At least five new councilors to really be able to talk about “concrete renewal, as Elly Schlein asked. Half of the council must change, in short, this is the message delivered to Michele Emiliano by the leaders of the Democratic Party. At the end of the meeting with the majority parties on Tuesday afternoon, the Apulian president limited himself to saying that he would accept “the requests coming from the Democratic Party for a clear change of phase through the indication of very high figures who will be proposed by the parties” .
So, officially, maximum availability. But, in reality, the governor would like to reduce the rotations to a minimum, 3 or 4 in total, considering that two are forced, given that two councilors have resigned: Anita Maurodinoia, elected with the Democratic Party and investigated in the investigation into bought votes, and Rosa Barone of the 5 Star Movement, called out by Giuseppe Conte waving the flag of legality. Curiosity: on the Puglia Region website, on the page dedicated to the council, Maurodinoia’s name and photo have been eliminated, while Barone is still there, even though a week has passed since the announcement of the step backwards. A detail that fuels the suspicion that the 5 Stars’ exit from the majority is only temporary, also considering Emiliano’s reassurances on the willingness to sign the “pact for legality” proposed by the M5s president. And on the forthcoming constitution of “a supervisory body”, while the suggestion of a Legality department remains the same for now, also because, in theory, the places in the team must remain ten: the Statute of the Region provides that the number of councilors is “not exceeding one fifth of the councillors”, which are 51. Emiliano referred precisely to the Statute to warn that his hands are tied with respect to the desired reshuffle: “Unfortunately in Rome they don’t know this well – he explained – but the Statute obliges the president to choose the councilors from thirty elected members of his majority, which is obviously rather complicated”. An excellent alibi, without a doubt, also because finding suitable profiles and skills among centre-left councilors is not so obvious. But, in reality, the rule in force (inserted by the Vendola council in 2013) establishes that two councilors out of ten can be external to the Regional Council and, another detail that is not lost on those who follow the dossier from the Nazarene, one of the two externals currently in the position is the health councilor Rocco Palese, a long past as a Berlusconi parliamentarian and already candidate for the presidency of Puglia for the centre-right. Given that the debate has heated up on the topic of transformism, it is practically certain that Palese will be one of those shown the door. Not the only one, because the bar set by Schlein, through Francesco Boccia, as mentioned, is with five new faces, to truly offer the image of a change and, at the same time, to demonstrate that the “cacique” Apulian was eventually forced to fall into line. Moreover, Emiliano’s constant winks towards Conte did not go unnoticed. Like his eagerness to bring the 5 stars back to the team: «I hope that the progressive majority in the Puglia Region can be reconstituted, which has worked well in recent years» the words of the governor. A possible about-face by the Movement’s councilors, which some of them have not ruled out in recent days, is unlikely to materialize before the European elections. In the electoral campaign, in fact, Conte has every interest in showing himself distant from the troubles of the Puglia Democratic Party and in a position of moral superiority, the only true bastion of transparency.
