There is a risk of mafia interference in Italy's upcoming general election, some of the country's top politicians warned on Wednesday. The report said that Italy's mafia groups and particularly the Cosa Nostra have shown "an extraordinary capacity for regeneration.
The death last year of Toto Riina, the Cosa Nostra's so-called 'boss of bosses', had "paradoxically" strengthened Italy's mafia, according to the commission's president, Rosy Bindi, who said the group was actively restructuring.
This gave the group a possibility for renewed strength, Bindi said, after being hampered by Riina, a leader who could not be replaced because of the clan's hierarchical structure but, due to his imprisonment, could not properly direct the group.