Giuseppe Alessi
Giuseppe Alessi was an Italian politician. From 1968 to 1973 he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and from 1963 to 1968 a member of the Senate. From 1947 to 1949 he was also President of Sicily.
Biography
Alessi was born in San Cataldo, Caltanissetta, Sicily. He was one of the founding members of the Christian Democratic party on the island and became the first elected President of the Regional Government of Sicily. He was a member of the reform wing of the DC. From 1968-73, he was a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.Journalist Alexander Stille interviewed Alessi in the 1990s and asked him about the relations between the Christian Democrats and the Mafia: "It happened this way. Some people in the Christian Democratic Party approached the separatists, whose backbone were these Mafia bosses and invited them to join the national parties... he Mafiosi were looking for the road to power, to secure the support they needed for their economic affairs. If the mayor was Republican, they became Republican, if he was Socialist, they were Socialist, if he was Christian Democrat they became Christian Democrat." Alessi defended them as a necessary evil of the Cold War period: ''"The Christian Democrats subordinated their ideals for a supreme interest of national importance: saving the democratic state. The victory of Communism would have meant Italy ended up behind the Iron Curtain."''