“The Mafia settles in places where we spend and where we control”

En France, the arrest of Matteo Messina Denaro should be an opportunity to talk about the extraordinary power of the Mafia. Let’s compare the biggest sources of income: the criminal economy is the only one to rival that of oil. In Italy alone, the wealth from drug trafficking is estimated at some 400 billion euros, according to a major survey carried out in 2020 by the National Anti-Mafia Directorate.

In such a context, the inadequacy of political debate and international policies, which are still too rare, is obvious. More than anything, Europe must discuss this question: how does the illegal economy manage to gain ground on the legal economy to the point of putting us in this oh so dangerous situation of no longer being able to draw a border between the of them ?

However, we only talk about criminal organizations, mafias and their interests when a bloodthirsty fugitive is arrested after thirty years on the run. Also, after the clamor of these first days, I bet that silence will return very quickly.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers On the trail of Matteo Messina Denaro, the last godfather of the Sicilian Mafia

Matteo Messina Denaro, the last king of the Corleonesi clan, the last representative of a mafia that belongs to the past, is part of this generation that attacked the state through the terrorist struggle. Why did Toto Riina’s Cosa Nostra, to which Matteo Messina Denaro adhered fervently, decide in the 1990s to deploy such a violent strategy? Because she is convinced that the State is nothing but an emanation of the criminal organization, which brings her ballot papers and, in many cases, chooses her officials, her leaders, her mayors .

An atypical leader

However, this same State ends up no longer being able to protect Cosa Nostra: for the first time, thanks to the anti-Mafia pool of Palermo led by the magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, it has within it enemies capable of opposing to her.

This part of the state decides to attack Cosa Nostra, which then multiplies the massacres with the aim of forcing justice to retract and have those arrested acquitted. In these years when the anti-Mafia pool carries out its investigations, executions, kidnappings, bombs devastate the whole of Italy, and send a clear message to the State: “Go back, let the organization pursue its business and , above all, keep your word – give us your protection in exchange for the votes that Cosa Nostra brings you – or you will have no peace”.

You have 76.21% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.

source site-30