‘The Camorra controls thousands and thousands of votes. The more people turn away from politics, feeling that politicians are all the same, that they are all incapable, the more votes we are able to buy. And we were aiming to achieve a turnover in local government positions. We had a man who at the time was the youngest Italian mayor ever elected: Alfredo Cicala, mayor of Melito. Loads of articles were written about him: the young mayor of the Margherita, they called him. But he was one of ours.’ The story Maurizio Prestieri tells, about the mayor of Melito, is a story that is tragically common in Campania. Cicala, after a triumphant win and a few years in office, ends up in jail, arrested for ‘criminal association with the Camorra’. Assets amounting to 90 million euros are seized from him. An enormous sum for a town mayor, unthinkable that such a huge figure could be earned in such a short time and unthinkable that he could own entire condominium developments in his region unless the capital of the clans were behind it.

In this case, the money is that of the Di Lauro–Prestieri drug trade. But Cicala is not just anybody: before his arrest he engages in two parallel careers, in politics and in the clan. He becomes a member of the provincial governing board of the Margherita party and according to investigations is also able to influence the subsequent election of the Di Gennaro junta, later dissolved for mafia infiltration. Referred to as ‘ò sindaco’ (the mayor) by Camorra members, he is the only politician permitted to attend meetings of the bosses. Naturally he takes part in various demonstrations for the rule of law against the Camorra and Camorra members (particularly against families who are his own clan’s enemies). In short, he is the perfect figure to cover up shady business and govern a territory.

The ‘Nemesis’ investigation of the Naples DDA (Naples District Anti-Mafia Directorate) looking into the electoral system in Melito describes the climate in the area as ‘Chicago in the ’30s’. Cicala becomes the clans’ candidate to defeat Bernardino Tuccillo, the mayoral candidate from another branch of the centre-left. Tuccillo is well regarded, respected, determined; he’s served as mayor and the Camorra tries to obstruct him in every way. It has the means to do so. ‘Some candidates came to me crying,’ Tuccillo said, ‘begging me to tear up the forms consenting to their candidacy. Others, ashen and fearful, told me that they had had to propose their wives as candidates on the opposing party’s ballot.’

One morning he found posters mourning his death posted throughout the town of Melito. He realized that it was the final warning. Like many other decent administrators in Campania, Tuccillo was abandoned by national politics. There are now many members of the local PD (Democratic Party) who supported and collaborated with Alfredo Cicala.

Prestieri knows Campania’s politics well: