Berlusconi vows to fight Mafia on streets and television screens

ITALIAN prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has pledged a crackdown on the Mafia – both the real and fictional versions – and was immediately accused of hypocrisy.

The controversial politician unveiled an ambitious ten-point plan for fighting organised crime and chose to do so in Calabria after the 'Ndrangheta, or Calabrian Mafia, threatened bomb attacks in recent weeks against magistrates and the president of Italy.

Berlusconi also took the opportunity to criticise feature films and television shows that fictionalised the Mafia for giving Italy "a negative image abroad". Such shows, he said, were "an ugly trend" that he hoped would end soon.

Yet if anyone can help stop the trend, perhaps it is Berlusconi himself. His Mediaset company, Italy's largest private broadcaster, showed The Sopranos to great success on one of its pay channels, while its Canale 5, a free channel, has shown The Boss Of Bosses, a 2007 mini series about the Sicilian Mafia boss Salvatore (Tot) Riina, and The Last Godfather, a 2008 programme about the Sicilian boss Bernardo Provenzano.

Earlier this month, immigrant day labourers living in squalid conditions clashed with residents in Rosarno, a Calabrian town in the grip of the Mafia. Analysts are still debating whether organised crime groups set off the riots to force the immigrants to flee, or whether they helped quash the riots.

In his remarks, Berlusconi, whose coalition is dominated by the Northern League party, known for its harsh anti-immigrant stance, also praised Italy's accomplishments in cracking down on illegal immigration.

"A reduction in the number of foreigners in Italy means fewer people to fill the ranks of organised crime," he said.

Programming aside, the Berlusconi government has a patchy record on organised crime. On Thursday, interior minister Roberto Maroni said the authorities had confiscated goods worth more than ?10 billion from organised crime syndicates since 2008. The authorities have also made dozens of high-profile arrests in recent months.

But critics say other government measures have undermined those gains. Prosecutors vehemently oppose a bill proposed by Berlusconi's centre-right coalition that would significantly limit the scope of wiretapping, a technique prosecutors say is essential to investigating organised crime groups.

Other critics argue that a measure passed last year that taxes repatriated assets at only 5 per cent is a boon for money launderers.