There’s a new way to do primaries and the center-left of Bari invented it: they go directly to the polls by being divided; then – this is the promise – whoever wins in the run-off will have the support of the loser in the round against the centre-right opponent.
More or less what the primaries are for, except for the fact that in the “real” polls it is expected that we fight against “adversaries” and not against “friends” who have not managed to reach an agreement. Senseless and absurd? Many people think this way in Bari, but that’s how it is.
The duel between Laforgia and Leccese
The two candidates for the seat of the outgoing mayor Antonio Decaro, Michele Laforgia and Vito Leccese, reached this conclusion, after months of skirmishes, low blows and, in recent weeks, a real own open war.
Without waiting for the historians of the future, it can be said without fear of contradiction that in this unedifying spectacle the part of the “aggressor” was played by the former prime minister Giuseppe Conte, while the protagonist of that of the “victim” was the local Democratic Party and national.
In this match, the changing of the guard has little to do with it in the municipality of Bari and there was a lot of vote to change the balance in the European Parliament (3 deputies in Europe of the M5S, against 15 of the Democratic Party), the head of the 5 Stars only worked to bring confusion: between politics and the judiciary, between guaranteeism and justicialism , between the reformist left and the (more or less) radical left.
Let’s recap the various episodes of the saga which had as its conclusion the acknowledgment of the lack of communication between the various souls of the center-left (Pd, M5S, Italia Viva and various leftists), demonstrated and practiced well before the investigations of the judiciary, that on alleged mafia infiltrations in the municipality (and which pushed the Minister of the Interior to send a commission of inquiry with the aim of verifying whether it is possible to dissolve the Municipality); and the one on an alleged vote-buying in a municipality in the Bari area.
It starts in the middle of autumn when the first protagonists of the future representation appear on the center-left scene, all self-candidates: 3 for the Democratic Party (the former deputy Marco Lacarra, the municipal councilor Paola Romano, the only woman left on the horizon, and the councilor Pietro Petruzzelli); and 1 proposed by the alternative left-wing cultural association, La Giusta Causa (lawyer Michele Laforgia).
The controversies arise immediately, the antipathy has been mutual for some time: the lawyer, well-known criminal lawyer, son of Pietro Leonida Laforgia, the only mayor appointed by the PDS (January/September 1993), is reproached by those who militate in the Pd, for an excessive charisma which leads him to be “divisive”; the Dems, on the other hand, are seen by the lawyer’s followers as politicians without values.
Either way, things get bad immediately. The Democratic Party does not intend to converge on the lawyer, but neither does it know how to choose between the three. The best way could be to use the primaries, invented by the Democratic Party at its birth to resolve issues of this kind. But they are not even proposed because, both inside and outside the Dem enclosure, the poison of the possibility that the vote will be polluted is starting to spread: troops of “bad” people would be ready at the borders of the area of the “good” people to decide in their place who to present in the elections. Added to this is the “no” in principle of the M5S in the primaries and that of the lawyer who declares himself against precisely because of those dangers of pollution, outlining a scenario in which the vote could be exchanged for various benefits. What the magistrates will then hypothesize in the investigations mentioned above.
Where does the Democratic Party’s indecision originate?
The back and forth lasts for several weeks during which, however, we begin to understand something: the indecision of the Democratic Party is also due to the fact that none of the 3 self-proposed candidates likes the outgoing mayor. Decaro has another one in mind, but he has to convince him to participate in the challenge: it is his chief of staff, Vito Leccese. Early environmentalist, former Green MP, Vito Leccese of the municipal machine led by the centre-left knows every nut and bolt having been councilor of the unforgettable mayor Enrico Delfino (the one who welcomed the Albanians of Vlora in 1991), then with Michele Emiliano and then with Decaro himself: he represents the continuity of the administration with an important touch of green.
Leccese, however, doesn’t really want to be on stage, having left him to stay behind the scenes, and resists. At the end of November something moves: the three (self) candidates of the Democratic Party take a step back. Someone in the Democratic Party expects Laforgia to do the same to start from scratch, but the lawyer has no intention of doing so, now supported both by the 5S and by Renzi, notorious enemy of Conte and his Movement, proven proof that politics does not it is an exact science.
Christmas passes and January passes too. And not even the opening of the judiciary’s investigation into the alleged mafia infiltration at the end of January, with 130 arrested, including a former regional councilor and his wife, a city councillor, changes the picture. On February 9, however, the Democratic Party announced that it had chosen its champion: Vito Leccese, not without internal friction, because a group (5 out of 41 voters) declared they preferred Laforgia. At this point it is a question of finding an agreement with the rest of the allies.
Easy to say, but not to do because another troubled period begins in which no one wants to give in to anyone: neither the Democratic Party on Leccese, nor the Convention (which brings together the lawyer’s supporters) on Laforgia. At this point the only option is to use the blessed primaries. Miraculously, now everyone seems to agree to do them, even Laforgia and the 5S. We are on March 9th and the chosen date is April 7th. Everything seems to be back to normal, we are back on the main road, now may the best win.
Behind Conte’s act of rupture
But – alas – we are only halfway through the drama because all of this comes with the news of the ministerial commission being sent to Bari to verify the possibility of the Municipality being dissolved due to mafia, given the investigation by the judiciary. The representatives of the center-right of Bari pushed down this path although they do not take responsibility for it. The decision has two consequences: the first is that Bari ends up in the national spotlight, something that not even the news of the 130 arrests had managed to do; the second is that a huge feeling of indignation envelops the city. On March 23, at least 10 thousand people take to the streets to support Decaro and his administration because – they say – Bari has changed in these twenty years, reaching the big European cities, so that no one thinks of pushing it back, when it was called “snatch land”.
It would seem like a fixed point, but it isn’t. While the national spotlights are dabbling over selfies (by Decaro) and idle chatter (by Emiliano) about relationships with clan women, another judicial investigation arrives which takes the mayor of a small town and a former regional councilor and his brother for alleged exchanges between votes and money. We are in the week before the primaries: on April 4th Conte seizes the opportunity and without even a phone call to the “allies”, declares that he considers the primaries null and void: “his” candidate, that is Laforgia, will not be there on the 7th.
It’s a slap in the face to the Democratic Party in full face and secretary Schlein no longer uses velvet gloves: in Piazza Umberto, where the Dems gather, distraught, for what was supposed to be the last public meeting before the vote, she treats the ally of “disloyalty”. It is now clear to everyone that there will be no reconciliation, that the vote will be split and that at this point the center-left is at a really big risk.
The last days risk passing for those of farce after tragedy. Vendola, who officially supports Laforgia, proposes that both candidates take a step back to take shelter under the umbrella of a person of integrity such as the magistrate Nicola Colaianni, a former deputy of the PDS at the time, then close to the former governor. But no one expects anything from the attempt and in fact neither Leccese nor Laforgia accept: they will go to the polls on 8 June and the voters will choose between the two.
How will it end? As has been said, politics is not an exact science. Assuming that the centre-right candidate (Fabio Romito, regional councilor who joined the League after a past as a fittian) passes to the run-off, one of the two will challenge him in the second round. And that’s the most likely scenario. But it is not shared by everyone.
Some (the catastrophists) they imagine that, thanks to the disastrous performance of the center-left in the last six months, accompanied by the investigations of the judiciary, which as has happened in the past, are considered sentences and not investigations, the center-right will make an appearance, winning in the first round. Others (the optimists) instead imagine that the pandemonium caused by the judiciary and badly managed by politics will not be enough for the centre-right, weak and without ideas, and that its candidate will not pass to the second round, leaving the two lefts with the task of fighting in a civil war that will cast its shadow over the future administration.
However, one thing is certain: in Bari, whatever happens, it won’t be a success.
Tags: long war centerleft Bari chronicle announced disaster
