Italy has recently regained worldwide attention because of a
very unflattering title: most corrupt country in the EU. Transparency
International in its annual Corruption Index ranked Italy 69th out
of 175 countries, last in the EU together with Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.
The result was the same in 2013, and, believe it or not, it was actually an
improvement from 2012, when Italy was ranked 72nd.
Shortly after the report was published, “Mafia Capitale”
exploded. It emerged that a criminal organization operating in Rome, and a
local one, not a transplanted “traditional” mafia, had deep-rooted links to
local politics, police and business.
The New York Times described Italy as a “country where corruption is taken for granted as a part of daily life”
and that “no corner of Italy is immune from criminal penetration”, not without a reason.
That corruption is found everywhere in the country, and not
only in the southern regions, is quite clear now. Two very prominent cases that
were uncovered during the last months in northern Italy are Expo 2015 and the
MOSE project. These are examples of what in academia is known as “grand
corruption”, aka the payment of a bribe in order to obtain a major contract.
The 2015 Universal Exposition is supposed to take place next
year in Milan. Starting in May 2014, a series of scandals saw members of all
the main political parties arrested and investigated for irregularities in
awarding public contracts. The extent of the problem is believed to be so large
that Raffaele Cantone, the magistrate who is President of the new-born National
Anti-corruption Authority, was nominated head of the Expo to monitor the
situation.
Raffaele Cantone, President of the National Anti-corruption Authority
Venice was also shaken by the MOSE investigation. The
project of mobile gates to protect the city from flooding recently saw 35
people arrested, including mayor Giorgio Orsoni who eventually negotiated a
plea bargain. According to allegations, Orsoni took money to illegally fund his
electoral campaign from Consorzio Venezia Nuova, the firm who won the MOSE
contract.
In these cases, politicians usually defend themselves saying
that those who are caught are a couple of “rotten apples”. Journalist Marco
Travaglio claimed that “the basket itself is rotten”, so every good apple goes
bad too. In addition, this is also a cultural problem. Magistrate Cantone
stresses this point, saying that in Italy there is a “cultural underestimation”
of corruption: when a new scandal comes up, “we live moments of daily outrage
which vanish shortly after”. He added that the parliament has “different
sensibilities” about the topic -he put it in an extremely soft way, to say the
least.
PM Matteo Renzi said
that the government will introduce a bill that focuses on four main points to
fight corruption: longer prison terms so that even if a culprit negotiates a
plea bargain he still has to spend some time in jail; easier requisition of culprits’
properties; need for corrupt to pay back everything they stole; longer
procedural time limits, so that the corrupt have less chances to get away with
it. Cantone said that the latter is a very positive step, although more should
be done, such as focusing more on promoting transparency and reuse confiscated
properties in a productive way to send a positive message and start changing
citizens’ attitudes.
For those who speak Italian, you can watch Cantone’s
interview at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py5HWWHQ-kE, while Renzi’s message can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rFDC9T0Aps&feature=youtu.be
Here instead is the link to The New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/world/italy-gasps-as-inquiry-reveals-mobs-long-reach.html
