LIBRI DI ALESSANDRA DINO

Margherita Bontade was one of the most singular figures of women involved in politics inSicily after World War II; she was also one of the few women who found space among thepowerful Christian Democrats of that period, who were occupied in a strong oppositionto the advancing of the parties of the so called "Blocco del Popolo", with the blessing ofthe Catholic Church’s hierarchies.Her electoral success depended, on one hand, by her close bonding with the Curia and byher personal relationship with Ernesto Ruffini, Cardinal in Palermo; on the other hand,by her political alliance at first with Bernardo Mattarella, then with Franco Restivo. Buther striking political career, that took place in an arch of twenty years - between the endof the 40s and the end of the 60s - wasn’t characterized by a particularly intense parliamentaryactivity; instead her ambiguous relationships with powerful men of Cosa Nostra’sworld, and her public defence of Francesco Paolo Bontate, boss of the township ofVillagrazia in Palermo, produced a lot of critiques around her.

The history of Palermo’s Punta Raisi Airport - that is called today "Falcone and Borsellino" in memory of the two judges killed by Cosa Nostra - started after World War II, coinciding with the increase of civilian air traffic in the skies of the Sicilian capital, third in Italy for its number of transits of passengers and freight, which became unsustainable figures for the military airport of Boccadifalco. Everything begins with the creation in 1953 of the Autonomous Consortium for the Airport of Palermo, with the aim to implement the project of a new infrastructure located a few steps away from the city center, ready to compete with the best airports in Italy, to increase the modernization of commerce and of the Sicilian society. The new airport, in fact, soon became able to affect the life of the people and the history of Palermo, changing the character and social structures of the towns and the villages neighboring the airport station, helping to ground specific interests of Cosa Nostra and becoming a crossroad of criminal trafficking and illegal speculations.

Territorial control is one of the most important elements for the survival of the mafia. It is an obligated path to be able to obtain and control economic activities and to penetrate into all profitable sectors. Without territorial control it is impossible to control voters and without it all relationships with politics wither and die. It is within the territory where the imposition of "pizzo" (protection money) and extortion are planned against businesses and firms. This impending presence is also the cause in which citizens and families find themselves submitted to violence, the abuse of power and, if not only, to a limitation to their sphere of action. Telling the story about the scappati is to explain how, by their use of violence, Cosa Nostra has taken away from the State its lawful supremacy over large parts of the national territory. They planned the removal or deportation, under the threat of death, of entire families connected to the mafia. This story began in 1980 and is yet to be finished. The scappati migrated to the usa during the second mafia war and today they would like to come back to Palermo. However, not all agree with this possibility. The Sicilian mafia is in a critical position and if these refugees return it could produce a drastic and unexpected change in its leadership. Reading the pizzini (small notes of mafia members), analysing these sources, reconstructing scenarios makes it is easy to image what could happen if they returned: a new bloody conflict among mafia families.

Key words: Cosa Nostra, territorial control, transnational crime, maxi-trial, mafia wars, the scappati.

Parole chiave: Cosa nostra, controllo del territorio, crimine transnazionale, maxiprocesso, guerre di mafia, scappati.

Una raccolta di scritti in onore di Franco Di Maria, in occasione dei suoi 65 anni. Direttore del Dipartimento di Psicologia di Palermo, ha alternato le prime ricerche sulle dinamiche del “sentire mafioso” e dell’aggressività alle riflessioni sulla metodologia e la Psicologia critica. Successivamente si è indirizzato verso una psicologia dinamica intrisa di psico-politica e di convivenza civile: quella Psicologia psicologica cui la raccolta fa riferimento.

Il dato esperienziale che deriva dall’analisi critica degli ultimi cinquant’anni di cronache criminali mafiose, porta a interpretare con una certa cautela l’attuale, drastico calo degli omicidi di stampo mafioso, spingendo a ipotizzare che esso non corrisponda automaticamente ad una diminuzione della capacità di azione e di intimidazione di Cosa Nostra, ma sia piuttosto il segno di un preciso mutamento di strategia, dovuto ad esigenze specifiche del momento, che lascia però immutato - e in taluni casi addirittura rafforzato - l’intervento di controllo sul territorio.