They talk about everything except Santapaola: the embarrassing silence of Catania's politics

Catania capital of culture 2028; the rule for the third term of mayors; the nurseries of housing blocks; the meeting "Women, innovation and inclusion"; the growth of Fratelli d'Italia in the sixth municipality; the closeness of the Schifani government to the florists affected by bad weather; the conference on Sicily as a productive and logistical hub; the earthquake in Ragalna; Marco Pannella ten years after his passing; the referendum on justice.

These are some of the topics on which Catanese politics has intervened since the death of Nitto Santapaola, four days ago, on March 2. Every morning, hundreds of press releases flood the inboxes of newspaper editorial offices: events, controversies, births, deaths, appointments, conferences, arrests, contracts, allocated funds, wasted resources. There is time and space to intervene on everything. To say something. Not about the death of the head of Cosa Nostra in Catania, who like few others has marked the history and development of the city over the last 60 years. For 33 years, the massacre perpetrator allied with the Corleonesi was under the 41bis regime. And there he died, with the final chapter in the healthcare center of the Milanese prison of Opera.

The only public comment found is that of a provincial leader of Italia Viva, Carmelo Finocchiaro. "The boss Nitto Santapaola has died but there is still much work to do to make his clan disappear - he wrote - Freeing Catania and Sicily from the mafia octopus is a moral and political duty of all political forces and therefore we of Italia Viva demand a cleaning of the institutions, a tough fight against the mafias, and the removal of mafia collaborators from the institutions".

For the rest, silence. From the local administrators of Catania, present and past. From the 36 city councilors. From the 15 regional deputies from the Etna area. From the four national parliamentarians. And also from the world of productive categories, professions, and broader associations, there have been few reflections. Some may have considered it rhetorical or superfluous to speak, others inappropriate or inconsistent. The result is that the end of Nitto Santapaola has slipped away without seizing the opportunity to analyze the system that has supported him for decades and that has contributed to shaping what Catania is today: the model of entrepreneurial mafia, accepted and supported because it is useful to a part of the city. 

"The silence of politics and large parts of Catanese society - comments Enzo Guarnera, lawyer and president of the Association "Antimafia and Legality" who recently spoke on this issue - can be explained in many ways. The fact is that among the political class there are few people of substance and with the ethical tension that Paolo Borsellino spoke of, who today is remembered in a hypocritical and formal manner for the anniversary of his death. Some have not distanced themselves clearly from organized crime, with which part of the political class continues to have electoral ties. As a lawyer, over the years I have listened to 200 collaborators and gathered numerous confidences about these connections without the possibility of finding evidence. I can say with Pasolini, "I know but I don't have the proof". Then there is another world that is certainly not colluded that probably underestimates, there is a lack of analysis of what the mafia has become. Hence the silence also regarding the death of Santapaola." 

Something that did not happen on November 17, 2017, for the death of Totò Riina. Already in the first minutes following the news and for days, from the administrators of Corleone to the ministers, there was a flood of comments. "Riina will take many secrets with him," said the then President of the European Council Antonio Tajani. "All the pain for those who lost their lives fighting against him and against the criminal system he had created comes back to life," were the words of Renato Schifani, who was then leading the Senate. "He is an important and burdensome part of this city - commented the former mayor of Corleone Pippo Cipriani -. Of course, it is not news that leaves the people of Corleone indifferent, even if there are few who comment on it."

And again, among others, Matteo Salvini ("Should I cry? Should I say I'm sorry? I can't do it. I save my tears for his victims"); the minister Angelino Alfano ("From today Italy is better"); the mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando ("It calls for the urgency and necessity to shed light on many dark episodes of Italian and Sicilian history that involved him"). But the list would be much longer. 

The same river of words six years later, for the death of Matteo Messina Denaro. Starting with the president of the national anti-mafia commission Chiara Colosimo ("It is the exact photograph of the end of one season and the beginning of another mafia season"), moving on to the undersecretary Andrea Del Mastro, Matteo Renzi, Pietro Grasso. Up to the mayor of Castelvetrano Enzo Alfano: "An man who has done so much harm to his land dies - he said - It will take decades more before a mentality, a culture, sometimes rampant, of illegality, of impunity, which he and his followers and others before them have cultivated for too long, is culturally put to an end." 

In Catania, there is no need for the time of analysis. It has already digested everything. Or maybe not.