He doesn't hold back his tears and uses harsh words Antonio Decaro: in the press conference called the day after the appointment of a ministerial commission to verify criminal infiltration and the possible dissolution of the Bari City Council, the mayor speaks of "an act of war " which requires "a legitimate defense" of the "city which has been fighting the mafia head on for some time". There are only three months left until the vote for the renewal of the municipal administration and Decaro believes that this is a move by the centre-right to "pollute the election campaign and have the match cancelled.
In Bari they have been losing for 20 years - he says - and some of them, like Savastano in Gomorrah, say 'let's go and take back the city'.
But the city belongs to the people of Bari, it belongs to no one."
The decision to send the commission was taken by the Interior Ministry, at the instigation of centre-right parliamentarians, after the arrests of 26 February, the epilogue of the Internal Code investigation which revealed an alleged political-mafia exchange voting system in the municipal elections of 2019. Due to mafia infiltration, the municipal urban transport company, Amtab, was also subjected to judicial administration for a year.
Furthermore, the Interior Ministry will send an inspection to the Prefecture in Bari following the case, which emerged in an investigation, of the official who turned to a suspect close to the clan to get back the car that had been stolen from her.
Among the 130 people who ended up in prison and under house arrest there are also Carmen Lorusso, a councilor elected with the centre-right and then passed into the Decaro majority;
and her husband Giacomo Olivieri, former regional councilor.
"This government - replied the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi - has declared war on the mafias and certainly not on local administrators. I understand the bitterness of the mayor of Bari" but "since it took office, our government has already dissolved 15 municipalities predominantly centre-right".
Decaro, who reportedly had a meeting with Piantedosi last week to talk about the matter, nevertheless offered "full collaboration" to the commissioners whose report, which could also contain the possibility of dissolving the municipality, should arrive within ten days after the first round of the elections which will be held on 8 and 9 June, and therefore in the midst of the electoral campaign for a possible run-off.
Full solidarity with the mayor was expressed by some mayors and representatives of the centre-left.
For the leader of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, that of the Interior Ministry is "a choice that seems very political. It has never been seen before and it is very serious".
"The Democratic Party - the secretary also said in the evening from Brussels - is and will always be committed to the fight against the mafia and has nothing to do with the serious act committed yesterday by Minister Piantedosi".
No official comment, however, from the M5s, where however some authoritative exponents express "strong concern about what happened in recent days and in recent weeks due to the series of arrests that occurred in February".
Having reiterated that legality is "a founding value of our political action and as a prerequisite for the construction of any political project", the M5s however invites the majority parties not to "use this affair instrumentally and make it a cudgel for political attack".
From the centre-right, is the reasoning at the top of the M5s, "we do not accept lessons on ethics and legality".
The centre-right, however, defends the minister's choice.
Forza Italia invites Decaro to "appreciate" the commission's intervention "if he has nothing to fear".
While the undersecretary of Justice Delmastro defines Decaro's words as "disconcerting".
Waiting for Decaro at the city hall were many citizens and traders who were "accompanied" by the mayor on the "report of extortion and usury".
And amidst their applause, who interrupted him several times, he announced that "if there is even a single suspicion of criminal infiltration in the Municipality I will give up the escort".
Decaro, who is also president of the Anci, has lived for nine years with the constant presence of two agents after the death threats he received for his battles for legality which led to several arrests, including some members of mafia clans.
"I am afraid for myself and for my family - he highlighted - but I look the mafia in the face and I fight it".
A commitment that the mayor put down in black and white in a package with "thousands of pages delivered two days ago to the prefecture: not even after 24 hours, however, did I receive the phone call from the minister informing me of the arrival of the commission. I don't believe they haven't even read them," he underlined.
In Bari two and a half years ago another municipal councilor was arrested for alleged vote-swapping, again for the 2019 elections, in this case both in Bari and in the nearby municipality of Valenzano: she is Francesca Ferri, also elected in centre-right (Di Rella mayor list).
For further information Agenzia ANSA Piantedosi: 'From the government war on the mafias, not on the mayors' - News - Ansa.it I understand Decaro's bitterness, but centre-right municipalities have also been dissolved (ANSA)
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