Press freedom, the rule of the law, and democracy continue to decline in Italy as the center-right government coalition of Silvio Berlusconi is in the final stages of passing a law that will curtail police wiretapping and limit media coverage of criminal probes. Like most of the laws passed in Italy, the real aim of the law is to protect the financial interests of Silvio Berlusconi, members of Parliament, and the people who have helped Berlusconi and his political allies remain in power for the last eight out of ten years. This latest development in Italy is an indication of what happens when a political system gets corrupted by money and acts more to protect the minority interests of people with wealth and power, rather than act on behalf of the majority of the people they are supposed to represent in a liberal democracy.
One of the most powerful segments of Italian society, who has helped Silvio Berlusconi get into and consequently enabled him to remain in power, is from the political and financial power of the four-mafia clans in Italy. Controlling over ten percent of the entire $1.5 trillion dollar Italian economy, the four-mafia clans can easily influence, intimidate, and corrupt both the members of the political establishment as well as the people who live in the territories they control. For anyone naïve enough to think that the $130 billion dollar financial empire the mafia controls in Italy does not influence the political process, these same people probably still believe in the Easter Bunny, Santa Clause, and The Tooth Fairy.
According to a recent Bloomberg News Report,
the country’s main mafia groups, including the ‘Ndrangheta, boosted their profit 12 percent to more than 78 billion euros ($98 billion) in 2009, according to a January report by Rome- based anti-racketeering group SOS Impresa. Estimated revenue by Italy’s main mob groups rose 4 percent to 135 billion euros last year, SOS Impresa said. That exceeds the revenue of oil company Eni SpA, Italy’s biggest company by market value, and is almost 9 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.
The ‘Ndrangheta (pronounced en-DRANG-eta), traditionally based in the region that forms the toe of Italy’s boot-shaped peninsula, is made up of clans called ‘ndrine. Authorities now consider the group to be Italy’s most dangerous mafia, rivaling Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, due to rising wealth from its intermediary role in smuggling South American cocaine to Europe.
As documented in the investigative book by Alexander Stille, Excellent Cadavers, a major mafia member turned state witness, Antonino Calderone explained the political power a “man of honor” or a mafia member could wield in elections.
“Politicians would always come to us, because we control lots and lots of votes. To give you an idea, figure that each man of honor, between friends and relatives, disposes of at least 40 to 50 votes. There are about 1,500 to 2,000 men of honor in Palermo. Multiply by fifty and you get a nice block of 75,000 to 100,000 votes to steer toward friendly candidates and parties”
Alexander Stille then goes on to explain how the Italian Parliament is organized and how the relatively small number of votes a mafia boss could help get candidates and political parties sympathetic to the mafia into power.
“The large number of seats in the Italian parliament (945-one for roughly every 40,000 voters) has meant that a candidate can win with only several thousand votes. The existence of at least twelve major parties and Italy’s old propositional system make it even easier to manipulate results with well-placed blocks of votes.”
Considering that the mafia was started and has remained the dominant political power in southern Italy for the last 150 years, it is not improbable to infer that the political base of power Berlusconi has in southern Italy is derived from the political support of the four mafia clans operating in southern Italy. While the Christian Democrat party was able to remain in power for the entire time of the Italian First Republic due to the help of the mafia in southern Italy, the same can now be said of the political support the mafia has thrown behind the political party of Silvio Berlusconi. This declaration or analysis is not merely based on opinion or rumor, but on a recent court conviction of Marcello Dell’Utri for collusion with the mafia.
Marcello Dell’Utri is one of the key figures in mafia controlled Sicily, who helped Silvio Berlusconi attain the political support of the people and the institutions of organized crime in Sicily by becoming the leader of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia political party in Sicily.
Just as the Roman born Giulio Andreotti relied on the Sicilian politician Salvatore Lima who had ties to the mafia to keep Sicily loyal to the Christian Democratic Party during the Italian First Republic, it now appears that Silvio Berlusconi has used the same tactic with his partner ship with Marcello Dell’Utri. Protecting both his own reign on power and political control of Sicily, Silvio Berlusconi has helped Marcello Dell’Utri avoid any prison time by appointing him Senator for life. In Italy, when you are a member of the Parliament and have been convicted of a crime, you are allowed to remain out of prison and still receive a government salary for your position as a Senator.
The recent wire tapping law working its way through the corrupt corridors of the Italian Parliament, will allow the mafia clans in Italy as well as the political establishment continue their mockery of justice and the rule of law in Italy.
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