Why Hasn’t the ISIS Mounted an Attack in Italy?
Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy’s police, stated that sooner or later, the ISIS will mount an attack in Italy. The question is, why hasn’t this happened already? Germany, France, Belgium and the United Kingdom have all suffered at the hands of ISIS sponsored terrorist attacks but Italy, a little surprisingly perhaps, remains unscathed. The […]
Sicilian Mafia – More Businesses in Palermo Say No to the Pizzo
Seven years ago, I wrote about businesses in Palermo, Sicily that were refusing to pay ‘pizzo’ extortion money to the Sicilian mafia. How is the situation today? Well, to find out, I spoke to Giusy Galluzzo of Addiopizzo, an organization that is working to end mafia extortion in Palermo. Ms Galluzzo told me that Addiopizzo is […]
Coincidentally, Italy’s Northern League Moves South
Once upon a time, Italy’s Lega Nord, Northern League, political party detested those who hailed from the nation’s south. Indeed, the Northern League once entertained the idea of splitting Italy into two effectively separate nations – the unruly south and the virtuous north. No more. Today, the Northern League is in the hands of gruff […]
Communion and Liberation – An Unholy Italian Organisation?
Every year as summer draws to a close, Italy’s media fills with reports of two major meetings. One is the Meeting for friendship among peoples and the other is the Ambrosetti Forum. Both are attended by Italian and international movers and shakers. Usually, Italy’s prime ministers make an appearance at these meetings too. This year, 2014, Italy’s latest […]
Mafia Inc Invests in Slow Food and Obtains EU Funding
Italy’s organized crime groups are always on the look out for ways to diversify their incomes and, most probably, to launder chucks of illicit earning from other illegal business enterprises at the same time. Well, how about the slow food sector and why not attempt to seek a little European Union assistance to boot? According […]
The Pope Excommunicates the Mafia
Last weekend, addressing a crowd of over 200,000, Pope Francis told mafia members that they embrace evil and that they will be excommunicated. In the battle to rid Italy of the mafia scourge, the significance of the Pope’s words are not to be underestimated. “The ‘ndrangheta is worship of evil and contempt for the common good,”…” that is bad…”…”and […]
The Convicted Berlusconi Man in a Beirut Hospital
Last Friday, Marcello Dell’Utri, was definitively convicted of acting as a link between Milan’s business elite and Italy’s Sicilian mafia. Ex-Italian senator Dell’Utri is the co-founder of Italy’s Forza Italia political party, a long time associate and reputedly close friend of Italy’s ex-prime minister and other Forza Italia founder, one convict Silvio Berlusconi. Under normal […]
Italy’s Mafia Issue – Is Mafia Power Growing or Falling?
Is the mafia still a problem for Italy? The Berlusconi government claimed it seized a record number of mafia assets and arrests of mafia bosses do seem commonplace. However, reports of the mafia infiltrating Italy’s local councils and of councils being dissolved because of mafia control pop up in Italy’s press regularly too. Preparations for […]
Italy’s Mafia Plague Spreads to Germany
Der Spiegel recently ran an article on how the Italian mafia is infiltrating Germany. From the article, it sounds as if the German authorities don’t yet know how to deal with their growing mafia problem. Even more worrying for Germany is that Italy’s mafia is having the same disasterous effect on the economy in the Cologne […]
