A German MEP from a far-right party has accused Antonio Decaro of being close to the mafia, a gesture that has sparked the indignation of the former mayor of Bari who has promised to sue. It was MEP Christine Anderson of Alternative für Deutschland, a party that sits on the benches of the most right-wing group in the European Parliament, that of the Europe of Sovereign Nations, who published in X a photomontage of the Democratic Party representative, elected president of the Environment Committee of the Chamber, together with some mafiosi in the style of Sopranos, the famous television series about the mafia in the United States.
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Dear fellow citizens,In the first part of my report on the newly appointed “ENVI” (Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety), I already described how the Italian Social Democrat Antonio Decaro managed to get himself elected as the new committee… pic.twitter.com/9JDD6otlec
— Christine Anderson (@AndersonAfDMdEP) July 29, 2024
“Mafia contacts in the EU committee?” reads the image accompanying a long post on X, in which the MEP states that “the legitimate question arises as to how wise it is to elect someone to chair one of the most important committees of the European Parliament while his party’s entire camp is currently drowning in an anti-mafia investigation”.
The AfD is a party that in the last legislature was also expelled from the group of Matteo Salvini’s League and Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, which was then called Identity and Democracy, because it was considered too extremist and following some statements by some of its members considered pro-Nazi. In his attack Anderson cites an article from last month in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that refers to the ‘Codice interno’ investigation by the anti-mafia prosecutor’s office in Bari, which revealed the infiltration of the clans in the social, economic and political fabric of the capital city of Puglia, but in which Decaro is not under investigation.
Why the municipality of Bari risks being dissolved due to mafia
Specifically, it refers to an old photo of Decaro with a sister of the boss Antonio Capriati, a photo that sparked controversy. At the time, the Democratic Party representative defended herself by explaining that the woman was not involved in any illegal activity and she herself, with no criminal record and the owner of a shop in Bari Vecchia, said that she had simply asked to take the photo of the then mayor she met on the street, arguing that one should not tar “everyone with the same brush” accusing her of also being a member of the mafia.
And the entire Democratic Party has rallied around Decaro. “The photomontage of German MEP Anderson of Alternative für Deutschland against Antonio Decaro is beyond comment. A disgrace against a gentleman. All our solidarity to Antonio against a squalid act of thugs”, wrote Nicola Zingaretti, head of the Democratic Party’s delegation in Brussels, on X. Decaro himself spoke of “an ignoble and slanderous attack that speciously uses news of an investigation that concerns my city but that in no way touched me personally”, explaining that the German MP “will be sued”. “I do it to protect my honour, but above all that of my city and my country”, added the politician.
