Sardinia's mayors attacked as recession-hit citizens vent their anger

Factory closures and slump in sheep farming have led to a dramatic rise in violence on the island
Barbagia, Sardinia, Italy
Barbagia, Sardinia, Italy. The calm of the island has been disrupted by unrest linked to soaring job losses. Photograph: Oliviero Olivieri/Robert Harding

A dramatic rise in violent attacks on small town mayors in Sardinia has been linked to soaring job losses due to factory closures and the slump in sheep farming on the island.

Mayor Gian Paolo Marras of Ottana, in central Sardinia, has resigned after a social services office was bombed and a shotgun fired at his home, narrowly missing his newborn son. Days later, the car belonging to a council official in the town of Siniscola was burned out and a horse belonging to the mayor of nearby Illorai was found shot dead with its ears and tongue cut off.

Interior minister Roberto Maroni ruled out organised crime, given the historic absence of the mafia on the island. But Sardinia does have a tradition of violent crime, stretching from the kidnappings for ransom which plagued the island in the 1970s, to vendetta killings.

"The attacks on local officials and on the police are a Sardinian peculiarity," said Salvatore Cherchi, head of the Sardinian branch of Italy's local government association. "This is a phenomenon unknown in most of Italy, but here people still think that they can put pressure on local politicians with violence. And I am not talking about threats, but burned out cars, shotguns and bombs." Over the last five years Sardinian politicians have been attacked or threatened on more than 1,300 occasions, with 60 attacks this year alone, prompting a meeting on 5 October between Maroni and local police. Maroni said the violence stemmed from "social hardship".

With factories in the area failing, seven hundred of the 2,600 population of Ottana are now out of work. One of three men arrested on suspicion of shooting at the mayor's house is a laid-off textile worker.

Shepherds have blocked the airport and port at Olbia this year to protest over the number of sheep farms going under, alleging that cheaper foreign meat is being shipped in and relabelled as Sardinian produce for export.Threats to mayors have been linked to demands for work in local administrations, often the only remaining local employer.