Bari Mayor Antonio Decaro said Sundaythat Puglia Governor Michele Emiliano's memory was faulty after he sparked a major furore by saying he had accompanied him to the home of a mobster's sister when they were both covering different roles in the southern city many years ago.
Emiliano made the comments that triggered the row during a demonstration held on Saturday to show support for Decaro after the interior ministry launched an inspection of the Barimunicipal administration for possible mafia infiltration.
Decaro, a member of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), says the move by the centre-right central government is linked to June's local elections in the city.
Emiliano spoke about a visit to the sister of mafia boss AntonioCapriati when former prosecutor Emiliano was Bari mayor between 2004 and 2014 and Decaro was the traffic chief on his city executive, amid protests about the decision to close the BariVecchia quarter to cars.
The statement led to calls from centre-right figures for both Decaro and Emiliano to quit and for the city council to be dissolved.
But Decaro said Sunday that, while he did have a run-in with Capriati's sister over the traffic restrictions, he had not visited her at home.
"Emiliano does not remember that episode, which took place almost 20 years ago, correctly," Decaro said.
"It is certainly true that he gave me all his support, in the face of protests from a good part of the neighborhood, when webegan to close Bari Vecchia to cars, but I never went to any one's sister's house.
"After arguments with some residents, one day we met some ladsin the street who were also quite "sceptical" about the new rules and began to rail against me as we entered the Cathedral and Michele told them to leave me alone because I was working for the children of the neighborhood.
"I met the lady in question, as reported in the news at the time, in a street after it was closed to traffic and I argued with her because she refused to accept the installation of the flower boxes that stopped the cars passing".
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