It is a long battle that Italy does not resign itself to considering closed. The last chapter has been written in these days by the agricultural union Coldiretti. His management team has sued the existence of nearly 300 restaurants and dozens of products restaurants around the world using Mafia names and symbols Sicilian The collective understands that this is it trivializes perception damage caused by the criminal activities of these organizations which include, among other crimes, illicit trafficking in drugs and weapons, money laundering, murder, intimidation and corruption.
Coldiretti, in collaboration with the Filiera Italia association, has even created a sort of catalogue of the indicated products e he exhibited them in Palermocapital of Sicily, where the Mafia (also called Cosa Nostra, in colloquial jargon) was born and where the state fights against this criminal organization claimed the lives of numerous victims throughout the last century.
a scotch whisky called Cosa Nostra Shot and sold in a bottle shaped like a machine gun; the portuguese wine Talha Mafia Pistol, labeled with a stylized bloodstain; Two Pig Mafia Seasoning Mix; the Bulgarian cafe Mafiozzo, y the american sauce Perfida Cosa Nostra are some of the products denounced by Coldiretti and Filiera Italia.
trivialize evil
“It’s a hateful phenomenon,” denounced the union. These articles “are used for a unscrupulous business for the pain of the victims and for the damage to Italy’s image”, added Coldiretti. “On the internet it is even possible to buy ‘The recipe book of the mafia’, a culinary recipe bookor buy sweets on the Candy Mafia portal”, underlined the institution.
Using the information of the famous TripAdvisor tourist recommendation site, also Coldiretti and Filiera Italia censored at restaurants with references to the mafia that exist in the world. For example: the Don Corleone from Finland, the Burger Mafia from Germany, the Falafel Mafia Food Truck from the USA and the Nasi Goreng Mafia from Indonesia.
Spain has also been targeted by these two associations who have come to take a census more than 60 such restaurants located in the country, the first on the list, followed by Ukraine, Brazil, Indonesia and Russia. A first place that belongs above all to The mafia sits at the table, restaurant chain founded two decades ago in Zaragoza and to which the EU Court denied in 2018 the registration in the European register of trademarks, considering it contrary to public order.
Against EU values
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The reason, the community court argued at the time, is that the use of the mafia as a claim The commercial “blatantly promotes a criminal organization known as the mafia”. This fact, according to the court, it goes against the values of the Union and belittles the clearly negative connotation that the word has in Italy, the country in which this criminal group represents a serious security threatadded the European organization.
That said, the ruling didn’t affect restaurants of this name operating in Spain, which is why you can still find them. Which has not prevented organizations such as Coldiretti, as well as the Italian public opinion, keep crying out to the sky before these cases. Someone even wondered what would happen if restaurants called ETA opened in Rome or Milan.