in prison but effectively "isolated" from their associates still at large. In short, within a few years, the state recuperated in the eyes of honest citizens the credibility that it had lost after so many years of laxism, inertia, complaisance and cover-ups; years in which the mafia had become a real "power", capable of elaborating strategies to infiltrate the political, economic, financial and, in the end, the institutional spheres.

 

The sacrifices of Falcone and Borsellino were the price to pay, as they provoked in the nation a burst of anger which in turn led to the collective commitment by society and its institutions to fight the mafia, thus marking the beginning of an era of hope and victories.  But even this new era which seemed different and where mistakes of the past were taken on board, came to grief in the end. After too short a cycle of four years, during which the strong determination of everyone brought many successes in the fight against the mafia, came years of indifference, with retrograde steps and lack of enthusiasm.  The mafia took a lower profile and the fight against it became less and less virulent, as if it had lost all its importance and appeal.  These were years during which the mafia was lying low and licking its wounds, giving almost the impression that, after the blows it had received, it was finally defeated; whilst, on the opposite side, the magistrates and policemen were finding themselves more and more isolated, less and less protected, exactly like Falcone and Borsellino must have found themselves.

 

To talk or write about Falcone and Borsellino has never been easy. But it has become even more difficult in the present atmosphere of general indifference. Yet for someone as myself who has been so closely associated with them, it is a heartfelt duty to do so. Teachers, mentors and friends they have been for many Palermitan magistrates, but for me, they were more, if this is possible: I learnt the rudiments of my job as an investigative magistrate working at their side, listening and treasuring their advice. This is why I find words totally inadequate.   

 

I remember with nostalgia the days when, as a young trainee, full of curiosity and anxiety, I approached Falcone who was already (in 1987) one of the most prestigious magistrates in Italy. I shall never forget either the cordiality with which Borsellino welcomed me when I was appointed to his Procura (Public Prosecutor's Office) in Marsala, a man of great simplicity who immediately won me over and suscitated in me, like in all his colleagues and young magistrates who worked with him, the greatest enthusiasm. In a matter of months, he succeeded to infuse in me the same passion for justice and deep dislike for all forms of abuse of power which had helped him to transform Marsala in the eyes of the nation into a point of reference, a model for the anti-mafia fight.

 

We were inspired by the lessons of Borsellino and Falcone but we also modelled ourselves on their ways of being, above all on their relentless determination to arrive at the truth even when (and this happened often in their careers) their moral stance had created around them, in the cushy court rooms, diffidence, envy, malicious gossip and permanent isolation.

 

But their real revolutionary contribution was of a methodological nature: the innovative methods which they introduced in their investigations into the mafia. They were the first to investigate bank accounts, trying to reconstruct the financial activities of the mafia and the movements of 'dirty' money; they were also the first to use the organisational model of the 'pool', i.e. a homogeneous group of magistrates each in charge of a specific task and aware of the risks involved. They were the first to understand, adapting their work accordingly, that Cosa Nostra was above all a criminal organisation which had to be analysed and fought as such.

 

Falcone and Borsellino were not only extraordinary teachers but they also gave us great lessons in living. Great childhood friends - they had grown up together in a popular district of Palermo - they both loved their city intensely and their relationship was based not only on high professional respect for each other but also on a sincere friendship in which there was no space for personal rivalries. They were in fact essentially complementary: Giovanni Falcone was the 'strategic mind' of the pool and Paolo Borsellino its 'organising mind'.

 

Paolo Borsellino had a rare gift for story-telling and a great sense of humour; he loved to recount endless anecdotes drawn from his rich professional experience which helped us to understand how difficult but important, it is to create a good rapport with the mafiosi you are interrogating. He was extremely modest and never liked to 'lecture'. His teaching came spontaneously from his personal experience, not from books or theories. The Paolo Borsellino whom I accompanied during the last months of his life, after the loss of his friend Giovanni Falcone, was a changed man: all of a sudden he felt tired and weary but in a great hurry to do his work, as if driven by the premonition of his own death.

 

If after the Capaci bombing, he managed to keep the investigations going, after his own murder, we were all tempted to give up, particularly those of us who had been very close to him and Falcone. If we managed to overcome this feeling and continue, with our own limitations, the work they had not had the time to complete, it was because of two things. First, the rage that all the Italians felt, asking forcefully the state to honour the sacrifices which Falcone and Borsellino had made, by renewing its commitment to the Antimafia fight, thus succeeding in provoking an unprecedented return to legality. But the determining elements for us were, in the last analysis, the heritage they had left us, their ethical position and their last words which explained that their own commitment had followed the murder by the mafia of one of their own colleagues-friend. So, for those who had been closely associated with Giovanni and Paolo, it is a duty to testify, to keep their memory alive by continuing their work. Moreover, in these recent years of public disinterest, it seems as if a great desire to forget prevails helped by the passing of time (which apparently is a good healer) and the temptation of indifference returns while the mafia reorganises and grows strong again. This is why today, ten years after the tragedy, it is more important than ever, for the future of democracy in Italy to keep alive the memory of past events and of great men.

 

Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone did not like rhetorical speeches. What was much more important for them, was that each of us in our everyday lives should take action. This is why every opportunity of commemorating them, as we are doing today, must be transformed, lest it should be useless, into an opportunity for action: to 'resist', especially in hard times, but above all to act. This is what Falcone and Borsellino would have tried to do in the difficult times in which we are living.