After the summer of 1994, during a lunch at the Quirinale, the then Head of State, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, invited Cardinal Camillo Ruini to “help him bring down” the first centre-right government led by Silvio Berlusconi. It was the president of the Italian Episcopal Conference himself from 7 March 1991 to 7 March 2007, who confirmed the circumstance in an interview published by Corriere della Sera.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano and Monsignor Jean-Louis Tauran also took part in that lunch: “Our decision to oppose what appeared to us to be a maneuver, beyond Scalfaro’s undoubted good faith, was unanimous. And to think that Scalfaro was he was a great friend to me”, was the memory of Ruini, whose words, needless to say, provoked an indignant reaction from Forza Italia.
“The truths of recent history find significant and sensational confirmation – stated the president of the senators of Forza Italia, Maurizio Gasparri -. Ruini and the other leaders of the church obviously did not make themselves available to what appeared to be a real conspiracy in the Palace. But the there was a conspiracy. Berlusconi has denounced it for years. Many have denied it, but today Ruini’s testimony confirms that what we know well, and what many books have already testified, is true then on television he imposed, with the famous proclamation: ‘I’m not for it’, not to delve into the disturbing story of the huge amount of money he allegedly received from the secret services. And perhaps Scalfaro wanted to bring down the Berlusconi government also to make himself heard safer than an affair that sooner or later would have exploded. Scalfaro remains one of the disturbing figures in the life of the Republic and those who conspired with him against the legitimate government expressed by the Italians will forever be haunted by a very serious guilt”.
“Time is a gentleman and today it has taken on the task of delivering another piece of history regarding the four coups d’état of which Silvio Berlusconi was the victim and has always talked about – commented the vice-president of the Chamber Giorgio Mulè -. The veil has fallen on another Italian hypocrisy. This is yet another proof of that fury which, from the palaces of Italian and international politics to those of politicized justice, saw Silvio Berlusconi as a target for over 25 years.” “Ruini’s – added the deputy and national deputy secretary of Forza Italia, Deborah Bergamini – is an important testimony, because it confirms one of the repeated machinations that were set in motion over the years against the Berlusconi-led governments, in an attempt to trample and subvert a mandate legitimately entrusted by voters to the centre-right. The fact that 30 years have passed does not detract from the importance: these elements which are gradually coming together pose serious historical and political responsibilities, and the emergence of pages so far is certainly a good thing. shrouded in the fog of many self-interested denials and self-interested indifference”.
For Stefania Craxi, senator of Forza Italia and president of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Commission at Palazzo Madama, the interview with Ruini “represents a historical document of extraordinary importance. A testimony that combines the negative judgment on the Tangentopoli season with the maneuvers that followed it , inspired primarily by Scalfaro and aimed at bringing down the first Berlusconi government which had disrupted the left’s victory plans. The one added by Cardinal Ruini is another important piece in the historical mosaic that is slowly coming together, destined to overturn the consolidated vulgate. “.