TO Castelvetrano those of 8 and 9 June are the first municipal elections without Matteo Messina Money. Captured after thirty years of in the rundied between rhetoric and sensationalism. An absence that had a place in election campaign. Between those who mafia hasn’t even mentioned it and those who have made it the central topic of the rallies, there are those who think that this is the moment of liberationof the ransom and of rebirth. But what changes, concretely, in these first administrative post Messina Denaro in the town of Trapani where he was born? Does his shadow remain? There was more freedom in taking the field or will there be any for the voters called to the polls? «These are questions asked by one mafia-centric perspective which, however, fails to go beyond the presumed omnipotence of Messina Denaro», comments a MeridioNews the anthropologist Antonio Vesco who, as a researcher at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Catania, also dealt with relations between mafia and society in the Trapani area.
TO CastelvetranoIn reality, we start again where we left off by taking a few steps back. To 2017 when, just five days after the elections, the Municipality had been dissolved due to infiltration by organized crime and, in particular, for the relationships between mafia and freemasonry. «It would in fact be simplistic to trace the Trapani mafia phenomenon to the figure of Messina Money – underlines Vesco – also because that is an area where, more than in others, the mafia is not just mafia or it is in forms that include a series of actors that we are not used to including within this definition». And this depends on the deep level of interaction and interpenetration with politics, entrepreneurs, freemasonry. «The exponents of the so-called gray areawhich is increasingly larger, can be inserted into the organization – analyzes the scholar – but in many cases they operate outside of it, with a considerable negotiating power». In this context, the role of Cosa Nostra is significant but not always central and dominant.
In this complex system of powers you insert a figure like that of Messina Moneybut the system works even without him. The now former super fugitive, Vesco points out, «has been attributed a top role even in recent years, but we do not know if and to what extent he has held a membership place of power. Certainly – he adds – it was a ferryman: the last representative of the massacre line of the Corleone mafia but also the first to operate as a joining link between what remained of Cosa Nostra and what the news defines today mafia bourgeoisie, rediscovering a concept that actually has a long history among those who analyze these phenomena.” This does not mean underestimating the weight and influence that the clans continue to have in the control of the territory, but understanding that mafiosi in the strict sense are not necessarily the central node of local power networks. «Messina Denaro – clarifies the anthropologist – it cannot be considered an independent variable of the local political-electoral context. Here we are faced with articulated and well-established dynamics. Unlike in the Palermo area, in these parts the mafiosi have always been part of an overall system cohesive and pacified. It’s about faceted figures, who often do not correspond to the image of the violent mafioso. They are perceived now as entrepreneurs now how politiciansand for this reason they still enjoy one today greater social legitimacy».
Basically a mafia non-violent which, for this reason, «determines a weaker response by civil society.” A phenomenon, in short, which raises the masses less, shakes consciences less, creates less social dissent: «And the possible consensus around politicians and entrepreneurs who are mafia or close to Cosa Nostra – continues Vesco – is perhaps perceived as less deplorable». A system in which – alive or dead, fugitive or captured – Messina Denaro alone does not make the difference. As in this electoral round a Castelvetrano which is a seven-way challenge. The outgoing mayor of the M5s returns Enzo Alfanowhile the Democratic Party relies on the former provincial secretary and current opposition councilor Marco Campagna. The center-right is also split with the lawyer Giovanni Lentini for Forza Italia and Mpa, while Fratelli d’Italia focuses on the dermatologist Salvatore Stuppia. They are added to them Salvatore Ficilisupported by South calls Norththe pharmacist Salvino Gangitano with The turning point for Castelvetrano and, last in order of submission of the application, Maurizio Abate with his list New air.
Even if, in reality, that of the aspiring mayor is a return: he had already tried it in the electoral roundthen stopped for a while dissolution a few days before the vote, in 2017. By «old repentant mafia of our territory» Abate had spoken in railing against Giuseppe Cimarosa, son of the justice collaborator Lorenzo Cimarosa and Messina Denaro’s cousin who publicly repudiated him. His statements, in which he denied the existence of the mafia and invited the young man to take the distances from the father’s choice, had been reported by Rosy Bindi to the national anti-mafia commission. For those words, after the Cimarosa’s lawsuitAbbot was condemned to pay a 600 euro fine for having it defamed.
