Antonio Gava, who passed away on 8 August at the age of 78 after a long illness, was one of the most powerful politicians of the period after the war. He was a leader of the Christian Democrats and was a Minister many times.
An excellent defendant in one of the biggest trials carried out by the State against the Camorra. He wasn’t even dead before many declared him a “Saint”, a victim of the “season of justicialism”.

I’m publishing an article by Marco Travaglio on the topic, it appears in today’s l’Unità. I agree with what is said.

”For Berlusconi, Antonio Gava was “completely integral” and “his death does not cancel out the wrong that he suffered: the judicial Calvary of 13 years that undermined his health and that ended with his complete absolution from an accusation that was infamous and unfounded”. For the “kiwi” Minister Rotondi, the artifice of the “Naples Renaissance”.
For Piercasinando, he was a victim of the “season of justicialism”. For the emeritus Cossiga, “one of the many people persecuted by the militant magistracy”. For the former minister of Justice Mastella, “he was worn down by heavy accusations that have been shown to be completely non-existent, by hypotheses that were then proved wrong.”. For that fine head of Bobo Craxi, “when in Naples there were men like Gava there was no rubbish” (in fact they called him “Fetenzia”). Professor Galasso defines him “completely integral” and “always coming out well from any tribunal”. President Napolitano denounces “the difficult personal trials”. Now before the dead “Padre della Patria” {Father of the Nation} is beatified, with streets and squares named after him, it is perhaps worthwhile remembering a couple of details, taken from the verdicts that everyone cites but no one has read. The first trial against Gava, for receiving, led to him being sentenced to 5 years at the first level, then reduced to 2 years on appeal (The Court of Cassation cancelled from the list of crimes, the crime of corruption and triggered the Statute of limitations, so he was guilty of bribery, but he got away with it). The second, for external collaboration in a camorra organisation following on from accusations by the “pentiti” bosses Galasso and Alfieri, ended with a definitive absolution and compensation for unjust detention. But it’s enough to read it (the site societacivile.it publishes ample chunks of it) to understand that the trial had to take place, the accusation was based on concrete facts and documents: «The Court believes – write the Naples judges – that it has been proved with certainty that Gava was aware of the reciprocal functional relationships that existed between local politicians and the Alfieri camorra organisation, as well as the contamination between organised crime and local institutions in the territory of Campania; it has been proved that he has carried out no decisive or concrete intervention to fight or place a brake on that situation, instead he has ended up benefiting from the electoral benefits that are derived by his political grouping: but this conduct based on the awareness of the defendant, although it appears to be reprehensible from the political and moral point of view, so much more so if you consider the specific powers and duties of this person in the period when he was Minister of the Interior, cannot on its own be enough to affirm his criminal responsibility”. And again: «The defendant was fully aware of the influence exercised by the camorristic organisations operating in Campania about the formation and/or the activity and the connection between the local politicians with members of the Camorra, and since it’s not reasonable that he should be interested in local politics without being aware of the phenomenon of co-penetration of the camorra in the political life, in whose management he would have been in charge, the local leaders of the grouping… It seems evident that the awareness by the defendant of the camorristic infiltration in the politics of Campania, together with the close relationship kept with the local leaders of his grouping and with the political institutions of this territory, as well as the omission of possible interventions of denunciation and fighting against the system that had by then been set up in the zone, constitute important elements for investigation from which it is possible to deduce the co-penetration of the defendant in this system, as has been evidenced by the public accusers… Gava has not been found to be concretely activated, as leader of the DC grouping or in his functions as a Minister, to put a stop to the phenomenon of political-criminality contamination in the territory of Campania; as no initiative he adopted for the suspension of the local councillors, of which even though he was aware of the closeness to the camorra, their suspension was made possible by the law that came into force when he was still Minister of the Interior.» So basically, the Minister of the Interior Gava was with the State but also with the camorra. If this, to use the words of professor Galasso, is «always coming out well from any tribunal», then a street is not enough. Gava deserves at least an equestrian monument.”