Mafia, 387 organizations have been dissolved since 1991, 15 during the Meloni government

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Since 1991, there have been 387 dissolutions of local administrations due to mafia infiltration – almost one per month – out of a total of 463 inspections. It was the owner of the Interior Ministry, Matteo Piantedosi, who reeled off the data in the Council of Ministers, in an ad hoc report prompted by the uproar surrounding the matter of the sending of the inspection commission to Bari, three months before the elections, and the clash with the mayor Antonio Decaro.

Fifteen municipalities dissolved by the Meloni government

Of the 387 dissolutions (380 municipalities and 7 local health authorities) that have occurred in the last 33 years, i.e. since the institute came into force, 133 have been decided by the Renzi government to date and in only one case has the judiciary annulled the provision. The Meloni Government, as the Interior Ministry had already made known in recent days. it dissolved 15 of them: 4 led by the centre-right, 3 by the centre-left, 8 from civic lists. In particular, 5 are in Calabria (4 civic list and one close to the centre-right), 3 in Campania (two with a centre-left tendency and one from the centre-right), 4 in Sicily (civic lists), one in Puglia (centre-left) and two in Lazio (centre-right). These are Anzio and Nettuno, the first two municipalities dissolved immediately following the establishment of the Executive. There are 22 municipalities currently managed by extraordinary commissioners following the dissolution due to infiltration.

Before Bari, inspection access to 5 other large cities

Piantedosi was keen to underline that Bari is not the first case of a large city for which inspection access has been arranged: it had happened in Rome, where the 15th municipality of Ostia was then dissolved), in Reggio Calabria, in Lamezia Terme , in Foggia and in Castellammare di Stabia, all dissolved following the conclusion of the procedure. But – the minister clarified – «the inspection access is not prejudicially aimed at the dissolution of the body, but rather aims at an in-depth verification of the administrative activity, also to protect the local administrators themselves who, in that context, will be able to offer every useful element of evaluation”. The thesis of the Interior Ministry, right from the start, was based on the presentation of the inspection access as a “guarantee” for the Municipality itself: if elements of compromise of the administrative structure emerge, Piantedosi explained, “the employees involved may be suspended or sent to other office”.

Investigations and the “obligatory” path

The minister recalled the two judicial investigations underway in the Apulian capital which triggered the inspection access: one concerns the activities of the city’s mafia clans, which led to the arrest of over 130 people accused of mafia association, vote swapping and of having favored the activities of criminal groups; the other concerns mafia infiltration in Amtab – the transport company 100% owned by the Municipality – which in the meantime since last February 22nd has been placed under judicial administration by the Court of Bari, entrusted to the leadership of a manager chosen by the judge . An appointment made pursuant to art. 34 of the Anti-Mafia Code – the minister was keen to highlight -, a rule which provides for a company to be placed under special administration if there are indications of direct or indirect conditioning of its economic activities by criminal associations, or when it facilitates the interests of the clans in some way .

Three months of work for the commission

Piantedosi defended himself from the accusation of having decided to start the inspection immediately following a meeting (immortalized by a photo) with the center-right Apulian parliamentarians, led by the undersecretary of Justice Francesco Paolo Sisto and the Italian MP from Brindisi Mauro D’Attis . “A political ambush,” the mayor had defined it. «A delegation of centre-right parliamentarians was received at the Interior Ministry – the minister said in the Council of Ministers – as was Mayor Decaro who, in the following days, was also brought forward, for the sake of fairness, the decision to start the inspection access”. The investigation commission appointed by the prefect of Bari took office last Monday and is made up of a retired prefect, Claudio Sammartino, the vice-prefect Antonio Giannelli and the major of the Scico della Guardia di Finanza Pio Giuseppe Stola. «All members with specific experience in preventing and combating mafia infiltration», guaranteed Piantedosi. Their work will last three months, extendable for another three months. It is not certain, therefore, that the verdict will arrive in the middle of any possible runoff.