Mafia, 387 organisations dissolved since 1991, 15 during the Meloni government

Since 1991, there have been 387 dissolutions of local administrations for mafia infiltration - almost one per month - out of a total of 463 inspections. The data was presented to the Council of Ministers by Matteo Piantedosi, head of the Viminale, in an ad hoc briefing prompted by the clamour surrounding the dispatch of the inspection commission to Bari, three months before the elections, and the clash with mayor Antonio Decaro.

Of the 387 dissolutions (380 municipalities and 7 ASLs) that have occurred in the last 33 years, i.e. since the institution came into force, 133 have been decided by the Renzi government to date and in only one case has the judiciary annulled the measure. The Meloni government, as the Viminale had already made known in recent days. has dissolved 15 of them: 4 led by the centre-right, 3 by the centre-left, 8 by civic lists. In particular, five are in Calabria (four civic lists and one close to the centre-right), three in Campania (two centre-left and one centre-right), four 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 after the executive took office. There are 22 municipalities currently managed by extraordinary commissioners following their dissolution for infiltration.

Piantedosi was keen to emphasise that Bari's is not the first case of a large city for which inspection access is ordered: it had happened in Rome, where the 15th municipality of Ostia), Reggio Calabria, Lamezia Terme, Foggia, and 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 for the protection of the local administrators themselves who, in that seat, will be able to offer any useful element of evaluation". The Viminale's argument, from the outset, was based on the presentation of the inspection access as a 'guarantee' for the municipality itself: should elements of compromise in the administrative structure emerge, Piantedosi explained, 'the employees involved may be suspended or assigned to another office'.

The minister recalled the two ongoing judicial investigations in Puglia's capital that triggered the inspection: one concerns the activities of mafia clans in the city, which has led to the arrest of more than 130 people accused of mafia association, vote exchange and of favouring 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 22 February, has been placed under judicial administration by the Court of Bari, entrusted to the leadership of a manager chosen by the judge. This appointment was made in accordance with Article 34 of the anti-mafia code," the minister pointed out, "which provides that a company is placed under receivership if there is evidence of direct or indirect conditioning of its economic activities by criminal associations, or when it facilitates the interests of the clans in some way.

Piantedosi defended himself against the accusation that he had decided to launch the inspection immediately after a meeting (immortalised by a photo) with Puglia's centre-right parliamentarians, led by Justice Undersecretary Francesco Paolo Sisto and Brindisi's deputy Mauro D'Attis. 'A political ambush', the mayor had called it. "A delegation of centre-right MPs was received at the Viminale," the minister said in the Council of Ministers, "as was mayor Decaro to whom, in the following days, the decision to launch the inspection was also anticipated, out of fairness. The commission of enquiry appointed by the prefect of Bari took office last Monday and is composed of a retired prefect, Claudio Sammartino, deputy prefect Antonio Giannelli and Scico major of the Guardia di Finanza Pio Giuseppe Stola. "All members with specific experience in preventing and combating mafia infiltration," Piantedosi guaranteed. Their work will last three months, extendable for another three. It is not certain, therefore, that the verdict will come in the event of a runoff.