Why We Need To Talk about Mafia

In an interview with a major Italian newspaper, the newly appointed president of the Italian Senate and former anti-mafia prosecutor Pietro Grasso said that his dream is to to hold his grandson on his lap and tell him a story that starts with the words “C’era una volta la mafia,” meaning “Once upon a time there was mafia.” Grasso’s dream, however, cannot become a reality unless we finally bring mafia back on the political agenda, after about a decade in which the issue of organized crime has been almost entirely absent in Italy’s political debate.
Although the Italian courts have made substantial progress in prosecuting mafia criminals in recent years, Cosa nostra and comparable criminal organizations are still an untouched subject in public life. Having come a long way since The Godfather, mafia organizations now involve a more subtle patronage network that is hard to pinpoint. Furthermore, most people do not want to, or cannot, live under guard like Roberto Saviano, the young Sicilian writer who authored the best-selling Gomorrah, a blunt anti-mafia report. Despite these obstacles, economics, politics, and societal considerations dictate that the time has come to talk about the mafia.
From an economic perspective, a solid anti-mafia legislation that targets corruption and tax evasion would make the current austerity measures much more fruitful in the long run. According to The Atlantic, more than 15% of the Italian economy happens outside legally sanctioned channels, costing the government about 100 billion euros per year. However, Lorenzo de Sio, the coordinator of the Italian Center for Electoral Studies, told the HPR that the economic crisis weakened not only the state but also the competing patronage network. Because the mafia network has recently become less robust, a vigorous anti-mafia program may be more successful now than prior to 2008. Therefore, it is essential to take action now.
Furthermore, though the somewhat Rousseauvian idea of “rebuilding the national pact” has become a common slogan in the Italian political debate, it cannot become reality unless the presence of organized crime in state institutions is finally unmasked and prosecuted accordingly. Speculations, accusations, and scandals rarely give way to complete and exhaustive judiciary trials. Former Popolo della Libertà senator Marcello Dell’Utri has been sentenced to a total of more than years of jail since 1999 through multiple verdicts, the latest of which was handed down in late March. Because of a lengthy judiciary system, however, Dell’Utri still has not been jailed. It is necessary to speak openly about the mafia, then, in order to unveil any collusion of the judiciary and to facilitate the work of the magistrates. Only through a more transparent and efficient justice system can the national social contract be rebuilt on a sounder footing.
Finally, countering organized crime needs to be at the top of the political agenda because it represents an opportunity to unify a society that has been divided since Italy’s birth. As de Sio noted, while a sector of society is in line with a long tradition of civic culture, another portion of society is prone to clientelism and particularistic attitudes. The mafia lives through the connivance or collusion of the latter area of society, thus fostering a dualism that has always been an obstacle to national unity. Libera, the most prominent anti-mafia NGO, has promoted legality through education and community empowerment projects since 1995. Its anti-mafia efforts targeting the most vulnerable sectors of society have been internationally recognized last year, when The Global Journal ranked Libera among the 100 top NGOs worldwide.
While organized crime has penetrated sectors as disparate as health and waste management, Grasso could use his appointment to the second highest office in the Italian constitution to bring mafia back into the political agenda. The president of the Senate has the power, and the duty, both to regulate the debate in the upper house and broadly inspire the political dialogue. He will probably not be able to tell his grandson the story of how mafia was eradicated from the Italian society. What he might be able to tell him, though, is the story of his strenuous commitment to make anti-mafia efforts a concrete, transparent, and feasible domestic policy program.