Luciano Violante
Encyclopedia
Luciano Violante is an Italian judge and politician, Member of Parliament
since 1979. He is particularly interested in questions of justice, the struggle against the Mafia
and institutional reform.
(Ethiopia
). His father, a journalist and Communist, was forced to emigrate to Ethiopia by the fascist regime. His family was interned by the British in a concentration camp, where Violante was born and remained until 1943.
Graduated in jurisprudence
at University of Bari
in 1963, he joined the magistrature in 1966 and became professor of public law
at University of Turin
in 1970. Later he held the position of full professor at University of Camerino
. He indicted Edgardo Sogno
in 1974 for having planned the Golpe bianco, but had to released him in 1978, declaring it impossible to prosecute him. From 1977 to 1979 he worked in the legislative office of the Ministry of Justice, primarily concerned with the struggle against terrorism
. He was named investigative magistrate in Turin
in 1979. In 1983 he became a professor of legal institutions and penal procedure and resigned from the magistrature.
Violante became a member of the Italian Communist Party
(PCI) in 1979 and was immediately elected
to the Parliament. From 1980 to 1987 he was the PCI spokesman for legal policy. He then became the vice-president of the PCI parliamentary group. Following the split of the PCI, he entered in 1991 the Democratic Party of the Left
(PDS). He was a member of the Inquiry into the Aldo Moro
case, of the Antimafia Commission
, the parliamentary committee for the security services, the commission for the reform of the penal code, the Justice Commission and the Council for the Regulation of the House of Deputies.
Violante was President of the Antimafia Commission
from September 1992 until March 1994. Under his leadership the Commission investigated the relations between the Mafia
and politics, the so-called terzo livello (third level) of the Mafia
. Important pentiti
like Tommasso Buscetta, Antonio Calderone and Gaspare Mutolo
gave testimonies about links of the Mafia with Christian Democrat
politician Salvo Lima, the so-called "proconsul
" of former Prime Minister
Giulio Andreotti
in Sicily.
On November 16, 1992 Tommaso Buscetta
testified before the Antimafia Commission
about the links between Cosa Nostra and Salvo Lima and Giulio Andreotti
. He indicated Salvo Lima as the contact of the Mafia in Italian politics. "Salvo Lima was, in fact, the politician to whom Cosa Nostra turned most often to resolve problems for the organisation whose solution lay in Rome," Buscetta testified.
Violante was elected president of the Chamber of Deputies
on May 10, 1996 and remained in office until May 29, 2001. Re-elected at the 2001 election
, he was named president of the Olive Tree
-Democrats of the Left parliamentary group. Confirmed in his functions during the April 2006 election
, he is currently the president of the Commission relative to constitutional matters.
Beside books on law and penal procedure, he is the author of two books of interviews about the Mafia: La mafia dell'eroina, Editori Riuniti (1987) and I corleonesi, l'Unità (1993). He has also published: Il piccone e la quercia, Edizioni Associate (1992); Non è la piovra, Einaudi (1995) and a poem: Cantata per i bambini morti di mafia, Bollati Boringhieri (1995). He is editor of: Dizionario delle istituzioni e dei diritti del cittadino, Editori Riuniti (1996) and edited three reports on the Mafia: Mafie e antimafia - Rapporto 1996; Mafia e società italiana - Rapporto 1997 and I soldi della mafia - Rapporto 1998, Laterza. He also edited two volumes of the "Annali della Storia d'Italia": La criminalità, 1997, and Legge Diritto Giustizia. In 1998 he published L'Italia dopo il 1999. La sfida per la stabilità, Mondadori (1998).
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
since 1979. He is particularly interested in questions of justice, the struggle against the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
and institutional reform.
Biography
Violante was born in Dire DauaDire Dawa
Dire Dawa is one of two chartered cities in Ethiopia . This chartered city is divided administratively into two woredas, the city proper and the non-urban woreda of Gurgura....
(Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
). His father, a journalist and Communist, was forced to emigrate to Ethiopia by the fascist regime. His family was interned by the British in a concentration camp, where Violante was born and remained until 1943.
Graduated in jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
at University of Bari
University of Bari
The University of Bari is a university located in Bari, Italy. It was founded in 1925 and is organized in 12 Faculties.-Organization:These are the 13 faculties in which the university is divided into:* Faculty of Agricultural Science...
in 1963, he joined the magistrature in 1966 and became professor of public law
Public law
Public law is a theory of law governing the relationship between individuals and the state. Under this theory, constitutional law, administrative law and criminal law are sub-divisions of public law...
at University of Turin
University of Turin
The University of Turin is a university in the city of Turin in the Piedmont region of north-western Italy...
in 1970. Later he held the position of full professor at University of Camerino
University of Camerino
The University of Camerino is a university located in Camerino, Italy. It claims to have been founded in 1336, was officially recognized by the Pope in 1727, and is organized into five faculties.-History:...
. He indicted Edgardo Sogno
Edgardo Sogno
Edgardo Sogno Rata del Vallino was an Italian diplomat, partisan and political figure. He was born in an aristocratic family from Piedmont.- Under Fascism :...
in 1974 for having planned the Golpe bianco, but had to released him in 1978, declaring it impossible to prosecute him. From 1977 to 1979 he worked in the legislative office of the Ministry of Justice, primarily concerned with the struggle against terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
. He was named investigative magistrate in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
in 1979. In 1983 he became a professor of legal institutions and penal procedure and resigned from the magistrature.
Violante became a member of the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
(PCI) in 1979 and was immediately elected
Italian general election, 1979
The Italian election of 1979 was held on June 3. The eighth Parliament of republican Italy was selected. This election was called just a week before the European vote: the lack of matching between the two elections caused much controversy for wasting public money.Terroristic attacks by the Red...
to the Parliament. From 1980 to 1987 he was the PCI spokesman for legal policy. He then became the vice-president of the PCI parliamentary group. Following the split of the PCI, he entered in 1991 the Democratic Party of the Left
Democratic Party of the Left
The Democratic Party of the Left was a post-communist, democratic socialist political party in Italy.-History:...
(PDS). He was a member of the Inquiry into the Aldo Moro
Aldo Moro
Aldo Moro was an Italian politician and the 39th Prime Minister of Italy, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. He was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Ministers, holding power for a combined total of more than six years....
case, of the Antimafia Commission
Antimafia Commission
The Italian Antimafia Commission is a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament, composed of members from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate . The Antimafia Commission is a commission of inquiry into, initially, the “phenomenon of the Mafia”...
, the parliamentary committee for the security services, the commission for the reform of the penal code, the Justice Commission and the Council for the Regulation of the House of Deputies.
Violante was President of the Antimafia Commission
Antimafia Commission
The Italian Antimafia Commission is a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament, composed of members from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate . The Antimafia Commission is a commission of inquiry into, initially, the “phenomenon of the Mafia”...
from September 1992 until March 1994. Under his leadership the Commission investigated the relations between the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
and politics, the so-called terzo livello (third level) of the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
. Important pentiti
Pentito
Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...
like Tommasso Buscetta, Antonio Calderone and Gaspare Mutolo
Gaspare Mutolo
Gaspare Mutolo is a Sicilian mafioso, also known as "Asparino". In 1992 he became a pentito . He was the first mafioso who spoke about the connections between Cosa Nostra and Italian politicians...
gave testimonies about links of the Mafia with Christian Democrat
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
politician Salvo Lima, the so-called "proconsul
Proconsul
A proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for a person from one country ruling another country or bluntly interfering in another country's internal affairs.-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a...
" of former Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
in Sicily.
On November 16, 1992 Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the first important one breaking omertà...
testified before the Antimafia Commission
Antimafia Commission
The Italian Antimafia Commission is a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament, composed of members from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate . The Antimafia Commission is a commission of inquiry into, initially, the “phenomenon of the Mafia”...
about the links between Cosa Nostra and Salvo Lima and Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
. He indicated Salvo Lima as the contact of the Mafia in Italian politics. "Salvo Lima was, in fact, the politician to whom Cosa Nostra turned most often to resolve problems for the organisation whose solution lay in Rome," Buscetta testified.
Violante was elected president of the Chamber of Deputies
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
on May 10, 1996 and remained in office until May 29, 2001. Re-elected at the 2001 election
Italian general election, 2001
A national general election was held in Italy on May 13, 2001 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The 14th Parliament of the Italian republic was chosen....
, he was named president of the Olive Tree
Olive Tree
The Olive Tree was a denomination used for several successive centre-left Italian political coalitions from 1995 to 2007.The historical leader and ideologue of these coalitions was Romano Prodi, Professor of Economics and former leftist Christian Democrat, who invented the name and the symbol of...
-Democrats of the Left parliamentary group. Confirmed in his functions during the April 2006 election
Italian general election, 2006
In the Italian general election, 2006 for the renewal of the two Chambers of the Parliament of Italy held on April 9 and April 10, 2006 the incumbent prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the center-right House of Freedoms, was narrowly defeated by Romano Prodi, leader of the center-left The...
, he is currently the president of the Commission relative to constitutional matters.
Beside books on law and penal procedure, he is the author of two books of interviews about the Mafia: La mafia dell'eroina, Editori Riuniti (1987) and I corleonesi, l'Unità (1993). He has also published: Il piccone e la quercia, Edizioni Associate (1992); Non è la piovra, Einaudi (1995) and a poem: Cantata per i bambini morti di mafia, Bollati Boringhieri (1995). He is editor of: Dizionario delle istituzioni e dei diritti del cittadino, Editori Riuniti (1996) and edited three reports on the Mafia: Mafie e antimafia - Rapporto 1996; Mafia e società italiana - Rapporto 1997 and I soldi della mafia - Rapporto 1998, Laterza. He also edited two volumes of the "Annali della Storia d'Italia": La criminalità, 1997, and Legge Diritto Giustizia. In 1998 he published L'Italia dopo il 1999. La sfida per la stabilità, Mondadori (1998).
External links
- Biography in English Official site Verbali della Commissione Parlamentare Antimafia XI legislatura, presidenza: Luciano Violante