'New Bribesville' hits Italy Inc before election
the former head of Monte dei Paschi's finance department.
"Bribesville is Back," read a banner headline in the daily La Repubblica on Friday, drawing parallels with the high-level cases of political corruption that brought Italy's Cold War-era party system crashing down two decades ago.
"A week before the vote, citizens are heading for the ballot box through the rubble of a new Tangentopoli," it said in a front-page editorial under the headline "Sins of the Elite."
Weary of corruption, Italians might welcome a crackdown but with an election looming, many have been quick to spot the party connections of some of the major companies involved and to suspect political motives, despite denials from the judiciary.
"Finmeccanica has been under the spotlight for a good 18 months and suddenly there is an arrest," said Luca Caprai, founder of Cruciani, a maker of fashionable macrame bracelets.
"If this is the beginning of a clean-up, it will be good for the country. But I would not want to find out that the company is paying for mistakes it never made."
While Monte dei Paschi, based in Siena, has links to the PD, Finmeccanica chief Giuseppe Orsi was appointed with backing from the Northern League, an ally in the wealthy and populous region around Milan of former conservative premier Silvio Berlusconi.
The media tycoon, who stepped down amid scandal 15 months ago to make way for Monti, chided judges for pursuing Finmeccanica, saying it simply acted like foreign competitors to win sales. Monti in turn said on Friday Berlusconi was being
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