Saviano: “We must break the silence on the mafia’s presence in Lombardy”

Roberto Saviano defends his opinions, despite being fiercely attacked by the Internal Affairs Minister, Roberto Maroni, after a sentence about ‘Ndrangheta’s (a Calabrian mafia association) “intervening about the Northern League (Lega Nord)”, pronounced during his program on Raitre, “Vieni via con me”, aired on Monday night.

According to the Minister, the Northern League, his party, were seriously insulted, because Saviano, while talking about ‘Ndrangheta penetration in Lombardy quoted the meeting between one of the League’s regional councilmen and the alleged boss Pino Neri, thus exploiting that night’s episode. Saviano replied by saying that he did report correctly the fact that League’s councilman is not under investigation, but he points out that the story he told is based on the inquiry by Milan and Reggio Calabria’s anti-mafia commission.

In an interview published by Repubblica, Saviano explains “We could do much more than always picking on who tells the stories. We should consider the real facts, look beyond, and not just sighing in relief because the Northern League’s regional councilman was not arrested. We should wonder why ‘Ndrangheta’s members try to bring together their organisation and the Northern League. We should tell the truth, that the north of Italy is completely infiltrated by the mafia. I also want to talk about the section of the Northern League’s voters who let themselves be influenced by their leaders and seem to think that all the good things are in the North, and all the bad ones in the South. It’s not like that. Pretending that the ‘Ndrangheta is dirty when it uses guns and clean when it invests is a huge problem.”

Putting debates aside, though, still the fact remains that th emafia in Lombardy is an enormous problem and that Saviano wants to create a proper discussion about that: “I keep on criticising all the proclamations repeated after every arrest. And I criticise the cultural silence about mafia’s infiltration in Lombardy. It’s a crucial problem that entrepreneurs and Lombard politicians repress because they don’t want to make do without the drug-dealing capital invested in the region. My job is to break this silence.”