[1] A prominent figure in the fight against the Sicilian Mafia, in 2009 he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).

At first, right-wing candidate Giovanni Scaglione was declared elected, with a narrow margin of 197 votes.

But in 2003, the Administrative Court of Sicily established that electoral frauds took place in town elections and subsequently proclaimed Crocetta as mayor.

[4] Since then, being the first openly gay mayor of Italy, he became for many a symbol of the fight against obscurantism and organized crime in Sicily.

In 2003, a plot to kill Crocetta during the patronal feast of the Immaculate Conception involving a Lithuanian killer was thwarted by the local Carabinieri.

[12] In 2010, a new assassination plot against Crocetta was thwarted, and five people affiliated with the local Mafia were arrested.

He is also the second openly gay head of a regional government in Italy after Nichi Vendola when he was the President of Sicily between 2012 and 2017.