Persistent North-South inequalities
Within the region itself, there is already a real difference between the coasts, living on tourism and industry, and the interior of the country, subsisting mainly on agriculture. We are witnessing a phenomenon of desertification of the countryside. Despite significant financial assistance from the state and various subsidies, Sicily is lagging far behind the north of Italy. Since the end of the Second World War, there has been a strong emigration of Sicilians to the large industrial cities of the North. The old North-South opposition is unfortunately still relevant. This problem of the relationship between Sicily and the Peninsula was the concern of many major artists and intellectuals of the post-war period, and of filmmakers in particular: Rossellini, Pasolini, Rosi, but above all Visconti(Rocco and His Brothers, about the emigration to Milan of a family from the South, The Earth Trembles, a film shot with real fishermen and in dialect). The author of the famous Cheetah saw in this problem of the South the backbone of any reflection on the future of Italy. Against the current opinion of certain political forces, he thought that the "Sicilianity", as Leonardo Sciascia said, was the way of salvation of the Peninsula...
An economy with low productivity
Corruption, mafia, unemployment, poverty, red tape... the Sicilian economy bears its crosses! And seen from the world, but especially from Milan, the image is largely tarnished. The active population of the island barely exceeds 40%. Average salaries in Sicily are half those of the rest of the country (€11,000 compared to €22,000 in the rest of Italy), despite the substantial aid granted by the government after the fall of fascism.
Petrochemicals and industry. However, the aid funds allowed the island to develop, among other things, the chemical and petrochemical sector, since oil was discovered in Gela and Ragusa in the 1990s. From then on, the main industries were directed towards the exploitation of methane and oil deposits. They were established in the two baroque cities, but also in Syracuse, Milazzo and especially Augusta. The exploitation of minerals is one of the strong points of Sicily. After being number one for many years, the island is now the second largest producer of sulfur after the United States. More recent aid from the European Union has also given the economy a boost, although the rest of the industrial activity is not yet very developed. In Palermo, Catania and Messina, the mechanical industry dominates, and more recently electronic and computer research.
Fishing, agriculture and food processing. Fishing remains one of the mainstays of the Sicilian economy, even if competition is becoming increasingly tough (especially from the Japanese). Tuna in Trapani or swordfish in Catania are the major productions. Like fishing, agriculture is one of the last means of survival for many islanders (especially in the center and on the southern coast). Despite the archaic nature of some of its structures, it is the spearhead of the island's activity. In the former granary of the Roman Empire, agriculture still represents 20% of the GNP and 15% of the active population. Citrus fruits (the famous Sicilian lemons) are mainly cultivated, but also olives, wheat in the center and vineyards. Sicily produces 100% of Italy's cotton and 90% of its lemons, making it the world's leading producer. Due to a lack of modernity and efficiency, cattle and sheep breeding, which was already small, is losing momentum. And it is not the food industry (wine, oil, pasta...), curiously enough weak, that will be able to respond to the blows of globalization.
Endemic unemployment and poverty
A famous Sicilian proverb says: "chi n'esce rinasce" ("he who leaves succeeds"). With almost 20% unemployment, Sicily has the second highest unemployment rate in Italy, after Calabria. This rate is constantly increasing: it is twice as high as the national average and three times higher than Milan. The ancestral poverty of some Sicilians is unfortunately not a myth, nor an old memory. One only has to walk around the Kalsa or Capo of Palermo to discover, in old dilapidated palaces, squats or what looks like overcrowded shanty towns from another time. Still a quarter of Sicilian families live below the poverty line.
Poorly exploited tourism
Tourism, as well as the discovery of oil, is one of the major factors of the economic revival of the island. But today, some of its leaders do not seem to be aware of this. The tourist industry is largely below its capacity, although it welcomes on its ground nearly 4 million visitors each year. The region has all the advantages to develop this sector to the maximum: a history and a culture, incomparable natural sites, a magical climate... The majority of foreign tourists are French, English, Dutch, Japanese and American. In addition, there is a significant proportion of Italian tourists.
The gangrene of the mafia
Palermo is relegated to the bottom of the ranking of Italian cities in terms of production level, but at the same time in the top ranks in terms of consumption... But where does the money come from? The mafia is the main issue facing Sicily. It is estimated that the "Octopus" controls 80% of the island's economy. The supreme irony is that the mafia, which is the greatest economic force in Sicily, is also the essential brake on outside investment. It is indeed Sicilian in origin. Here they are called the Onorata Società. Originally, the mafiosi were Robin Hoods who stole from the rich to give to the poor in popular imagery. Only a few figures, such as Salvatore Giuliano, who is not considered mafioso by those who defend him, have done a service to the mafia image for a while by their resistance to the invader during the war. It is only with the passing of time that the mafia has become a real secret society, with the implacable omertà (the law of silence that condemns to death, with a stone in the mouth, the one who transgresses it), and a multinational organization. Today, the mafia is more financial than criminal, and acts in parallel to the State. Every district, town and city is jointly managed by the State and the Mafia.
The anti-mafia fight for 15 years. Associated in people's minds with drug trafficking and murders, it is understandable that the association made by outsiders between the island and the secret society is painful for its inhabitants. Anti-mafia campaigns were launched in 2004. Palermo launched a poster campaign denouncing the payment of the pizzo (mafia tax). A sticker "addiopizzo" (goodbye to the mafia tax) was posted all over the streets. This stance has sparked a dialogue in a society that had previously been subject to omerta. The Comitato Addiopizzo is now present in the main cities of the island and gathers more than 700 merchants who are not afraid to publicly display their point of view (more information on www.addiopizzo.org). Also in 2004, one of the great mafia leaders, Provenzano, who had been on the run for 43 years, was finally arrested 3 km from Corleone, his native village. In 2008, the Cosa Nostra lost many of its members, with the arrest of Lo Piccolo, father and son. Another member, Giuseppe Coluccio, a drug and arms baron, was extradited from Canada where he had been arrested to be incarcerated in Italy. In 2015, a new wave of arrests: 11 members of Cosa Nostra close to Matteo Messina Denaro, the current head of the organization on the run since 1993, were arrested. In 2016, the journalist Pino Maniaci, spokesman for anti-mafia associations, was finally convicted of extortion and banned from Sicily, because for years the man had been playing both sides.
The mafia inducts a new godfather. But on May 22, 2017, a notorious leader of the Cosa Nostra, Guiseppe Dainotti (released in 2014 for a mistrial after 20 years in prison), was murdered in the middle of the street in Palermo, the day before the anniversary of the murder of Judge Falcone (May 23, 1992). That same year, Toto Riina, the former historical leader of the entire Sicilian mafia, died in prison. A new twist in 2018: Settimo Mineo, an 80-year-old jeweler nicknamed "Uncle Settimo," was to be appointed head of the Palermo "dome" in May, i.e., supreme leader of the mafia families of the province of Palermo, replacing Toto Riina. However, this appointment was not to the liking of the Italian justice system, which arrested him and 45 other people in a large-scale raid just before the party. A new blow for the "Octopus" in March 2021, a hundred members of the mafia were tried and convicted for embezzlement of more than 10 million euros of EU agricultural subsidies. Another trial made a big splash in 2021: that of two families in the grip of a bloody clan struggle, the Distefano and the Bellavia, between Favara in Sicily and Liege in Belgium. Between 2015 and 2020, 5 people were killed and 2 others seriously injured. A trial that resulted in 2 life sentences, 4 firm prison sentences and one acquittal. But according to the Italian Anti-Mafia Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior, the mafias are now winning major public contracts in legal markets, mainly construction and urbanization in Sicily. The result: the gangrene is everywhere: poorly executed infrastructures, unprotected work, unpaid taxes... urbanization is suffering from this mafia infiltration. If the Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, the most powerful in Italy, manages cocaine trafficking, Cosa Nostra manages the drug dealing points on its own land, particularly in Palermo. With youth unemployment approaching 40% in Sicily, it is easy to recruit small hands in poor neighborhoods. The only recent victory for justice came in January 2022 when Gioacchino Gammino, a Sicilian mafia boss who had been on the run since escaping from prison in 2002 and had vanished into thin air, was found and arrested in Spain after changing his identity... thanks to a Google Street View photo. A new twist in January 2023: Matteo Denaro, one of Cosa Nostra's godfathers, is arrested under a false identity after leaving the hospital in Palermo, after more than 30 years on the run. He was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for murder.
