Mani Pulite

Mani Pulite, or known as 'Operation Clean Hands', was a nationwide political scandal that led to the downfall of the First Italian Republic(from 1948 to 1994), and led to the demise of many prominent Italian parties. With the arrest of Mario Chiesa, a member of the Italian Socialist party, it saw the beginning of the Mani Pulite judicial investigation in Milan, with subsequent investigations into other politicians and figures.

The scandal involved six former prime ministers, and as many as 5,000 public figures fell under suspicion. At some point, more than half of the Italian parliament were indicted.

Many referred to the corrupt system uncovered as Tangentopoli. The term derives from Italian tangente, which means “kickback”, and Greek polis meaning “city. This refers to kickbacks given for public works contracts, it is thus sometimes translated as “Bribesville” or “Kickback City”.

The start of the scandal began in 1992 with the arrest of Mario Chiesa, manager of a public hospice and member of the Italian Socialist Party(PSI). Mario Chiesa was charged with accepting a bribe from a Milan cleaning firm, with the investigation conducted by Antonio Di Pietro, the judge who would become most associated with the investigation.

The PSI attempted to distanced themselves from Chiesa, with party leader Bettino Craxi calling him mariuolo, translated to “scoundrel”, of an otherwise clean party. Upset over this treatment by the PSI, Chiesa began willing to give information about scandals and corruption that implicated them. This resulted in a series of investigations that exposed the corrupt political system of Italy, particularly in Milan.