Law-and-order candidates do not come to hustings with greater credibility than Federico Cafiero de Raho. Until earlier this year, the 69-year-old Neapolitan was Italy’s chief anti-mafia prosecutor. Yet Mr Cafiero de Raho is not standing in the September 25 general election for either of the far-right parties that appear poised for government – the Brothers of Italy and the Northern League, whose leaders speak out daily and vehemently against crime, but relentlessly associate it with immigration.
It represents the idiosyncratic Five Star movement (m5s), tops its list of candidates for the Chamber of Deputies in two regions: Emilia-Romagna and Calabria, home of the ‘Ndrangheta, the most widespread globally of the four main Italian organized crime syndicates. (Italian law allows candidates to run in more than one constituency.) Another prominent former anti-Mafia prosecutor, Roberto Scarpinato, is on the m5s slate for the Senate in Calabria and Sicily, birthplace of Cosa Nostra.
At times disastrously amateurish, wracked by internal divisions and with less than a third of the support it enjoyed in the last election, the m5s nonetheless has an admirable record on organized crime. His 2018-2019 government coalition with the League, in which the Five Stars were main partners, introduced two laws that strengthen the fight against corruption and toughen penalties for political collaboration with organized criminals. More recently, the m5s has been at the forefront of efforts to prevent mafia trials, which are often extremely complex, from being subject to delays.
Issues of corruption and mafias have become intertwined as never before as the Cosa Nostra and the ‘Ndrangheta in particular have become more sophisticated. “The mafiosi no longer rely on violence or intimidation to obtain political acquiescence,” notes the candidate, who affirms that the Five Stars are the only party to tackle the file. “They’ve earned such prodigious sums from the narcotics trade that they can buy it.” Vittoria Baldino, second to Mr Cafiero de Raho on the five-star Calabria list, says the same goes for business. “Mafias have become more innovative. Their infiltration into the legitimate economy is a major obstacle to the development of Calabria and the whole country.
Coming from a noble family, Mr. Cafiero de Raho led the prosecution in one of the biggest trials against a cartel: the hitherto almost unknown Casalesi clan, an offshoot of the Neapolitan Camorra. It took 42 hearings just to read the indictment, and by the time the final appeal was heard in 2010, 12 years had passed.
Mr. Cafiero de Raho goes everywhere with a police escort these days. Won’t that hamper his campaign? He says he probably won’t hold rallies, but hoped to meet voters at factories, social centers, voluntary associations and similar smaller forums. The former anti-Mafia boss is all but assured of a seat, even though the m5s does not get more than the 10% awarded to it in recent polls. Once in parliament, he plans to use his experience and authority, accumulated over 43 years as a prosecutor, to push for further changes to the law. He already has plans for an amendment that would protect politicians and businessmen who come under pressure from organized criminals. “I will not hold back,” he warns. ■