Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-000415/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Caterina Chinnici (PPE), Fulvio Martusciello (PPE), Giusi Princi (PPE), Salvatore De Meo (PPE), Massimiliano Salini (PPE), Letizia Moratti (PPE), Flavio Tosi (PPE), Marco Falcone (PPE)
A number of press outlets[1] have reported that German firm Boardgame Atelier has launched a product, ‘La Famiglia – The Great Mafia War’, based on the bloody Mafia wars that raged in Sicily in the 1980s.
The game, which even won an award at a games festival in France[2], challenges its players (aged 16 and over) to wrest control of areas from Sicily’s Mafia families.
In light of this:
- 1.Does the Commission not consider this game to be a massive blight on the dignity of Sicilians and Sicily itself? Is it not entirely disrespectful to all those who lost their lives opposing the Mafia in the struggle to uphold the rule of law, as well as to their relatives?
- 2.Does it not think that trivialising crimes that actually took place in a product intended for fun and, more to the point, young players spreads ignorance, goes against core European values, and disrupts public order (see the judgment handed down in case T-1/17 La Mafia Franchises, SL v EUIPO)[3], and that therefore the sale of this product on the internal market ought to be banned?
Submitted: 30.1.2025
- [1] https://palermo.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/25_gennaio_22/la-famiglia-il-gioco-da-tavolo-premiato-in-francia-che-simula-la-guerra-di-mafia-scoppia-la-polemica-17dc8dcd-3370-4c88-9215-d1e800703xlk.shtml; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/23/outcry-in-italy-over-german-board-game-based-on-sicily-mafia-wars; https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/italie-un-jeu-de-societe-reproduit-la-guerre-des-mafias-en-sicile-et-suscite-la-polemique-20250123.
- [2] https://ludovox.fr/retour-sur-la-37e-edition-du-festival-des-jeux-de-cannes/.
- [3] https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=200262&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=25949569
Last updated: 7 February 2025