The Garcea case is one of those events which, when started on the sly, risk disrupting Turin politics. Domenico Garcea is a municipal councilor elected from the ranks of Forza Italia. His career in this legislature seems to be well underway. He is appointed vice president of the city council. He is also a member of the Legality Commission of the Municipality of Turin.
It is at this point, however, that something breaks. Davide Mattiello, former member of the anti-mafia parliamentary commission (now consultant) points out that the name of Domenico Garcea came up at the Fenice trial where the former regional councilor and party colleague of Garcea, Roberto Rosso, is accused by exchange vote: he would pay the bosses of the ‘Ndrangheta to have their support in the electoral campaign.
Domenico Garcea appears in the wiretapping because one of the bosses who must direct the vote on Rosso is Onofrio Garcea, his cousin.The director is not under investigation but – Mattiello wonders – it is advisable for the relative of a boss to sit on a sensitive commission such as the dedicated one. to legality?
Mattiello asks the politicians, but the only one to answer is Marco Grimaldi of Liberi Uguali and Verdi, who makes the question his own and asks the same questions to his colleagues.
The photo and the namesake uncle
Domenico Garcea, at this point, replies. He posts a photo of him with Onofrio Garcea. Here is the superboss! I love him, he is my father’s brother. He’s just a little stingy but he’s a great man. The move, however, is clumsy. It doesn’t take long to discover that the Onofrio Garcea portrayed is only a namesake of the boss mentioned in the trial papers. And to those who ask him to at least dissociate himself from his cousin’s actions, Garcea responds with a generic distance from all the mafias. Did the director want to make fun of his colleagues? Not everyone takes it well, organized crime is a serious matter. You can’t treat it as a gag.
Kinship or support in the election campaign?
In the meantime, our newspaper publishes a series of wiretaps. Not only is Domenico Garcea a cousin of the boss, but his sister is the companion of a boss. From the cards, however, it seems there is more than just family ties.
Political parties do not respond to the questions posed by Mattiello and Grimaldi. And indeed, they defend the Forza Italia colleague. The leitmotif is kinship: a man does not have to pay for the sins of his relatives, there are no media trials. The leader of the Democratic Party, Nadia Conticelli, goes so far as to quote Peppino Impastato, who has shown that you can fight the mafia even if you have it in your family.
The goal, however, seems to be badly aimed. What emerges from the cards is not mere kinship. In the interceptions it is clear that Onofrio Garcea has promised to Rosso that he would bring him votes, but to him he says plainly: “We are going to Rosso’s dinner, but tomorrow you vote ours … tomorrow you vote Garcea”. And in another interception, which deals with a car recovered for the electoral campaign, the same councilor of Forza Italia seems to be perfectly aware of the fact that the cousin boss is pulling the sprint in the elections.
The Democratic Party splits. If Conticelli mentions Impastato, the new provincial secretary of the DEM, Marcello Mazzù, dictates another line: starting with the guarantee of the party, the question of political expediency on the Garcea seat in the legality commission must be posed.
Caselli’s exhortation
We arrive today when a magistrate who has spent his life fighting organized crime and who still counts a lot in Turin tries to shake up city politics. Giancarlo Caselli, already during the investigation Minotauro had drawn a line: there are behaviors that are criminally relevant. And there are others that, although they cannot lead to a process, must be taken into consideration by the parties. Caselli at the time invited those parties, on the basis of inappropriate or excessively casual behavior in frequenting mafia members, to clean up the house. Was the advice followed?
Apparently not. It is still Caselli, now retired, who presses the parties: they have forgotten the lesson of Berlinguer, who had made a flag and a program of the moral question. Dismissing such sensitive issues by talking about media trials is harmful. There is a problem with the credibility of the policy. And bothering Peppino Impastato is perhaps too much: «Impastato’s courageous choice taught something else: the traumatic break with his kinship and the public denunciation of the mafia which for him was a mountain of m … a. Without ifs and buts”.
How will Turin politics behave now after this reprimand? Can he – in Caselli’s words – go back to closing his eyes?