An August without news turned into a media storm: from the initial silence to the first pages, the discovery of hunger rents for politicians and powerful changed the common language and unmasked millionaire privileges paid with the money of retirees.
Vittorio Feltri remembered him last week in the newspaper. The August 17th of thirty years ago the scandal of Rent. To tell the truth, at the beginning it was a not very noisy outbreak, that most of the other newspapers ignored. However, with the passing of the days and with the accumulation of cases that aroused indignation in public opinion, in the end the investigation even imposed itself in the evening tgthe most followed ones. And rent not only entered the common language to represent the privileges of one Political caste who had appropriated luxury houses at the expense of retirees, but became a formidable example of what a newspaper when he decides to dig thoroughly in the folds of the public waste.
A case born by chance
It all started by chance, a bit because in summer the Parliament goes on vacation, and for a newspaper who lives the news, news is scarce, and a bit because The years spent in the cuisine of the editorial offices had taught me That some articles in the drawer ready for any event is always better to have it, in order to avoid the anguish of the first white page. Thus, when in July I received the note of a collaborator of the then president of the Confedilizia Corrado Sforza FoglianiI was intrigued and decided to deepen. The note sent to me summarized the results of the real estate investments made by social security institutions. You must know at the time INPS, INPDAP, ENPAS And Innothat is, the pension funds in the public and private sector were forced by law to invest in brick. The properties with their rents had to guarantee a safe performance and therefore ensure workers’ pensions despite the inflation, which at the time galloped in two -digit. For this, to account for how the real estate assets of pensioners and workers was managed, the social security institutions presented to Parliament An annual report.
A hunger performance
And this was precisely the note of a few lines of the collaborator of the president of Confedilizia: in a year, the entities had obtained a minimum performance, equal to1.65%. Considering inflation, while having a real estate assets made of tens of thousands of apartments, theINPS and the other entities had managed to losing money. It attracted my attention. I was at the time deputy deputy directorthat is, the deputy director who was in charge of organizing the newspaper. So I called a colleague and I entrusted him with those few lines saying: we have to do ainvestigation To understand where the workers’ money end. You have to make you explain everything, how they invest, what are the canons and waste. Look everyone. So, when after mid -August we found ourselves in the editorial office with the agencies that centered the news with the dropper, the investigation prepared in the previous days ended up on the page. Not without some doubt. The first not to be convinced was the same Felt: who cares about the rentals of theINPS? But there were no alternatives and therefore the investigation was published. Also on the second day, when I asked to make further insights, calculating that for each apartment the entities collected 69 thousand lire on average on average, while that of the market was of one millionsome doubts emerged on the interest of the investigation: too many numbers, too many data, too many things as economists. Fortunately, the absence of an alternative newsletter left no way out.
The turning point and the title that made the bang
On the third day, Vittorio called me before arriving in the editorial staff and said to me: Do you know that this matter is interesting? We have to make a great title and all the top of the entity and let us say why forgive money When anyone with the brick earns them. Thus was born the title: Who saw them?with the minister’s face Tiziano Treu and of the general manager ofINPS, Gianni Billia. They were all on vacation and therefore the research notice was indispensable. In the meantime, while the envoys of the Newspaper They were on the beach, a group of boys, a fixed -term taken to cover the summer staff, was unleashed through the deserted streets of Romein search of buildings owned by the social security institutions and their tenants. To guide them was there Andrea Puccihead of the editorial staff in the capital, today director of Tg4 and of the TG of Italy 1as well as the news of Mediaset. Of the group of reporters, on the other hand, was part Gianmarco Chioccicurrent director of Tg1. They were, speaking with the concierges and neighbors, that they find the illustrious names of those who dealt with a few thousand lire the Italian houses.
The secret list and the political scandal
It came out that thanks to the trade union management of the entities, the nomenclature had requested penthouses in the historic center paying negligible figures. Nilde Iottithe ex -wife of Achille Occhetto, Walter Veltroni, Massimo D’Alema, Sergio D’Antoni, Ottaviano del Turcothe daughter of Luciano Lamathe grandson of Andreottithe brother of Garavinithe mother of D’Alema: the list was long and in the end we claimed that the entities delivered the list of all tenants. I remember it was delivered to me in a bar by an employee of theINPSwith the approval of the general manager, who had the terror of being discovered. But I also remember that officials and simple employees, who for years had observed the scandal without being able to report it, in anonymous form began to call the editorial staff, to report friends and friends of the politicians who had obtained the houses by climbing over waiting lists and, above all, at ridiculous prices. In particular memory Tiziano TreuMinister of Labor, who asks if his secretary enjoyed a facilitated fee accommodation of an entity began to stammer.
Unmasked hypocrisy
It was one big investigationwhich highlighted thehypocrisy left. After Tangentopolithe exponents of the then PDS saved by the judges they exhibited the clean hands as a distinctive sign compared to others. Too bad that those same hands would make money in another way, using public affairs – that is, workers’ contributions – as if they were the thing. Above all it was an investigation that showed how i newspaperswhen they do their job, they really are the Public opinion guard dog.
