[4] He was one of the founding members of the Christian Democratic (Democrazia Cristiana) party on the island and became the first elected President of the Regional Government of Sicily.

[1] Journalist Alexander Stille interviewed Alessi in the 1990s and asked him about the relations between the Christian Democrats and the Mafia: "It happened this way.

Some people in the Christian Democratic Party approached the separatists, whose backbone were these Mafia bosses and invited them to join the national parties ... [T]he Mafiosi were looking for the road to power, to secure the support they needed for their economic affairs.

The victory of Communism would have meant Italy ended up behind the Iron Curtain."

Alessi's justification of his party's dealings with the Mafia is based on a romantic view of the Mafia of the 1940s and 1950s: "They weren't criminals, they were local potentates, neighbourhood bosses, proud men of prestige.