Bribery Methods in Italy – a Guide
Italy is very slowly, but not so surely, acknowledging that it has a corruption problem. Bribery is rife and the systems employed to pay bribes are highly ingenious too. There’s even the iBribe, would you believe? Really, Italy has known about its corruption problem for a long time but has been highly reluctant to do much about […]
Italy’s Dodgy Christian Democrats – Still Around Today
Back in the early to mid 90s one heck of a furore erupted in Italy and led to the now infamous bribesville and clean hands scandals which appeared to bring the domination of politics in Italy by the Christian Democrats to an end. Only in reality, this did not happen. Italy’s justice system has been […]
How Democracy Does not Work in Italy
Italy is, on paper at least, a constitutional democracy. Expensive general elections are regular events in Italy mainly because governments don’t last too long. While lots of votes may be cast, not all of them reflect the true desires of voters as many of them have been told who to vote for. That votes have […]
Italy’s Corruption Scandal Anniversary
This year, 2012, is the anniversary of the start of the infamous Mani Pulite corruption scandals and investigations. In case you are unaware, Mani Pulite was a nationwide investigation into the extensive problem of political corruption in Italy. In 1992 the lid was lifted on a can of worms and sparked a scandal which rocked […]
Corruption Levels in Italy 2011
Sadly, but not unsurprisingly for this Italy resident, Italy is the second most corrupt country in Europe. Only Greece beats Italy in terms of perceived corruption levels according to the 2011 edition of the 2011 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index report. Why does this not come as a surprise? Well, Italy’s papers seem to contain […]
An Arresting Vote
Alfonso Papa is an Italian politician, and magistrate (or was, he was suspended the other day), who investigators would dearly like to arrest. This honourable gentlemen is facing charges in connection with Italy’s ongoing P4 corruption network scandal. However arresting politicians in the land in which all are supposed to be equal in the eyes […]
Who is Luigi Bisignani – One of the Most Powerful Men in Italy?
In Luigi Bisignani‘s wikipedia entry it says he’s one of the most powerful men in Italy. However prior to the erruption of the P4 corruption investigations in Italy, Bisignani was virtually unknown to the Italian general public. To Italy’s movers and shakers though, former head of the Italian treasury ministry’s press office, Luigi Bisignani, was […]
Italy’s Latest Corrupt Clique – the P4 and its Mysterious Go-between
Italy is a land of cliques. Relatively small groups of powerful people wield an enormous amount of influence over what goes on in this land. The tools of choice of these unscrupulous, but exceedingly well-organised and financed, groups are often corruption and intimidation. First a little background on Italy’s two ‘Ps’ – the P2 and […]