Thirty years ago, on July 23, Milan woke up with a gunshot. The lifeless body of Raul Gardini was found in the Palazzo Belgioioso in the city center. The echo was global because the character was global: starting from the inheritance of his father-in-law Serafino Ferruzzi, Gardini had created in ten years an agro-industrial and chemical group of global dimensions with over 90,000 employees, Ferruzzi-Montedison; and at the same time he had scaled the heights of the America’s Cup as owner and sailor.
The judiciary had no doubt: suicide. And the family members had no doubts, despite the shadows that various journalistic investigations cast on the case. How is it possible that the gun found at the crime scene was on the desk and not next to him? “Someone has since postponed it,” the prosecutor interrupted. And the lack of gunpowder in Gardini’s hands? “You were washed in the emergency room.” The massacre in Via Palestro four days later attributed to the Mafia? “No connection.”
Everything archived: It was he who pointed the 7.65 caliber at his temple and pulled the trigger.
The suicide shook the financial and family world. Since then, the Gardinis and the Ferruzzi, who had already quarreled over his dismissal from the management of the group, have not spoken to each other. But beyond family events, these were dark days for Gardini: on the morning of his suicide, after former ENI President Gabriele Cagliari took his own life in prison this week, he knew he had to be arrested at the request of the Mani Pulite pool, which accused him of bribing politicians for the Enimont joint venture. The day before at Palazzo Belgioioso with Gardini were his son Ivan, his wife Idina, manager Roberto Michetti and his lawyers Marco De Luca and Giovanni Maria Flick.
Avvocato De Luca, can you tell us about Gardini’s last day?
“On the afternoon of July 22, I went to see him to discuss the possible interrogation the next day, since he was to be arrested, and spoke to Di Pietro about it. And this also against the background of the statements of the manager Giuseppe Garofano, in relation to which agency advances were known. Flick and I stayed with him for most of the afternoon and evening. I left around eleven after Idina had left for Ravenna and said she would be back the next morning.”
How did you find Gardini?
“He seemed to me a very tried man, he had a deep sadness on his face.”
What was worrying him?
“His first concern was documentation of Montedison’s activities, which he did not have, but which he felt was necessary to defend himself against the allegations. Since he has not been part of the group for a number of years due to a family break-up, he did not have these papers, particularly those relating to the Enimont affair and monetary donations.”
He should be arrested for bribing politicians. You have been involved with Di Pietro for a long time, what did you achieve?
“I would have liked Di Pietro Gardini to have listened to understand his effective position, which is responsibility in the decision-making phase but not in the leadership phase. But Di Pietro didn’t want to. Eventually I managed to get arrested without leaving prison. Gardini was to appear at 11 a.m. on the 23rd at a Guardia di Finanza barracks, where Di Pietro would have interrogated him for a long time, probably late into the night, and Gardini would have stayed with us until the coroner granted house arrest. He could have been home on the 24th».
What did Gardini say?
“He feared that Garofano’s interrogation would reveal a very different reality from the one he thought he represented. That is, he was afraid that they would throw the cross at him.
How did it go the next morning?
“We were supposed to meet at my studio at 10 o’clock. Flick had been looking for him at 7:30 p.m. to cheer him up. He wanted to offer him a coffee before coming over to me. But he didn’t manage to talk to him and by the time he got to Piazza Belgioioso everything had already happened.”
What did you think of the motif?
“I think he did it to protect his family and his image. We must not forget that, in addition to the events of Tangentopoli, the collapse of Montedison was also maturing at this time, which could have affected him and many others, taking important remedial actions from an economic point of view. I think he took into account the fact that without him his family would have been somewhat protected. Gardini was the entrepreneur par excellence in Italy in those years. His name was unusual, in Ravenna he was considered a king. Perhaps he wanted to prevent the events of Tangentopoli from disturbing all of this: he and his world, born alongside Serafino Ferruzzi.”
If that was his goal, did he achieve it?
“His memory, which I share, remains that of a man of great skill and vision, who brought great glory to Ravenna and to Italian entrepreneurship.” So yes, I think he achieved his goal.”