Can a Gay, Catholic Leftist Actually Squelch Corruption in Sicily?
By MARCO DE MARTINO
It was spring, and we sat in Crocetta’s office in the Palazzo dei Normanni, built by the first Norman king of Sicily in the 12th century and later home to a ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, Spanish viceroys and a Bourbon king. Since 1947, it has been the seat of the Regional Assembly, the governing body of Sicily, whose current president is Crocetta, a 62-year-old gay Catholic leftist with a penchant for romanticism and poetry, who is unlike any president the region has ever seen...

The financial crisis has been especially brutal in Sicily — which has been referred to as the “Greece of Italy” — a place where the debt has spiraled so far out of control that many fear it will bring the rest of Italy down with it. Even by Italian standards, Sicily has long been extreme in its waste and corruption. The government spent lavishly on companies and projects that had little or no purpose other than to guarantee votes and keep political parties in power.. And according to a study by the European Commission, among 262 European regions examined, Sicily is 235th in terms of competitiveness.

Crocetta’s predecessor is currently being prosecuted on charges of ties to organized crime. The one before him is serving time in jail. Another one, Piersanti Mattarella, was killed by the Mafia in 1980. “Either dead or in jail,” Crocetta told me. “I don’t know yet how my story will end.”

The threats against him are serious enough that he travels with an escort of six armed men and every outing involves a caravan of armored cars. In January, Giuseppe Di Giovanna, president of Palermo’s manufacturers’ association, received a warning in the mail: “Mind your own business — otherwise you will end up like that f***** Crocetta: slaughtered like a pig.” To this day, the threats persist, coming in the form of letters or phone calls or messages posted to Crocetta’s Facebook page saying that he will be killed.