VIBO VALENTIA Tropea, the tourist capital of Calabria, sees its municipal council dissolved due to mafia infiltration for the second time in eight years. So the troika of commissioners arrives in the main holiday destination for foreigners, especially Germans, in our region. Same fate as It makesthe main university city of Calabria, and its neighbor Scylla which, although with different numbers, is the bright spot of beautiful Calabria also sanctified by successful video clips.
In Tropea there is confusion among the residents. The economy is buoyant, services are improving, promotion is finally adequate, and mayor Giovanni Macrì largely enjoys consensus. Looking at the Interior Ministry interviews the day after, one can observe a sort of internal shame that has fallen on the country that was the birthplace of the great star Raf Vallone. I have the impression that it is a sort of self-awareness that I dare to classify for the sake of one’s own genius loci. The news, I don’t think, had a national outcry, remaining confined to a few news reports, even the Everyday occurrence has not shown interest at the moment. My impression is that the dissolution will have no impact on the thriving local tourism industry.
The question remains, vital for us Calabrians, of understanding the mafia of Tropea, a place located in one of the territorial enclaves with the highest ‘ndrangheta danger in the region with new measures that could come from inspections in other municipalities in the area such as Nicotera and Mileto. The question of the legal nature that regulates this extreme measure returns like an Arabian phoenix, an emergency codicil born in Andreotti’s time with a law decree now modified as a regulation for the organization of local authorities. The tool no longer works for the present day. Not at all guaranteed as demonstrated by the case history of mayors who were not investigated or later acquitted who fell on the cleaver of the new inquisition. And even the documents have their own obscuration which, in a less than transparent way, does not immediately show the real reasons for a measure which deprives the citizens of the vote (in Tropea they were supposed to vote in the next round on 9 June) and the municipality of its representatives. Among other things, the tool doesn’t work at all, considering that, to remain in Tropea, the previous dissolution had been quite recent. For some time I have been thinking about the fact that the dissolutions have become instruments of political struggle between local factions that use the good faith of prefects and ministers for the predominance of power and which sometimes also give rise to some local media to launch self-interested campaigns against some mayor who is stingy with institutional advertising.
In the absence of reasons to understand the vulnerability of the administration in office, it is necessary to draw on the recent publications of the local media (in truth even L’Espresso a year ago in a piece pressed the button on many suspicious relationships of the administrators in office). In the viewfinder are some photos of the mayor’s wife who had published digital snapshots on social media with the wife of the local boss during holidays and aperitifs. Headlines also on the cemetery affair with a municipal employee, relative of a councilor with inconvenient relatives, involved in an affair that vilified corpses and who some time before had received a public recognition from the municipal administration, only to then file a civil action against the travet mortuary. From the previous inspection documents of 2016 it was ascertained that the mayor in office, Giovanni Macrì, was indicated as “the direct nephew of Gerardo Macrì, the latter having multiple criminal convictions, already under special surveillance, reported for aiding and abetting the absconding of the Limbadi boss Giuseppe Mancuso, recipient of a confiscation of one million euros as the boss’s figurehead”. It must be said clearly, if we know our reality well, that a photo of a baptism or a second degree relationship proves little and at most is a clue. Who among us hasn’t had a schoolmate who ended up enlisted in the ‘ndrine or a neighbor with whom he talked at the bar or in the doorway about the weather or football? In small businesses these contaminations of “good morning and good evening” are possible. Other things, obviously, are contracts, licenses and conditions.
In Tropea, however, the ‘ndrangheta exists. Nicola Gratteri, when he instructed the “Olympus” trial, immediately after the arrests indicated the capital of Calabrian tourism as a place where «the ‘ndrangheta asked for and obtained a bribe for any type of activity concerning the tourist system, from transport with ‘bus to the supply of food and even the control of the port of Tropea. We documented how entrepreneurs were forced to pay a monthly bribe worth up to 20 thousand euros.” Issues that go beyond municipal politics, which has also revitalized some seized assets for public use. And we are also certain that a hound like Gratteri, if he had smelled something in the town hall, would not have skimped on stamped paper, much less requested handcuffs. While waiting for the reasons for the dissolution, we remain perplexed once again about an instrument that complicates politics and perhaps unknowingly ends up favoring the new entrepreneurial ‘Ndrangheta.
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Voting will take place on June 9th Saint Lukea symbolic place of Calabria. Mayor Bruno Bartolo has not yet released his reservations regarding his candidacy. Administering Corrado Alvaro’s town is not easy due to the stigma that afflicts a place compromised by reputation and inconvenient citizens. The mayor reflects on what to do. The parties and politics are not very involved. In recent years, however, the Region has done its part with measures and appropriations. In recent days we have seen exponents of the glorious PRI exploring what to do in the country. I hope that Mayor Bartolo is still available to run. Without him I fear automatic commissionership without intervention from the Interior Ministry. As Calabrians we must cheer for S. Luca. Those who do not govern their municipality slow down local autonomy.
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First Ryanair flight from Reggio Calabria for the new routes and also a commander from Reggio Calabria as governor Occhiuto explained on his social networks. But the real good news is that from Reggio Calabria you can now fly to Tirana, Marseille, Manchester, Berlin and Barcelona. It also pairs well with the fact that the private company Uber will also be able to offer its chauffeured services in our region from June. To achieve this result, two laws and an appeal before the Constitutional Court were necessary because in Italy it is always difficult to modernize the country and its market. Don’t let the few taxi drivers on duty feel bad. If the system grows there will be customers for everyone.
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I read about a protocol between the Region and the Regional School Office to promote the study of Calabrian authors in our public schools. A lot of bureaucracy and decision makers had to be promoted to do what? Promote notices aimed at schools, projects aimed at in-depth study and knowledge of local culture and Calabrian authors, also through direct knowledge of the places narrated, the creation of cultural events, the organization of meetings, exhibitions, seminars and workshops, debates , publications that see schools as protagonists and that place the importance of books at the centre. All good and positive. I would like to observe that, despite the protocols, I believe there is a need to raise awareness among Literature teachers. In high school, I was lucky enough to study Alvaro and Misasi, watching my teacher Mario Bozzo’s program. And since I find myself I’ll add that in these managerial contexts among the authors only traditional ones appear and contemporaries such as Abate, Gangemi, Criaco, Dara, Aloe are never mentioned. I hope that these aspects will be discussed Taurianova which will soon begin its journey as Book Capital or in Turin at the Book Fair where I imagine Councilor Princi has been planning the institutional presence of Calabria for some time.
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