Finance police chief resigns after being exonerated

Roberto Speciale, former head of the Italian finance police, has handed in his resignation only a few days after a regional tribunal decided that his removal from office by the government had been unlawful. The judgement provoked angry comments from government representatives who might take further legal action. Speciale claims that he was removed for political reasons and now considers entering politics himself.

Speciale was sacked in June for reasons that were not transparent. Allegedly, he had made excessive use of government helicopters and was accused of embezzlement. He himself maintained that he was put under pressure from the deputy economy minister, Vincenzo Visco, to dismiss those officials in the finance police who investigated a politically sensitive takeover bid. According to wiretappings, the merger of Unipol, a cooperative close to the political left, and BNL, a major Italian bank, was secretly promoted by senior members of the current coalition. Speciale appealed against his dismissal and was vindicated when the administrative tribunal of the Lazio region decided on December 15^th  that the government had made “excessive use of its power” and infringed legal and procedural guidelines. Speciale’s lawyer noted that “nobody questions the right of the government to susbstitute the head of the finance police but this has to happen according to rules, procedures, established forms and with a reason. This affair, however, has come across as something very strange”.

After the judgement was announced, the Prodi government said it would consider an appeal but some members of the coalition regard this as wrong. Antonio Di Pietro (minister of infrastructure) who had already opposed Speciale’s dismissal in June, said that “to make a mistake is human, but that to persevere in it is diabolical”. However,  accepting the current judgement as it is would represent a substantial loss of institutional prestige to Vicenzo Visco and economy minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa. The centre-right opposition subsequently demanded the resignation of Padoa-Schioppa since he bore formal responsibility for Speciale’s sacking. It also planned to introduce a vote of no confidence against the minister in parliament.

Speciale’s dramatic decision to resign on December 17^th by writing a letter to the Italian president Giorgio Napoletano has further raised the stakes. The letter which he also released to the media displayed the full bitterness of the affair: “With my decision [to resign] I hope to put an end to a useless and shameful dispute…it is the last act as a military officer which I want to make in the interest of the state and the finance police. I do not want to work with the current government”. Prime minister Prodi angrily responded that this way of resigning is “unusual” and that Speciale had no right to hand in his resignation to the head of state since his employer is the government.

It is now being speculated that Speciale might enter Italian politics. The newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that close friends have leaked that Speciale has been considering a move into politics since the summer. According to an opinion poll, his popularity is very high making him an interesting asset for any party. The newspaper expects that if he enters the political scene, he would most probably join Alleanza Nazionale or Forza Italia.