President Sergio Mattarella and
Premier Giorgia Meloni on Thursday remembered state oilman
Enrico Mattei on the 60th anniversary of the Eni founder's
still-mysterious death in a plane crash.
Mattarella said that Mattei, who forged petroleum independence
against the 'Seven Sisters' dominating world oil production, had
been a "builder of the Republic" in setting up Italian fuels
giant Eni and spurring production in Italy and abroad.
Meloni recalled Mattei as a ""great Italian who made Italy into
a power" on the world industrial scene.
She said he "promoted a new strategic and industrial vision
based on progress, on mutual growth and collaboration between
Nations".
Marche-born Mattei (1906-1962) organized Italy's Ente Nazionale
Idrocarburi (Eni) fuel company after World War II, and
negotiated oil deals with Iran and the Soviet Union during the
Cold War.
Italy's best-known Mafia informant, the late Tommaso
Buscetta, claimed the headline-grabbing Eni boss was killed to
stop him treading on the toes of the so-called Seven Sisters of
world oil.
Mattei is known to have angered the world's biggest oil
companies by forging his deals in North Africa, Russia and Iran
that aimed to make Italy independent of them.
An investigation into the northern Italian plane crash that
killed him on October 27, 1962 concluded it had been caused by a
technical fault but another probe, 30 years later, said a bomb
had exploded on board.
Investigative journalist Mauro De Mauro was allegedly killed by
the Mafia in 1970 because he was about to publish evidence
Mattei had been killed by the Mob.
De Mauro went missing from the street outside his Palermo home
on September 16, 1970, while doing research for Francesco Rosi's
landmark movie, 'Il Caso Mattei' (The Mattei Case).
Late Cosa Nostra boss Salvatore 'the Beast' Riina was twice
acquitted of ordering De Mauro's murder.
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