Falcone is assigned trials that are inconsequential. His former Sicilian supporters criticize his methods in the investigations and his conduct is viewed as a betrayal, as caving in and investigating on the ‘third level’, the political level of Mafia control. He is accused of hiding away in drawers documents that would lead to the solving of prominent homicides. If at the time of the Palermo anti-mafia pool he was accused of being a friend of the communists, now he is branded as a friend of Andreotti, the former Prime Minister who was tried and acquitted for Mafia association. In Rome there are those who say that he no longer fights on the front line. On 29 October 1991 the journalist Lino Jannuzzi comments on Falcone’s candidacy as head of the Direzione nazionale antimafia (National Anti-Mafia Directorate), calling him ‘one of those most responsible for the state’s debacle with regard to the Mafia’:

Starting today, or tomorrow, we will have to watch out for two Cosa Nostras, the one whose cupola is in Palermo and the one about to be installed in Rome. And you’d be wise to keep your passport handy.

Articles appear branding Falcone as ‘more a manager than a magistrate now’. Attention is drawn to his excessive television presence. In short, he is not forgiven for being a public figure. Only his actions are attacked, rather than the facts: Sandro Viola calls him a ‘TV minstrel’.

The attacks from the left become more violent when, in March 1991, Falcone is called to Rome by Minister of Justice Claudio Martelli, to serve as director of the Criminal Affairs division: now he’s not only a friend of Andreotti but also of the Socialists. Now he’s in the ‘palace of power’, he’s the ‘prince’s adviser’. And this is worrisome because, with politics presumably compromising the institutions, the independence of the judiciary might be in danger. Obviously Falcone is well aware of the history of the Christian Democrats, their relations with the Cosa Nostra in Sicily. But he accepts the position in Rome just the same, because his role is an administrative one, not a political one. Falcone has confidence in the institutions and knows that, if an institution is strong, it is stronger than politics, it is a guarantee of democracy. So he keeps doing what he knows how to: serving the state, that is, enabling the state to develop an office that will coordinate the battle against organized crime.

But the left slaughters him: you’re collaborating! On 26 September 1991, during a TV special about the killing of Libero Grassi, on the talk show Samarcanda, attorney Alfredo Galasso, a Palermo criminal lawyer who fought on the same anti-mafia front with Falcone, attacks him on this very issue: