There is no sign of reversing the plague of threats to mayors and public administrators:
in 2023 there were 315, practically one every 28 hours
. But the figure shows a decrease of 3.5% compared to 2022 (at the time there were 326), therefore far from the peak of 2018 (574). In the short space of a year, however, the threat scenario reveals an increase in cases in the centre-north (39% of the national total), in particular in the Center (from 30 to 39 cases) and in the north-east (from 35 to 43) . Even if the black area is the Cosentino. This is what emerges from the photograph taken by
Notice public
, which this morning in Rome at the headquarters of the National Press Federation presented the 2023 Report 'Administrators Under Fire'.
The black shirt of intimidation in 2023 was won - for the first time since 2016 - by Calabria, where there were 51 cases recorded by Public Notice (+21% compared to 2022), with a surge in cases in the Cosentino where the there were 15 cases of intimidation in 15 different municipal areas. At a regional level, the 51 cases in Calabria are followed by 39 in Campania (-20%), 35 in Sicily (-30%) and 32 in Puglia (-33%) . Coming last in this sad ranking are Marche (3 cases), preceded by Friuli Venezia Giulia (3), Basilicata (4) and Molise (4). Verbal threats and threatening phone calls are the most used at a national level (17% of cases), then there are fires (155), letters and messages (14.5%) and social networks (13% but increasing) . Another important data concerns the municipalities already dissolved due to the mafia, where according to the study 21% of the 315 acts of intimidation in 2023 took place (14 in Campania, 10 in Calabria, 10 in Sicily, 5 in Puglia and 3 in other regions) .
"We are not looking the other way, there will be constant support for mayors and administrators who are victims of threats. In cases of violence, whether verbal or via social media or directly to the person, there will be no discounts from the State, which c 'it is and is present', guaranteed the Undersecretary of the Interior Wanda Ferro who spoke at the presentation of the Report. The president of Notice Pubblico Roberto Montà pointed the finger "at the exercise of the power of force, which violates the paradigms of democracy". In many cases, he underlined, many victims do not report cases of 'minor' threats which then worsen over time: "these are failures to report which are based on an underestimation of the crimes, which always represents a serious mistake".
Flavio Stasi, mayor of Corigliano Rossano, a municipality in the Cosentino area among those most affected by the intimidation, also had his say at the presentation: "The threats come when delicate areas such as abuses of state property, cemetery spaces, commercial car parks and more. And then many citizens explain to you that to be a mayor you have to be a sort of super hero, which I dispute because in reality certain roles should be the prerogative of all good people."