Is German politics one of the mafia’s most important godfathers? This is the impression that the listeners of this exciting and very insightful podcast by Birgit Tanner and Helena Piontek quickly get. This podcast was published by SWR. You can call it up on the ARD Audiothek website. Unfortunately only – as usual – for a limited time. But you can also download the episodes onto your own PC or laptop. But you have to be patient: the podcast consists of eight episodes of around 40 minutes each.
It’s not about murder and manslaughter, as they are known from relevant mafia films. It is about building a different economy, as the two podcasters make clear, about an opaque economy decoupled from any democratic control and regulation, about a parallel economy in which the law of the strongest applies.
The focus of the eight podcast episodes is the Stuttgart pizza maker Mario L. His father came to Germany as a migrant worker from Calabria in southern Italy. After a moderate school education, Mario L. set up a pizzeria, which also enjoyed a good reputation among celebrities in Stuttgart. The former Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg and later EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger was also a close friend of the popular pizza baker for many years. The friendship went so far that Mario L. supported the prime minister and his party, the CDU, with campaign donations.
But as early as the 1990s, the suspicion arose that Mario L. was an influential member of the Calabrian mafia – more precisely: the Ndrangheta. But it was only in 2018 that Mario L., who is now considered one of the leading figures of the ‘Ndrangheta, was tried and convicted in Italy – although the decision of the third appeal court is still pending, as the two journalists emphasize.
The podcast traces the career of Marion L. as far as it can be researched. The two authors work out two important aspects: On the one hand, they make it clear how the Ndrangheta, which today is classified as the largest and most effective criminal organization in the world, works. Clumsy extortions for protection money have been replaced by much more sophisticated strategies, which sometimes are not even recognized as criminal acts by German courts. The two journalists describe this type of modern crime – in my opinion, completely correct – as a kind of informal and unregulated form of the economy. That’s why I called it the parallel economy in the title of this post. Because that is exactly the kind of economy that the Ndrangheta has gradually developed and implemented behind a facade of apparent legality.
On the other hand, the ‘Ndrangheta obviously very skilfully gained a not inconsiderable and not without danger influence on politics in the Federal Republic – to the great chagrin of the Italian mafia hunters. The authors refer to Günther Oettinger as an example. Of course he didn’t order any murders from Ndrangheta. But it is unclear whether and, if so, what kind of consideration was provided for Mario L.’s party donations to Oettinger and the CDU. Something in return for obstructing criminal prosecution by German authorities. At least one investigator who did not want to be satisfied with an acquittal of Mario L., but wanted to subject his financial situation to a special police investigation, was released from pursuing the Mario L. case and transferred to another federal state. There is no concrete evidence of political influence on this transfer of the investigator. But as is so often the case, there are results that can be accidental, but which one does not necessarily have to understand as coincidence. Such ambivalences naturally invite speculation. But Birgit Tanner and Helena Piontek did not succumb to this temptation.
This podcast gives a highly exciting insight into a social area that usually consciously eludes prying eyes. At least German politics and the judiciary do not seem to be particularly interested in it either. According to the podcasters, the developments described are suitable in the medium term for disintegrating a democratic society and a halfway functioning public administration, as Italian mafia hunters emphasize.