Lamezia Terme – There were 315 acts of intimidation, including attacks, threats and vandalism, against mayors, local administrators and public administration employees registered in 2023, 3.5% less than in 2022, when there were 326.
This was made known by Noticeo Pubblico, the Association that today brings together 584 local authorities and regions committed to promoting the culture of democratic legality, which every year, for over ten years, has published the “Administrators under fire” report.
The study, presented yesterday during the thirteenth edition of “Trame. Festival of books on mafias” underway in Lamezia Terme, in addition to reporting the data, analyzes the phenomenon in its complexity, identifying the Regions and Provinces most affected and distinguishing intimidation and threats by type.
With 51 episodes, for the first time since 2016 Calabria is the most affected region. In particular, in the province of Cosenza alone, 30 were registered in 15 different municipal areas. Followed by Campania, Sicily and Puglia. More generally, 55% of cases of aggression and threats occur in municipalities with a population of less than 20 thousand, while 21% refer to administrations recently dissolved due to mafia infiltration. This is a case which concerns 42 municipalities.
“The report aims to focus on the problem of acts of intimidation against local administrators, but it also aims to give hope to the country and demonstrate that not all politicians are subject to a type of rules that discourages people and that invites them to turn to another status which is not that of law, but that of the mafia”, declared Michele Abbaticchio, Vice President of Public Notice, during his speech to Trame.
“According to the report, Calabria once again becomes the first region with the most acts of intimidation suffered,” commented Giuseppe Politanò, Deputy Mayor of Polistena and Regional Coordinator of Public Notice in Calabria, during the Trame debate entitled “The Courage of Every Day” . “Perhaps that sense of courage that is often required of our local administrators is stronger in the collective imagination of the country than in the daily reality of our mayors. In fact, I think we have reached a point where that choice, that is, to be courageous, coincides with normality. Being yourself and putting the interest of the community at the centre, these are the things that a good administrator must always keep in mind”.
