Foreign Minister Angelino
Alfano on Thursday placed a bouquet of red roses on the tomb of
late former Socialist Party (PSI) leader and ex-premier Bettino
Craxi at his home in exile at Hammamet in Tunisia, on the 17th
anniversary of his death.
After a silent prayer with widow Anna and children Stefania
and Bobo, Alfano made the sign of the cross and signed the
visitors' book.
Alfano said he had been right to pay tribute to the
"far-sighted" former Socialist leader and ex-premier on the
anniversary.
"As prime minister and political leader, (Craxi) saw a long
way ahead, in depth, and on the great issues of modernisation,
he was right.
"I am referring, among other things, to the reform of the
institutions of the State to make them more modern and more
efficient.
"I think it is right to give him credit for that," Alfano
said.
"Today for me was a little bit a pleasure, but also a duty,
finding myself in Tunisia on the anniversary, to come here to
the tomb", Alfano said.
Craxi, whose position in Italian political history has been
reassessed in recent years, was Socialist premier of Italy from
1983 to 1987 and at the centre of the 1992-1994 Mani Pulite
(Clean Hands) anti-corruption investigations carried out by
Milan judges.
He fled to Tunis to avoid prison in 1994 and died in
self-imposed exile at his Tunisian villa in January 2000.
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