VENICE – Ten years have passed since arrests in the Mose and Giancarlo Galan scandalat the time the most powerful man in the Veneto, is another person: «I live as a guest of my brother on the Berici hills, I don’t have any money – he complains, in a meeting that took place in a restaurant in the center of Padua – I’m moving on pills to keep all health ailments under control…”.
The risk of appearing to be looking for compassion is always around the corner, but it must not have been easy to suddenly fall from Olympus for a politician who, in his heyday, described himself in a book with the eloquent title: “The North East It’s me”. And the bad moments spent, the depression, the thought of ending it are certainly not an invention. But now he seems to be better, thanks also to a new partner and his newfound friends from high school, who didn’t leave him alone. The former Doge is trying to adapt to the new phase, in which memories of the past alternate (“The years at Publitalia were the best: what a beautiful life!”) and regrets (“I was wrong not to listen to the advice of the people who they loved me”), with a projection into the future that is certainly not optimistic: “I’m 68 years old, what prospects do I have left?”.
But the smile is that of the past, as is the obstinacy with which he claims everything he has done, perhaps without even a bit of self-criticism. Even the sharp jokes are those of Galan who everyone has known and revered, and who now has a great desire to let off steam, to tell the truth about himself, to remove a few pebbles from his shoes. In particular towards those who, after having flattered him when he was up there at the top, he has now disappeared; or worse yet, who he believes has betrayed him.
In October 2014, just over two months after ending up in the infirmary of the Opera prison in Milan, accused of corruption, Galan agreed to a plea deal of two years and ten months of imprisonment, with the confiscation of 2.6 million euros (thus losing his beloved Villa Rodella, on the Euganean hills). The prosecutor’s office accused him of having received a salary of around one million a year from the then president of the Venezia Nuova Consortium, Giovanni Mazzacurati. The powerful governor of Veneto, at the time a leading exponent of Forza Italia, Berlusconi’s trusted man, “surrendered” almost immediately, although he forcefully rejected all accusations, denied from the first minute that he had ever dealt with the MOSE and assured never having asked for or received that money.
After the arrest of Baita and Mazzacurati, did you understand that it would end for you too?
“I was calm, I had never been interested in the MOSE, I had nothing to fear.”
Why did you decide to plea bargain, rather than defend yourself if you say you are innocent?
«I was confused, I wasn’t able to think: I ended up in prison and my only concern was to get out as soon as possible to see my daughter again. It was the lawyer Niccolò Ghedini (who passed away in August 2022, ed.) who advised me to take a plea deal, telling me that, once the criminal front was settled, there would be no further problems. Instead, the Court of Auditors seized everything from me. And, after the plea deal, I was abandoned. Ghedini demonstrated a cynicism that I never expected. I experienced it as a betrayal… My wife was right, who advised me to change lawyers, but I didn’t have the money to pay for it.”
Would you make a different choice today?
«I would defend myself at trial, naming the names of those who, in Rome, for Forza Italia, were in charge of the MOSE. I would tell you about the time I lied to help Silvio Berlusconi, claiming to have witnessed a conversation with the then Egyptian president Mubarak, during which he talked about a niece called Ruby: a conversation that never took place. With the plea deal they got me not to speak, to defend the establishment.”
Several times during the investigation he said he wanted to talk. Why didn’t she do it?
“My lawyers told me that they had told the prosecutor about my availability to be questioned, but I was never called.”
The prosecutor’s office claims that it never received any request for interrogation from Galan.
«If it were true, it would be confirmation of the fact that they didn’t want me to talk…»
Did you also feel abandoned by Berlusconi?
«The last time I saw Berlusconi dates back to 2012: subsequently I was always prevented from contacting him. My letters were opened, his “magic circle” acted as a filter, I couldn’t hear him on the phone, meet him. But I have less resentment towards Berlusconi: he helped me by paying my wife 100 thousand euros, as an easy loan, then another 100 thousand and registered a car in her name. Then he disappeared. Ghedini told me that he could no longer help me because he had no money… Ghedini was the absolute leader of the party: he decided everything, he was the custodian of all the secrets. I remember that on 30 December 2012, at the end of a dinner, Berlusconi asked me the names to nominate for Parliament: I wrote them to him, but no one ended up on the list, because Ghedini deleted them to put his men in place. I didn’t go to the funeral of either of them and it’s not difficult to understand why.”
You continue to deny having been paid by Mazzacurati and deny having money hidden abroad: it is not just a way to prevent it from ending up under seizure on the basis of the sentence with which the Court of Auditors condemned you to compensate 5 million euros to the Region?
«I have never taken a euro from Mazzacurati, there is no treasure, I have no hidden money. What should I wait to enjoy them? Living the good life in the cemetery?”
According to a ruling by the investigating judge of Padua, the million euros seized in an account in Croatia in the name of his accountant, Paolo Venuti, belongs to Giancarlo Galan, who confirmed this circumstance to his wife in an intercepted conversation.
«That money belongs to Venuti: he told his wife that it was my money because he was separating and he didn’t want her to claim it… I’ve had a lot of money, but not from Mazzacurati. And I spent it all, many on electoral campaigns. I received mountains of gifts: truckloads of them arrived at my house.”
Are you referring to the financing that you admitted to having received over the years from over one hundred entrepreneurs? Would you continue to get financed illicitly today?
«There were more than a hundred entrepreneurs, maybe three hundred… I couldn’t do it differently: politics, electoral campaigns cost a lot. I have never asked entrepreneurs for anything in return. The only alternative is to return to public financing of parties (abolished in the Tangentopoli years, ed.) which, however, no one has the courage to propose. After the MOSE, nothing has changed: everything continues as before.”
In addition to Mazzacurati, those accusing her of having taken the money for the MOSE were Piergiorgio Baita, director of Mantovani at the time, and Claudia Minutillo who was her trusted secretary in the Region.
«They all lied. Mazzacurati put a lot of money in his pocket. Minutillo and Baita have not forgiven me for not having supported the candidacy for president of Renato Chisso (former regional councilor, also involved in the Mose scandal, ed.) and for not having entrusted the works of the Pedemontana to the Mantovani company. Minutillo was distanced from me when I discovered where the money she used to buy luxurious clothes came from. I have my own theory on why the Mose system, after many years without problems, ended up under investigation: it all happened when Baita decided to win contracts in Milan, “invading” the territory of Impregilo which, years earlier, had briefly ceded to Mantovani his share of the Venezia Nuova Consortium: in my opinion it was seen as a violation of an agreement.”
Don’t you have anything to blame yourself for?
«I was an idiot for trusting my collaborators, for not listening to those who warned me. I didn’t notice anything. But it’s not true that I was in over my head: I realized late the power I had.”
Do you miss politics?
“I do not care anymore”.
Have you maintained contact with Forza Italia?
«Everyone has disappeared, apart from a few friends with whom I continue to speak: I’m still waiting for a call from Tajani…»
And with President Luca Zaia, who was his deputy in the Region?
«Like myself, he knew nothing about the MOSE, because the Region was not in charge of it. I never heard from him again. I do not forgive him for having made the Region constitute a civil party against me: I did not do so on the occasion of the Tangentopoli in the 1990s. As for the Pedemontana, it is my work.”
In saying goodbye, before getting into the car to return to the Berici hills, he announces a lunch date for the following day: «I was invited by a former collaborator of mine at Publitalia: today he is the number one of a large company. He’s offering, I don’t have any money.”
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