Four years have passed since 24 December 2019, when, in the aftermath of the Rinascita-Scott operation, thousands of people decided to take to the streets to express their gratitude to the women and men of the police force and the judiciary. A historic day for the Calabrian territory and beyond, the memory of which still excites and paints, in an emblematic way, the picture of a population that raises its head and, with its back straight, claims the right to live and live its own places without fear and overcoming resignation.
The steps taken along the march of 24 December made it possible to trace new paths and build synergies and educational alliances, a driving force of hope and change.
In the meantime, the trial resulting from that operation concluded in the first instance with a verdict which almost entirely confirms the accusatory system of the DDA of Catanzaro and which allows us to reconstruct, not only legally, the unitary vision of the ‘Ndrangheta, but also the high number of ‘ndrine present and active in a not very large territorial context, such as that of Vibo. A sentence which hits, with heavy sentences, the most violent and cruel wing of organized crime which, for decades, has kept in check and heavily influenced the social, economic and political life of the territory. A pronouncement that demonstrates the disappearance of the sense of impunity that has prevailed for too long, generating fear and subjugation.
A judgment which has also strengthened the inter-institutional bond between citizens and institutions, fundamental for the fight, including cultural, against the ‘Ndrangheta. From a careful and in-depth analysis of these judicial and social processes currently underway, it is possible to identify some disruptive dynamics that can represent a substantial turning point in the affirmation of the strength of the State against the violence of the mafia.
First of all, the reaction of the people, a “civil society” increasingly tired of suffering oppression and abuse, of witnessing the proliferation of a violent and abusive power which has been the cause of underdevelopment, denial of the most basic rights, poverty and emigration. Population that transforms this anger into participation, putting their face to it, without fear, demonstrating, against every stereotype, that the Calabrians do not want and cannot give up. A new, more rooted and stronger awareness that overcomes apathy and indifference. Furthermore, there are more and more members of the ‘ndrine who decide to collaborate with justice. This phenomenon is absolutely new in the Vibo criminal panorama. Prominent exponents of the local ‘ndrangheta who, by providing useful elements for the investigations, give us pieces of the territory’s important history, revealing plots and plots, connivances and deferences. Collaborations that demonstrate the disappearance of that hermetic and granitic image of the ‘Ndrangheta, crumbling that wall of silence, which has always been the basis of their power. This element is also supported by the different testimonies given in the various proceedings by women, who until yesterday were subjected to a patriarchal power, today, protagonists of a new front in the fight against the ‘Ndrangheta.
And again, it is the signal that comes from the increase in complaints resulting from a recovered trust in the State. We are no longer the people who envelop oppression in silence, who abdicate the role of active and responsible citizenship, who forget that they have rights. There are new forms of resistance thanks to a State which today, in Vibo Valentia, has recovered its centrality, at least from a repressive point of view, and appears strong and credible because the people, men and women, who represent it are credible. An effective and concrete action which must also see politics at the forefront in guaranteeing those fundamental rights whose denial has always represented fertile humus for the proliferation of mafias and mafiosity.
All strategic aspects which, taken together, must represent an essential prerequisite for a counter-narrative of our land, functional in giving strength and courage to those who are still victims of the mafia yoke. The path is the right one, and it has been traced, it is up to each of us to follow it with safe and responsible steps.