Italy's corruption crisis is sinking: Campania has a record number of people under investigation.

Today, International Anti-Corruption Day, Libera's new report paints a grim picture of the country: 96 investigations between January 1 and December 1, 2025, eight per month, with 49 prosecutors' offices operating in 15 regions and 1.028 people under investigation. A staggering increase, considering that in 2024 there were only 48 investigations.

But what's most striking is the map of responsibilities: the South, once again, leads the way. And Campania takes the black spot, with data that places it first both in terms of the number of investigations and—more importantly—the number of people under investigation.

Campania at the top of widespread lawlessness

In 2025, according to Libera's monitoring based on press reports, Campania recorded:

18 investigations into corruption and extortion (first in Italy);

219 people under investigation, the highest number in the country.

Calabria (141 investigated) and Puglia (110) follow. Among the Northern regions, the most affected is Liguria (82), then Piedmont (80). The Southern area - including the islands - has a total of 48 investigations, ahead of the Centre (25) and the North (23).

The phenomenon has not spared politics: 53 politicians are under investigation across Italy, 13 of them in Campania and Puglia alone. Mayors represent nearly half of the total.

Bribes, contracts, and rigged competitions: a map of crimes

Libera's snapshot doesn't depict isolated incidents, but a fluid, ferocious, and deeply rooted system. Bribes are everywhere:

false residency certificates to obtain Italian citizenship "iure sanguinis";

rigged procurement in healthcare, waste management and public works;

building permits and school services awarded in exchange for favors;

rigged competitions in universities and public bodies;

political-mafia exchanges and pressure from criminal organizations in major projects.

All this with a range of protagonists that goes from the manager to the fixer, from the "boss of the public body" to the entrepreneur with transversal connections, up to the direct presence of the clans.

“Normalized corruption, risk of state capture”

For Libera, the picture is clear and disturbing.
Co-President Francesca Rispoli denounces the transformation of corruption into "a normal part of political and business careers," capable of generating a "selection of the worst" and silently eroding public services, democracy, and institutional trust.

"We are facing a system that is regenerating itself," Rispoli warns, "using increasingly sophisticated techniques: from traditional bribes to opaque relationships and regulations tailored to the powers that be."

Corruption, according to Libera, also thrives on collective resignation, a fertile breeding ground for mafias and business cliques. And just as the phenomenon accelerates, the association denounces a weakening of the anti-corruption measures built over the years.

The alarm and the proposals: "We need a pact between institutions and citizens."

Within the framework outlined by the dossier, the national platform "Hunger for Truth and Justice", on tour for months, proposes a radical change:

stringent regulation of conflict of interest;

clear rules on lobbying, with full transparency;

more effective controls on political funding;

university and professional training in public ethics;

true administrative transparency, not bureaucratic;

concrete support for whistleblowing.

An agenda that—Libera emphasizes—can only work if institutions and civil society return to working together.

A country in the trenches, and Campania at the center of the emergency

Looking at the map of investigations, from Turin to Palermo, from Bari to Genoa, passing through Avellino and the Salerno area, Italy appears to be crossed by a dark thread that unites different areas and sectors.
But it is in the South, and in Campania in particular, that this thread becomes a rope that tightens the State and bends rights, services, and resources.

A photograph that, on the day dedicated to the global fight against corruption, risks becoming yet another reminder of what still isn't working. And of what, for many, has become "normal."

A dangerous normality, which—Libera warns—is not destiny, but the result of choices, conveniences, and omissions. And it can still be changed.