Renato Schifani
Renato Maria Giuseppe Schifani is an Italian politician who has served as the president of Sicily since 13 October 2022. Schifani was Silvio Berlusconi's chief whip and was a prominent member of the Senate of the Republic from 1996 to 2022. From 29 April 2008 to 14 March 2013, he was the president of the Senate of the Republic.
Initially a member of Christian Democracy, the ruling party of post-war Italy, Schifani joined Berlusconi's Forza Italia in 1995. He joined The People of Freedom when it succeeded FI as Berlusconi's party in 2009. He then joined the New Centre-Right party but left it in 2016 for the reformed Forza Italia. He won the 2022 Sicilian regional election and was elected president of the region.
During his career, Schifani has been the subject of Sicilian Mafia allegations. On at least two occasions, he had been associated with people who were convicted of Mafia offences, though Schifani has never been directly investigated or indicted for any Mafia-related matters.
Early life and education
Schifani was born in Palermo on 11 May 1950. He graduated at the University of Palermo, becoming a lawyer. Since he became a lawyer in 1976, Schifani specialized in trials at Italy's Supreme [Court of Cassation (Italy)|Supreme Court of Cassation], the major court of last resort. He also specialized in real estate regulations and became active in the debt collecting business. Filippo Mancuso, the former Italian Minister of Justice also born in Palermo, termed Schifani "the prince of debt collectors".Political career
Silvio Berlusconi's chief whip
Prior to joining Forza Italia in 1995, Schifani was an active member of Christian Democracy. In February 1995, he joined Forza Italia and became the regional manager of the party departments in Sicily. Elected in 1996 in the Altofonte−Corleone district in Sicily, he served as Silvio Berlusconi's chief whip in the Senate. During his first legislature, he was the group leader of Forza Italia in the Constitutional Affairs Commission at Palazzo Madama and was part of the Bicameral Commission for Reforms. Re-elected in 2001, he was confirmed the group leader of Forza Italia in the Senate. In 2002, Schifani was a protagonist in the attempt to secure the embedding of the provisional Article 41-bis prison regime, which is used against people imprisoned for particular crimes such as Mafia involvement, as a definitive measure in Italian law.In 2006, Schifani was re-elected, this time in the Sicily-at large constituency, and confirmed the group leader of Forza Italia. He was member of the Territory and Environment Commission. He was re-elected in 2008, when he also became president of the Senate, and in 2013. On 19 March 2013, Schifano was appointed by acclamation as the group leader of Berlusconi's new party, The People of Freedom, in the Senate. On 15 November 2013, resigned as group leader of the PdL in the Senate. On 16 November 2013, he joined the New Centre-Right, of which on 5 December he became president of the promoting committee on 5 December 2013 and subsequently group leader of the Popular Area group in the Senate, which included NCD and the Union of the Centre. On 19 July 2016, Schifani resigned as group leader of Popular Area group. On 4 August 2016, he joined the new Forza Italia, which had been established as the successor of the PdL in 2013, and thanked Berlusconi for welcoming him back. In 2018, he was re-elected senator and assigned as an effective member of the Constitutional Affairs Commission. He was also a member of the RAI Supervision Commission, the Bicameral Commission on the Banking System, and the Senate Rules Committee. In 2022, he did not seek re-election and instead ran for the presidency of Sicily.
2004 immunity law
Schifani and Antonio Maccanico, senator of The Olive Tree, gave their name to a bill aimed at granting immunity to the top five representatives of the state, including the then Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was the only one to not face trial. After extensive revisions of the text of the law by the Senate, Maccanico withdraw his name from the project. The lodo Schifani decree was then approved in June 2003 by the Italian Parliament guaranteeing immunity to Silvio Berlusconi. The law was subsequently declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court on 13 January 2004.Similar provisions were included in the lodo Alfano, granting immunity to the top four representatives of the state, including Berlusconi and the same Schifani as speaker of the Senate. After being granted immunity, Schifani sued his critics including journalists and writers, such as Marco Travaglio and Antonio Tabucchi, for slander, claiming €1.3 million from Tabucchi during the AnnoZero television programme on 5 February 2009. The lodo Alfano was declared anti-constitutional in October 2009. In the 2019, the Supreme Court of Cassation rejected Schifani's slander damages against Travaglio and Tabucchi, describing their criticism as within the right of critique.
President of the Senate
After a snap election brought back Berlusconi to power, Schifani was elected as president of the Senate on 29 April 2008. He received 178 out of 319 votes. Schifani held the position until March 2013.Alleged Mafia connections
In 1979, Schifani founded and became managing director of the firm Siculabrokers. Enrico La Loggia, Benny D'Agostino, Giuseppe Lombardo, and Antonino Mandalà were among its shareholders. D'Agostino is an entrepreneur convicted for Sicilian Mafia association, while Mandalà was convicted for Mafia association and was indicated by the Court of Palermo as the Mafia boss of Villabate. Lombardo was chairman and member of the board of Satris, a credit recovery agency whose shareholders were Ignazio and Nino Salvo, well known businessmen and Mafiosi of the Salemi family who had been arrested by prosecutor Giovanni Falcone in 1984.According to the pentito Francesco Campanella, Mandalà and La Loggia in the 1990s agreed on the master plan for the shopping centre they wanted to develop in the town of Villabate, which aroused the interests of politicians and the Mafia. Schifani, La Loggia, and the civil engineer Guzzaro would share the consulting fees for drawing up the master plan. The master plan of the town of Villabate was designed under specific instruction of Mandalà and his son, who was responsible for the logistics to keep the fugitive Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano at large. They conspired with the local Mafia families and politicians to skim from the public contracts. In 1992, Schifani, Antonio Mangano, and Antonino Garofalo founded GMS, another credit recovery agency. Schifani's partner Garofalo was charged with usury and extortion in 1997. Schifani was not mentioned in the police investigation.