(ANSA) - CIVITANOVA MARCHE, MARCH 17 - The Municipality of CivitanovaMarche (Macerata) will dedicate a street to Toro Seduto, legendary leader of the Sioux tribe.
To be precise, the clearing in front of the Civitanova Alta gymnasium, which from April 1st will be dedicated to the Indian leader, will be called "Piazzale Thathanka Iyotake-Hunkpapa Lakota Wicasa Wakan (Sitting Bull)".
And the political controversy in the city council did not take long to flare up.
Not so much for the attribution, but for how it would have matured.
In 2018, the Democratic Party proposed to give Anne Frank a street, the then center-right deputy mayor Fausto Troiani - now president of the City Council - in a political attempt to counter the dem proposal, came up with an aboutade: "then let's also dedicate a street to Sitting Bull" .
Five years later,
the city council approved the naming of the streets both after Anne Frank and after Sitting Bull.
The mayor Fabrizio Ciarapica - mayor also in 2018 - swears to ANSA that "the naming of the square after Sitting Bull is not to be attributed to that exit, but must be placed in the inclusiveness and value references of our city".
The Northern League councilor Giorgio Pollastrelli, who is in charge of toponymy, rejects easy ironies and recalls that "Civitanova's relationship with the Lakota community dates back to ten years ago".
"We risk becoming the laughing stock. But was Sitting Bull right-wing or left-wing? Pollastrelli has no doubts: "He was a genuine Northern League supporter, he loved and defended his land and the identity of his people". (ANSA).