2 September 2007

The pizzo and the Confindustria

Prodi has said that the decision to eject from the Confindustria those business people who pay the pizzo is: “A great example”. Many others have said they are in agreement.
However I believe it is a big mistake.
To eject someone who is suffering extortion by the mafia without first removing the causes, without bringing once more under the control of the State whole areas in which criminality is governing is against logic.
The causes are being confused with the effects and action is being taken simply against these. The windscreen cleaners can be beaten by preventing the entrance of clandestines into Italy and making their expulsion really effective, not by criminalizing those who wash the windscreens of a car. The same is true for those who pay the pizzo. The causes should be eliminated, even the political causes, those that determine the strength of the mafia before asking for money from those who are its victims. Rather than expelling the business people who pay the pizzo, they should expel the business people who do business with the mafia, in Sicily and in the North, and who owe their fortunes to the mafia. They should also expel the administrators of the Public Administration in Sicily if they have relations with mafia people that can be demonstrated. And finally the business people who have been convicted for crimes like corruption, kick backs, false accounting and tax dodging, should also be expelled from the Confindustria. When Luca Cordero di Montezemolo suggests these expulsions I will give him my congratulations.

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Justice