Piersanti Mattarella

Piersanti Mattarella (Italian pronunciation: [ˌpjɛrˈsanti mattaˈrɛlla]; 24 May 1935 – 6 January 1980) was an Italian politician who was assassinated by the Mafia while he held the position of President of the Regional Government of Sicily. A member of the Christian Democracy, he was the older brother of Sergio Mattarella, who has been president of Italy since 2015.

Mattarella was born in Castellammare del Golfo, in the province of Trapani, Sicily. He was the son of Bernardo Mattarella, a member of Christian Democracy (DC), and a leading political boss in Sicily in the 1950s. The power network his father had created benefited his initial political career.

He received a Catholic-oriented education by the Jesuits. In 1960, he became a national leader of Azione Cattolica, and subsequently became an important regional member of DC. Inspired by the politics of Giorgio La Pira, he adhered to the more progressive approach of national leader Aldo Moro. In 1967, he became a deputy to the Regional Parliament of Sicily, a position he held until 1978, when he was elected President of Sicily.

In 1958, he returned to Sicily and married Irma Chiazzese, with whom he had two children, Maria and Bernardo. In 1966, his brother Sergio married her sister Marisa, with whom he has three children, including Laura, who has been in the role of First Lady of Italy since Sergio's election as president in 2015; Marisa died in 2012.

Two years later, on 6 January 1980, he was killed by the Mafia in Palermo. Initially believed to be an act of neo-fascist terrorism, his assassination was spurred by his strong commitment against the relationships of numerous Sicilian politicians (mostly members of DC itself) with the Mafia. While in office, Mattarella had decided to launch a moral renewal of the Sicilian Christian Democracy. He wanted to clean up the government's public contracts racket that benefited Cosa Nostra, passing a law enforcing the same building standards used in the rest of Italy, thereby making the Mafia's building schemes illegal.

Soon, Mattarella became isolated. The inspector, he had asked to conduct an investigation into the public contracts in Palermo, Raimondo Mignosi, recalled the air of intimidation at the time: "I told him to be careful because I ran the risk of ending up in a cement block, at which he replied, 'That's not true, I'll end up in cement.' To break the tension, we jokingly agreed that we would both end up in cement blocks side by side."

The Mafia used its contacts with forthcoming Sicilian Christian democratic politicians such as Salvo Lima and the Salvo cousins to complain to former prime minister Giulio Andreotti about the behaviour of Mattarella, according to Mafia turncoat (pentito) Francesco Marino Mannoia. Andreotti contacted Mafia boss Stefano Bontade to try to prevent the Mafia from killing Piersanti Mattarella. Bontade and other Mafiosi felt betrayed by Mattarella, who used to be responsive to their interests (his father Bernardo Mattarella was rumoured to be associated with the Mafia).

Andreotti's attempt failed. After the murder of Mattarella, Andreotti again contacted Bontade and Salvatore Inzerillo to try to straighten things out. Andreotti and Lima allegedly arrived at the meeting in a bullet-proof Alfa Romeo, belonging to the Salvo cousins. He had come to protest the killing. However, according to Marino Mannoia, Bontade told Andreotti: "We are in charge in Sicily and, unless you want the whole DC cancelled out, you do as we say." When Andreotti's aide Franco Evangelisti asked Lima about what had happened, Lima replied: "When agreements are struck, they have to be kept".