ABSTRACT
The disgrace of the partitocrazia in the Spring of 1993 left Italy without a clear political identity. In the meantime, Antonio Di Pietro had used the trial of a financial consultant with close links to the upper reaches of the Socialist party (PSI), Sergio Cusani, to subject some of the most prominent barons of the old political class to ruthless questioning, and to call into question the bona fides of the League. Mino Martinazzoli, ignoring the fact that the Christian Democrats (DC) theoretically had a candidate in the race, gloated a few days before the poll that Milan would be the League's Stalingrad, and all but urged former DC voters to back Dalla Chiesa, Rifondazione comunista's preferred choice. While parliament had been deliberating over the new electoral law, the Mani pulite inquiries in Milan, Naples and Rome had uncovered evidence of political wrongdoing that dwarfed anything previously revealed.
