“Everyone must do their part in the fight against the mafia, I am also referring to politics that must keep its electoral promises, especially with regard to the most degraded neighborhoods. The fairy tale that the mafia is defeated is a fairy tale that we must forget. Because, let’s be clear, even if many results have been achieved and many mafia bosses have been arrested, the mafiosi have not disappeared. They have simply readapted, they are fluid, they are everywhere and they have understood that shooting is not worthwhile, and that shooting is only necessary when it is essential. But they exist and they are very strong, and they have their pool in the poor people who are not given answers. And who perhaps find answers in the deviant offer of organized crime”. This is the strong denunciation of the Attorney General of the Court of Appeal of Palermo, Lia Sava, during the awarding of the Kalsa Prize 2024, in the Garden of the Righteous in Palermo. During a conversation with Adnkronos journalist Elvira Terranova, the high-ranking magistrate wanted to remember: “When there was Covid, and it was clarified by the sentences, where the State aid did not arrive, the aid of the mafia arrived. This creates perverse ties”. And he reiterated that “the mafia bourgeoisie is alive and well, and also the para-mafia bourgeoisie…”.
Then he continues: “I go around the degraded neighborhoods and I realize more and more that it is there that we have to take manpower away from organized crime. Because very often if these people had bread, they would be on the side of the State, on the side of legality. And they would be difficult to recruit”. “I heard a boy from the schools where I spoke about legality say to me: ‘You speak well, doctor, but if my father is in prison, if the mafioso doesn’t help us, my mother will go and prostitute herself and I don’t want my mother to prostitute herself’. That’s the gist. In short, people are hungry. There are kids who wander around among the garbage to eat”.
‘We magistrates and the police cannot remain holding the bag’
And Attorney General Sava wanted to express his “solidarity” with the Attorney for Minors of Palermo Claudia Caramanna, whose bodyguards were recently reinforced after yet another intimidation. “It is there, in minors, that we must look to try to protect the kids. We cannot see the reality of kids who get high. And then go and sell drugs to earn another dose”. “That’s why I thank, as the organizational head of the prosecution, all the magistrates and the police, but we cannot be left holding the baby”. Then Deputy Prosecutor Sava adds: “What is happening in this historical phase? That there are priests who are following, in some way, the example of Father Puglisi (the priest killed by Cosa Nostra, ed.) and who are opening places to give snacks to needy children, from Ballarò to Borgo Nuovo and Danisinni. But then, if we go and look, we are talking about dilapidated structures and it is necessary to intervene to safeguard the healthiness of the places. I am thinking of the example of Father Puglisi or Libero Grassi”, the entrepreneur killed for having opposed the payment of the pizzo.
“I say it many times but I repeat it: Father Puglisi was killed because in Brancaccio, in the land of the very powerful Graviano brothers, he had taken a ball and some snacks and took the children to play and eat the snacks, but the Graviano bosses didn’t like it. And they had him killed. If all the priests in Palermo had opened their oratories, would they have killed them all? In my opinion, no.”
And then he talks about the pizzo. “The extortion phenomenon is certainly not over, even if drugs are more profitable for the mafia. But things have changed in recent years – says Attorney General Sava – While before it was the mafia boss who went to the entrepreneur, put the bottle and said ‘pay’. Now it is the entrepreneur who goes to the mafia boss and says ‘How much do I owe you to be safe?’, a sort of business cost. This is simply horrifying. So, can we ever say that the mafia is finished in the face of these things? If all the entrepreneurs in Palermo had said no to the pizzo like Libero Grassi did, would they have killed them all? No. We must all make the ethical leap together”.
‘It’s not enough to go to mass, you have to be a good Christian but also an honest citizen’
“And also the Church – says Lia Sava – it is not enough to go to mass on Sunday and then forget that we must be good Christians. But first we must be honest citizens and not turn a blind eye when we see the ‘stricarsi’ (the rubbing together in Sicilian, ed.) between good people and mafiosi, because as the Palermo prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia also says, the mafia bourgeoisie is alive and well, and I say, even the para-mafia bourgeoisie is alive and well. As Falcone said, if we want the mafia phenomenon to end, we must all do it together, otherwise we return to the paradox of when it was said that the mafia does not exist. And we cannot allow that”.
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