(ANSA) - Anti-Mafia investigators in Calabria believe the murder of an important local politician on Sunday could be a warning from local clans to the region's administrators.
The killing of Francesco Fortugno, deputy chairman of the regional 'parliament', was probably linked to the Calabrian mafia's interest in influencing the management of health services, investigative sources said. Fortugno, 54, was shot five times by a masked assassin on Sunday as he voted in centre-left primary elections in the Calabrian town of Locri. The slaying is thought to have been ordered by the powerful 'ndrangheta crime syndicate.
The victim was a former doctor who continued to deal with health issues as a centre-left politician. He had influence over state contracts and the allocation of jobs in the sector. The location of the murder - a polling station - made investigators suspect a political motive. Investigators are looking for signs that his activity had interfered with 'ndrangheta interests.
Fortugno, a member of the centre-left Margherita party, won election to the regional assembly last April with more votes
than anyone else in the party. Local anti-Mafia detectives are considering the possibility that crime bosses wanted to send a signal to the centre left in general, given that it controls the regional assembly.
The head of the regional government, Agazio Loiero, had few doubts on the question. "There is a logic here. In Calabria there are people who want nothing in the domain of the criminal powers to change," he said. Loiero said his administration had taken a firm line against the 'ndrangheta since being elected last spring and that this line had been noticed.
The killing produced a chorus of condemnation from politicians in Rome. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who sent a message expressing his condolences to Fortugno's wife, called it a "vile" act.
ITALY'S MOST POWERFUL CRIME SYNDICATE.
Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu travelled to the regional capital of Catanzaro to talk with police and investigators in the wake of the murder. "This atrocious crime gives a tragic image of security in this tormented region where the 'ndrangheta holds its
sinister power," he said in a speech to the regional assembly.
"We are up against Italy's most powerful criminal organisation, whose influence reaches into various countries in Europe and even overseas." The minister rejected the idea, voiced by certain prosecutors and centre-left politicians, that the state had
abandoned Calabria to its fate, leaving it at the mercy of ruthless gangsters.
"In Calabria the state is present but it will be even more so when the region is able to produce the necessary antibodies to beat this deeply rooted phenomenon," Pisanu said.
Pisanu, accompanied by top police officials, then went into a meeting with Loiero, saying he intended to finalise initiatives to "handle this difficult situation." The 'ndrangheta, composed of at least 75 clans spread over the region, is believed to generate an annual turnover of some 35 billion euros, more than the region's legal economy.
Since 1995, 30 town councils have been dissolved because they were deemed to be controlled by the 'ndrangheta. Last year, 89 local administrators received threats.
