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Berlusconi, Prodi Shun Talk of Mafia's Grip on South (Update2)
March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and election rival Romano Prodi, who promise to revive the country's stagnant economy, are avoiding talking about a reason for its weaknesses: organized crime.
Locked in a close race with just 10 days to go until the April 9 and 10 elections, the candidates are reluctant to alienate voters in the country's south, where organized crime's influence may extend to the ballot box.
``There's a mafia state that exists alongside the legal state,'' said Mario Centorrino, a professor of economics at the University of Messina in Sicily who's written four books on organized crime. ``Between them, there's an exchange of favors and resources. Among the resources exchanged are definitely votes.''
Crime syndicates drained 28 billion euros ($33.8 billion) from the legal economy in 2004, says SOS Impresa, a Rome-based group that fights corruption. Incomes in Italy's south have remained two-thirds those of the rest of the country because of organized crime, according to the Censis research institute in Rome. Average unemployment in the south is four times that of the north, topping 20 percent in some areas and reaching 38 percent for 15- to 24-year-olds, the government statistics office says.
Cosa Nostra
Italy's south, known as the Mezzogiorno, is a group of eight regions that are home to more than a third of Italy's 59 million people. Italy's three biggest homegrown crime syndicates are all based in the area.
The Sicilian Mafia, known as Cosa Nostra, the Camorra in the region of Campania and the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria control or have a corrupting effect on most businesses in their territories, according to the Interior Ministry.
That influence also extends into government and politics. Since 1992, Italian courts have dissolved 240 city governments from both sides of the political spectrum because they were discovered to have been controlled by crime syndicates, according to data from the Interior Ministry and parliament's Antimafia Commission. Since November of last year, nine city councils have been disbanded.
Francesco Fortugno, a local official and member of the opposition Daisy party, was killed on Oct. 16 after being shot five times by a hooded gunman as he worked at a polling booth in Locri, Calabria, during a primary vote to choose the candidate to oppose Berlusconi. The 'Ndrangheta, was probably responsible for the murder, police and investigators say.
Not Just Sicily
``The feeling outside of Sicily is that the fight against organized crime isn't an issue that involves them,'' said anti- crime activist Rita Borsellino, sister of investigative magistrate Paolo Borsellino, who was killed by a car bomb in 1992. ``The mafia is tied to the business world and the economy, and so it's a problem for all of Italy and not just Sicily.''
In last year's regional elections, southern voters abandoned Berlusconi, a sign that the Mezzogiorno may hold the decisive margin in the national poll. Berlusconi's coalition lost control of all three southern regions that voted last April -- Apulia, Calabria and Basilicata.
``The southern voters were the swing vote in the regional elections because Berlusconi's government is perceived to have favored the north,'' said Maurizio Pessato, chief executive officer of Trieste-based polling company SWG Srl.
No Debate Questions
The final set of opinion polls showed Prodi's Union coalition holding about a 5 percentage point lead over Berlusconi's House of Freedoms slate. Under Italian law, no opinion polls are allowed for the final two weeks of a national campaign.
At their first debate on March 14, neither Prodi nor Berlusconi addressed, or were questioned about, their plans for the south's economy or strategy to combat organized crime. The two men are scheduled to meet in a second and final debate on April 3.
Berlusconi, 69, hasn't mentioned the mob or talked about how he plans to fight it during campaign speeches this year. Prodi, 66, has talked about combating organized crime, mentioning its negative impact on Europe's fourth-biggest economy on at least four occasions in March, including once today while speaking to foreign reporters in Rome, without elaborating on how he would carry out the fight.
The candidates' published election programs offer more evidence that crime is being subsumed by other issues.
'Absolute Priority'
The Union coalition headed by Prodi calls the fight against organized crime an ``absolute priority,'' while relegating the issue to page 66 in its 281-page campaign manifesto. Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition mentions ``fighting organized crime'' just once in its 24-page electoral booklet.
Prodi, in a Feb. 27 interview in his office, said that while he believes in fighting crime, he is concentrating on broader economic issues such as reducing labor costs to make Italian companies more competitive in the campaign.
``One can't always say the same things or else one needs 281 pages for every speech,'' said Prodi, a former president of the European Commission. ``I'll talk about it a lot because it's an ethical necessity and because I can't maintain any promises for growth if there's no fight against the mafia.''
Berlusconi, through his spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti, declined a request for an interview. During his term of office, 807 mafia fugitives have been arrested, said Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu, who is a member of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
Lack of Will
Local political leaders are more willing to discuss the issue. ``The Mafia has never been battled with the will to defeat it,'' said Borsellino, 60, who is running to unseat Salvatore ``Toto'' Cuffaro as head of Sicily's regional government in a May 28-29 election. ``A recovery of the Sicilian economy could pull the national economy up with it.''
Cuffaro, currently on trial in Palermo, Sicily for helping Cosa Nostra avoid police surveillance, is also standing for the first time in April's national vote as a candidate for parliament in Berlusconi's coalition. He denies any wrongdoing through his lawyer, Antonio Caleca.
Marcello Dell'Utri, who ran the advertising unit of Berlusconi's Mediaset SpA TV company and is a member of parliament for Forza Italia, was convicted for being tied to the mob in December 2004 and sentenced to nine years in jail. He denies the charge and is appealing the decision. He helped draft the list of Forza Italia candidates and is standing again himself.
'Message of Impunity'
Italy's chief anti-mob prosecutor, Piero Grasso, called on Jan. 30 for political parties to avoid nominating candidates who are suspected of involvement with organized crime.
``Making those under investigation candidates could send a message that the mafia appreciates, a message of impunity, a challenge to the justice system,'' Grasso said in a speech in Palermo in which he also criticized the government for not dedicating enough resources to the fight against crime.
Berlusconi's coalition won all of Sicily's 61 parliamentary seats in the 2001 national vote. Cuffaro is a member of the Union of Christian Democrats party, one of four in Berlusconi's bloc. Cuffaro and 10 other local Union of Christian Democrat officials, including one labor undersecretary in Berlusconi's government, are under investigation, on trial or appealing alleged collaborations with Cosa Nostra.
``Berlusconi never talks about the mafia, while Prodi isn't mentioning it very often,'' said Maurizio Guzzardo, 44, an agronomist in Palermo who says he'll vote for Prodi. ``There's more talk about jobs than the mafia, without understanding that the two things go together.''
To contact the reporter on this story:
Steve Scherer in Rome at [email protected].
Last Updated: March 30, 2006 08:35 EST
Berlusconi, Prodi Shun Talk of Mafia's Grip on South (Update2)
March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and election rival Romano Prodi, who promise to revive the country's stagnant economy, are avoiding talking about a reason for its weaknesses: organized crime.
Locked in a close race with just 10 days to go until the April 9 and 10 elections, the candidates are reluctant to alienate voters in the country's south, where organized crime's influence may extend to the ballot box.
``There's a mafia state that exists alongside the legal state,'' said Mario Centorrino, a professor of economics at the University of Messina in Sicily who's written four books on organized crime. ``Between them, there's an exchange of favors and resources. Among the resources exchanged are definitely votes.''
Crime syndicates drained 28 billion euros ($33.8 billion) from the legal economy in 2004, says SOS Impresa, a Rome-based group that fights corruption. Incomes in Italy's south have remained two-thirds those of the rest of the country because of organized crime, according to the Censis research institute in Rome. Average unemployment in the south is four times that of the north, topping 20 percent in some areas and reaching 38 percent for 15- to 24-year-olds, the government statistics office says.
Cosa Nostra
Italy's south, known as the Mezzogiorno, is a group of eight regions that are home to more than a third of Italy's 59 million people. Italy's three biggest homegrown crime syndicates are all based in the area.
The Sicilian Mafia, known as Cosa Nostra, the Camorra in the region of Campania and the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria control or have a corrupting effect on most businesses in their territories, according to the Interior Ministry.
That influence also extends into government and politics. Since 1992, Italian courts have dissolved 240 city governments from both sides of the political spectrum because they were discovered to have been controlled by crime syndicates, according to data from the Interior Ministry and parliament's Antimafia Commission. Since November of last year, nine city councils have been disbanded.
Francesco Fortugno, a local official and member of the opposition Daisy party, was killed on Oct. 16 after being shot five times by a hooded gunman as he worked at a polling booth in Locri, Calabria, during a primary vote to choose the candidate to oppose Berlusconi. The 'Ndrangheta, was probably responsible for the murder, police and investigators say.
Not Just Sicily
``The feeling outside of Sicily is that the fight against organized crime isn't an issue that involves them,'' said anti- crime activist Rita Borsellino, sister of investigative magistrate Paolo Borsellino, who was killed by a car bomb in 1992. ``The mafia is tied to the business world and the economy, and so it's a problem for all of Italy and not just Sicily.''
In last year's regional elections, southern voters abandoned Berlusconi, a sign that the Mezzogiorno may hold the decisive margin in the national poll. Berlusconi's coalition lost control of all three southern regions that voted last April -- Apulia, Calabria and Basilicata.
``The southern voters were the swing vote in the regional elections because Berlusconi's government is perceived to have favored the north,'' said Maurizio Pessato, chief executive officer of Trieste-based polling company SWG Srl.
No Debate Questions
The final set of opinion polls showed Prodi's Union coalition holding about a 5 percentage point lead over Berlusconi's House of Freedoms slate. Under Italian law, no opinion polls are allowed for the final two weeks of a national campaign.
At their first debate on March 14, neither Prodi nor Berlusconi addressed, or were questioned about, their plans for the south's economy or strategy to combat organized crime. The two men are scheduled to meet in a second and final debate on April 3.
Berlusconi, 69, hasn't mentioned the mob or talked about how he plans to fight it during campaign speeches this year. Prodi, 66, has talked about combating organized crime, mentioning its negative impact on Europe's fourth-biggest economy on at least four occasions in March, including once today while speaking to foreign reporters in Rome, without elaborating on how he would carry out the fight.
The candidates' published election programs offer more evidence that crime is being subsumed by other issues.
'Absolute Priority'
The Union coalition headed by Prodi calls the fight against organized crime an ``absolute priority,'' while relegating the issue to page 66 in its 281-page campaign manifesto. Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition mentions ``fighting organized crime'' just once in its 24-page electoral booklet.
Prodi, in a Feb. 27 interview in his office, said that while he believes in fighting crime, he is concentrating on broader economic issues such as reducing labor costs to make Italian companies more competitive in the campaign.
``One can't always say the same things or else one needs 281 pages for every speech,'' said Prodi, a former president of the European Commission. ``I'll talk about it a lot because it's an ethical necessity and because I can't maintain any promises for growth if there's no fight against the mafia.''
Berlusconi, through his spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti, declined a request for an interview. During his term of office, 807 mafia fugitives have been arrested, said Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu, who is a member of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
Lack of Will
Local political leaders are more willing to discuss the issue. ``The Mafia has never been battled with the will to defeat it,'' said Borsellino, 60, who is running to unseat Salvatore ``Toto'' Cuffaro as head of Sicily's regional government in a May 28-29 election. ``A recovery of the Sicilian economy could pull the national economy up with it.''
Cuffaro, currently on trial in Palermo, Sicily for helping Cosa Nostra avoid police surveillance, is also standing for the first time in April's national vote as a candidate for parliament in Berlusconi's coalition. He denies any wrongdoing through his lawyer, Antonio Caleca.
Marcello Dell'Utri, who ran the advertising unit of Berlusconi's Mediaset SpA TV company and is a member of parliament for Forza Italia, was convicted for being tied to the mob in December 2004 and sentenced to nine years in jail. He denies the charge and is appealing the decision. He helped draft the list of Forza Italia candidates and is standing again himself.
'Message of Impunity'
Italy's chief anti-mob prosecutor, Piero Grasso, called on Jan. 30 for political parties to avoid nominating candidates who are suspected of involvement with organized crime.
``Making those under investigation candidates could send a message that the mafia appreciates, a message of impunity, a challenge to the justice system,'' Grasso said in a speech in Palermo in which he also criticized the government for not dedicating enough resources to the fight against crime.
Berlusconi's coalition won all of Sicily's 61 parliamentary seats in the 2001 national vote. Cuffaro is a member of the Union of Christian Democrats party, one of four in Berlusconi's bloc. Cuffaro and 10 other local Union of Christian Democrat officials, including one labor undersecretary in Berlusconi's government, are under investigation, on trial or appealing alleged collaborations with Cosa Nostra.
``Berlusconi never talks about the mafia, while Prodi isn't mentioning it very often,'' said Maurizio Guzzardo, 44, an agronomist in Palermo who says he'll vote for Prodi. ``There's more talk about jobs than the mafia, without understanding that the two things go together.''
To contact the reporter on this story:
Steve Scherer in Rome at [email protected].
Last Updated: March 30, 2006 08:35 EST
