Minister warns of Mafia influencing Italy’s March 4 election

Italy’s interior minister has voiced concern that the Mafia could influence the country’s general election on March 4.

There is a “concrete risk of the mafia influencing free choice,” Marco Minniti said during an event held by the anti-Mafia parliamentary commission.

“It is a threat to the most important thing in a democracy: freedom of choice,” Minniti said, adding that the clans are capable of influencing institutions and politics.

“There is too much silence on it.”

Tension is rising ahead of March elections in Italy after a wave of recent politically-related violence.

On Tuesday, a provincial leader of the neo-fascist Forza Nuova party was pulled off the street, tied up and beaten by an anonymous group in Sicily.

On the same day, in a separate incident in the central town of Perugia, an activist from the far-left Power to the People party suffered knife injuries after clashes with members of Casa Pound, another small neo-Fascist party.

A senior Italian bishop also voiced concern about Mafia violence event.

“I hear a deafening silence on the topic of the Mafia,” said Nunzio Galantino.

The three big Mafia organisations in Italy are Cosa Nostra from Sicily, the ‘Ndrangheta from Calabria and the Camorra from the Naples region.

For a long time their power has been felt far beyond the south of Italy.

Particularly the ‘Ndrangheta group is active in northern Italy and abroad and also has strong connections in the economy.