Riace to lose its mayor: Mimmo Lucano announces resistance to judgement - and would give up seat in EU Parliament

The Europe-wide known architect of a solidarity-based refugee model in Italy is to be deposed. Right-wing extremist Matteo Salvini was one of the people behind the move. However, there is a last chance.

Domenico ‘Mimmo’ Lucano is perhaps best known to German audiences for Wim Wenders’ film ‘Il Volo’. It tells the story of the Calabrian mountain village of Riace, which became a prototype for a solidarity-based model of migration by taking in Kurdish refugees at the end of the 1990s: Many Italian cooperatives now house asylum-seeking refugees in abandoned houses and receive a daily payment from the government for each person. In this way, villages that have been dying since the 19th century are revitalised with new inhabitants and the necessary infrastructure.

On Tuesday, 67-year-old Lucano was removed from office by the Court of Cassation in the Calabrian town of Locri. The reason for this is a legally binding sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment with probation – the result of the so-called Xenia trial, which centred on the solidarity reception projects in Riace.

Originally, Lucano was facing serious charges in the trial; the mayor was threatened with a long prison sentence for alleged abuse of office, embezzlement and promoting irregular immigration. However, most of the charges against Lucano were dropped on appeal, leaving only a conviction for falsifying a public document. This judgement has now been confirmed by the Court of Cassation.

The Xenia trial was politically charged from the outset. Investigations began back in 2017, but the case really picked up speed in 2018 under Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. The leader of the far-right Lega party publicly declared Lucano a target, had him placed under house arrest and banned from Riace. Salvini called Lucano a ‘lawbreaker’, even though he was internationally recognised for his commitment at the time – for example by US magazine ‘Fortune’, which ranked him among the 50 most influential people in the world. The fact that Lucano’s prosecution took place in the middle of Salvini’s campaign against sea rescue organisations is still seen as targeted political repression, and not just by left-wingers in Italy.

Like other former fortified villages, Riace is located on a mountain above the Ionian Sea (Matthias Monroy).

Lucano is threatened with losing his mayoral office due to the ‘Legge Severino’ – a 2012 law that provides for the removal from office of elected representatives in the event of a final conviction, even in the case of suspended sentences. However, Lucano’s defence argues that the provision should only apply if the offence was accompanied by an abuse of power or a breach of official duties. Neither of these apply in the mayor’s case: no court has established such a connection – on the contrary: according to the defence, the so-called secondary penalty of a ban from office was even expressly annulled by the Court of Cassation, reports the socialist newspaper ‘Il Manifesto’.

The municipal council of Riace had also previously spoken out against the implementation of the disqualification from office. The prefecture of Reggio Calabria nevertheless filed a lawsuit. According to the judgement, the decision will become legally binding in 20 days. However, Lucano could also lodge a final appeal with the Court of Cassation. Riace’s current mayor announced on Monday that he would do just that. In an interview with ‘Il Manifesto’, he criticised the ruling as being ‘coordinated’ within the government and said ‘I will lodge an appeal – and remain mayor until then. The law allows me to do that. And on the merits, we have all the arguments on our side’.

Lucano has also been a member of the European Parliament since June 2024. In the election, he successfully ran for the Alleanza Verdi Sinistra list – together with anti-fascist Ilaria Salis, who previously spent months in detention in Hungary in the so-called Budapest Complex. The fact that Lucano holds both offices at the same time caused discussion in Italy. However, he made his priorities clear to ‘Il Manifesto’: ‘I would be less sad if I had been deprived of my seat in the EU Parliament – but not Riace.’

Lucano has support from the left-wing spectrum. Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli from the Left Alliance spoke of a politically motivated judgement, reports the newspaper ‘Tag 24’. It was a scandal that someone like Lucano, of all people, was removed from office, while many convicted politicians were able to remain in office. Representatives of the centre party Partito Democratico were more cautious: although the decision should be formally respected, it leaves a ‘bitter aftertaste’. Lucano stands for an internationally recognised, practical and humane form of refugee reception – and they hope to see him officially back in office soon.

Lucano himself is looking ahead: ‘I will be mayor for at least two more years, and they will be two very intense years.’ An anti-racist football tournament starts in Riace next week. An international week of action is planned from 20 to 27 July to support Palestinian protest movements against the Gaza war. ‘This unjust and exaggerated judgement will not shut us up,’ Lucano told ‘Il Manifesto’.