There are 315 acts of intimidationof threats and violence directed during the year against mayors, councilors, city and municipal councilors, regional administrators, public administration employees, recorded by Public Notice throughout the country. An intimidation every 28 hours, with Calabria reaching the sad record of the region in which serving the community is most dangerous. After the peak recorded in 2018 (574 intimidations), five years later the figure was almost halved (-45%), the lowest since 2021: – 3.5% compared to 2022, when there were 326, but still a dramatically high figure. These and other important data, accompanied by stories and analyses, are contained in the 2023 Report “Administrators under fire” drawn up by Notice Pubblico, the association – coordinated at national level by Pierpaolo Romani and chaired by Roberto Montà, founded in 1996 to bring together public administrators who are committed to promoting the culture of democratic legality. Compared to 2022, the breakdown of cases by geographical macro areas sees an increase in intimidation in the Centre-North (39% of the national total), in particular in the regions of the Center (from 30 to 39 cases) and the North-East (from 35 to 43 ).
The four most problematic regions
For the first time since 2016, Calabria is the first region most affected by acts of intimidation. There are 51 cases registered by Public Notice in the Calabrian territory (+21% compared to 2022), the only one of the four regions in which the so-called historic mafias which is recording an increase in registered cases. In fact, this is followed by Campania (39 cases, -20%), Sicily (35 cases, -30%) and Puglia (32 cases, -33%). Together they account for 50% of the acts of intimidation recorded in 2023 on the national territory. Tuscany (20 cases) takes the title of the most affected region in the central-northern area, the same number recorded in Sardinia. For both there is an increase of more than 20% in the cases registered compared to 2022. The top 10 positions are closed by Lombardy and Veneto (19), Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna (17). After many years, Naples (21 cases registered) leaves the unenviable record of the most affected province on the national territory to Cosenza, where 30 acts of intimidation were recorded in 15 different municipal areas. In the provincial ranking, Palermo (12), Turin, Foggia and Reggio Calabria (9) follow.
Physical threats, fires, threatening letters, but also use of social media
For the first time in the Directors Reports under fire verbal threats and threatening phone calls appear to be the most used types of threat at a national level (17% of cases), followed by fires (15%, slightly decreasing), sending letters, cards and threatening messages (14.5%, stable) and the use of social networks (13%, increasing). Analyzing the territorial contexts confirms a substantial difference already revealed in previous years: the local administrator from the South must face intimidation and threats conveyed in very different ways compared to those of a colleague from the Centre-North. Fires, once again the first type of threat in the South and on the Islands (one case in four), are not among the five most common types in the Centre-North. Similarly, offensive writings and social networks, which together represent around 40% of the cases registered in the Centre-North, the South and the Islands, are not among the top five most used typologies.
Intimidation against women administrators
The cases of direct and indirect threats involving women were 17% of the total. Compared to 2022, when social networks and threatening letters were the most used types to intimidate administrators and employees, in 2023 one in three cases (31.5%) saw the use of fire. The Public Notice Report has been focusing for some years on the intimidation that comes to local administrators and public administration staff from ordinary citizens. Episodes and situations that have a specific weight on the total number of cases registered, equal to 26% in 2023 (stable percentage compared to 2022).
21% of the 315 cases recorded by Public Notice in 2023 occurred in Municipalities which in a more or less recent past were dissolved due to mafia infiltration. These acts of intimidation involved 42 municipalities.
The sad “primacy” of Calabria
As mentioned at the beginning, Calabria has the primacy of acts of intimidation. In 47% of the documents registered last year in Calabria –
occurred in 31 municipalities in the region – the types most used to threaten administrators or staff of local authorities were the burning or damage of cars, houses, owned land, vehicles used for waste collection or municipal structures. 60% of the cases registered in 2023 have occurred
consumed in the province of Cosenza, which is also the most affected Calabrian territory since 2010, with 252 cases (second place nationally after Naples). The other provinces of the region are ranked as follows: Reggio Calabria (229 cases in 14 years, third place nationally), Catanzaro (113 cases, 13/mo), Vibo Valentia (111 cases, 14/mo), Crotone (96 cases, 19th place). However, 15 Cosenza municipalities will be affected by the phenomenon in 2023,
10% of the total present in the province. From 2010 to 2023, the intimidating acts recorded by Public Notice in Calabria were 801, at an average of 57 cases each year. This data places the region in second place for the number of threats recorded in the period, behind Sicily (862) and
ahead of Campania (794). In the period there were 198 Municipalities
Calabrians affected by acts of intimidation, 49% of the total present in the region.
«A worrying growth»
«Every year the publication of the report requested by Notice Pubblico – states the regional coordinator for Calabria Giuseppe Politanò, deputy mayor of Polistena – measures the state of danger in which administrators find themselves in Italy and since last year also in Europe. In addition to the quantitative data, the report continues to be a necessary tool that underlines presence
violence of the mafias that influence the activities of public administrations and the numerous other forms of intimidation which, even after the pandemic, are marking a new dimension and perception of local administrators by citizens. After several years, unfortunately, Calabria returns to being the first Italian region in terms of number of acts
intimidating and presents higher numbers of intimidations compared to the previous year”. There are municipalities and entire provincial areas in which carrying out the task of local administrator is prohibitive to say the least, including fires, physical attacks, threatening letters, insults and defamation on social networks”.
The relationships between the mafia and politics and two-speed Italy
The president of Notice Pubblico Roberto Montà comments on the cases in the Report: «Even in 2023 the data show an Italy that travels at two speeds: a South in which the phenomenon is still expressed in a very violent and reiterated manner: one case in four, there have been fires of cars and homes, of municipal structures and vehicles. A Centre-North where intimidation, although less violent, has increased compared to 2022.” And again: «In 2023, in continuity with previous years, local administrators already in office were threatened and also those who ran for public office. A fact not to be underestimated on the eve
of an electoral round that in June 2024 will see 47% of Italian municipalities renew councils and councils. The vote will also concern some Regions and the European Parliament. The vulnerability of those territories which have seen municipalities dissolved due to mafia infiltration is confirmed, also for the past year. Evidence of that link between the mafia and politics which the law approved in 1991, albeit with some critical issues that Noticeo Pubblico has highlighted for some time, has repeatedly allowed to be broken. Don’t make the mistake of confusing the need to reform a law that has been passed
more than thirty years ago, with the delegitimization of a regulation that has known, but surmountable, limits, as our Association has also highlighted in institutional settings””.
Tags: hours Calabria top rankings
