How the mafia and right-wing flourish in latest Italy lockdown

Pasquale Telese holds a Guinness World Record for baking a 7.15m long fried pizza.

In his pre-pandemic days, he travelled with his portable oven to bring Naples’ traditional cuisine across the Italian peninsula.

Now, the chef said, “hawks” were buying pizzerias on the verge of bankruptcy and periling one of Italy’s ancient culinary arts.

New containment measures brought in on Monday, which require all businesses to shut at 6pm as of Monday and theatres, cinemas and gyms to close for a month, dealt a further blow to workers and business owners still reeling from one of Europe’s harshest lockdowns.



Some warn that, as poverty rises and political alliances crumble, organised crime groups and neo-fascist militants could seize the opportunity to fill any financial and political vacuums, which could cast a larger shadow on Italy in the long run than the pandemic.