Just a “settlement of accounts”. This is how Nico Bavaro (Si) defined the reshuffle that Emiliano announced yesterday in Puglia: “Schlein and Fratoianni had asked for the Apulian regional council to be eliminated. Everything ended in the expulsion of the Italian Left.”
No resetting. The mini council reshuffle launched by Emilianowith the appointment of three new councillors, Serena Triggiani, Viviana Matrangola And Debora Ciliento, managed to displease practically everyone. After the judicial storm that hit Puglia, the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein and the secretary of the Italian Left Nicola Fratoianni they had asked the governor for profound reflection and a change of phase, which could not be limited to the simple replacement of those who left. But the operation carried out by Emiliano did not convince either his adversaries or his allies.
Triggiani received the delegation for the Environment, waste cycle and reclamation, parks, industrial risk, housing policies, industrial crises and gender policies; Viviana Matrangola was delegated to Culture, protection and development of cultural enterprises, legality and social anti-mafia; while the regional councilor of the Democratic Party Debora Ciliento was assigned to lead the Department of Transport and Sustainable Mobility in place of the resigning Anita Maurodinoia, investigated in the investigation by the Bari Prosecutor’s Office into an alleged vote swap.
The governor therefore opted for a light reshuffle, after yet another appeal from the dem leader, who wanted a “renewal of the regional government structures” which would establish “a new beginning, on different bases”. After the latest scandal, with the arrest for corruption of Alfonso Pisicchio, Emiliano’s councilor in the last mandate, Schlein demanded a change of pace from the Democratic governor, to “keep away quick-change artists, defectors from the center-right and people whose moral rigor is the slightest shadow.” None of this happened. And the discontent was immediately registered in the centre-left, especially on the part of the Italian Left, which read Emiliano’s decision to remove the now former Environment Councilor Annagrazia Maraschio from the regional council as a settling of accountsthe opportunity to take a pebble off your shoe.
Puglia Region, mini reshuffle in the Emliano council: three new councilors appointed
The question according to the head of the Southern Italian Left Nico Bavaro it comes from afar, and this last move was preceded by other trips and well-placed blows. “It is evidently a hostile act towards a political force that in recent years has kept faith in some commitments made with the citizens of Puglia, to defend the environment and the territory – says Bavaro, contacted by Fanpage.it – We have caused annoyance, and so Emiliano, at the first good opportunity, saw fit to eliminate this entry”.
The news of these hours would be the last episode of a story that starts from afar, which began a year and a half ago with the aim of reduce the political weight of the Italian Left in the Apulian government. “The first act was to remove the urban planning mandates from Annagrazia Maraschio, to assign them to a regional councilor elected in Forza Italia and then transferred to the civic body in support of Emiliano. Speaking of transformism…”, underlines Nico Bavaro to Fanpage .it, which points out that in recent years in Puglia there has been discussion of the Housing Plan – which allows increases in volume in buildings, which the Italian Left has always opposed – and the revision of the Territorial Landscape Plan (PPTR), pushed on one side of the majority of Emiliano, to allow other portions of the landscape to be used.
The tensions between Emiliano and the Italian Left also manifested themselves later, on the occasion of the elections in Brindisi, where, with the contribution of the M5s, the outgoing mayor was allegedly ousted Riccardo Rossi, of Avs: “He was literally thrown away, after just one mandate, it’s not clear why, and the result is that the right won”, recalls Nico Bavaro. After a few months, the president’s civic list asked for the resignation of councilor Maraschio, due to another conflict, in this case on the definition of the plan of suitable areas, which had to be adopted to identify the places in which to build the production plants of electricity. “We had tried to ask that these systems be built in industrial areas, on the roofs of buildings and beyond 12 miles from the coast, to defend the Apulian landscape”, explains the Si exponent.
The picture is completed today with the ouster of Maraschio from the council, “using as an excuse the judicial scandals and the arrests of people linked to political realities that have nothing to do with the Italian Left, such as Pisicchio and Maurodinoia, but also of people who were part of the Region’s technostructure, and who were arrested months ago, very close to President Emiliano, given that he had chosen them – says Bavaro again – It is incredible that the only force that has always expressed a voice out of the chorus pays We pay the price for the freedom of the battles we wage.”
“This whole affair is a farce”, the Si exponent vents again. “I would expect the Democratic Party to also say something. Schlein had asked for the elimination of the Apulian regional council, and a commitment to open a serious discussion on transformism, as well as on the moral question. I would like to point out that these great and bombastic declarations have resulted in the expulsion of the Italian Left”.
“We had also asked for the elimination of the council and the elimination of appointments in the investee companies of the Region, where the risk of malfeasance very often lurks, given that they are used to contribute to the growth of the personal power of the political ruling groups. In this In this way we would have liked to open a discussion not so much on the names on the council, but on how the people are chosen, who should be indicated for competence and merit, and not for loyalty to the leader. This level of debate certainly cannot be considered exhausted with the replacement of a councilor, Maurodinoia, investigated in an investigation into an alleged vote swap, and with the replacement of two external members, the former Forzista Rocco Palese, councilor for Health, and Anna Grazia Maraschio. Other than a moral question, we are in for a farce total, when instead first of all a bit of self-criticism would be needed. We would have expected this from Emiliano and the leading group of the Apulian centre-left, to reconstitute a relationship between the parties that have governed Puglia for twenty years and the citizens”, says Nico again. Bavarian.
Meanwhile, the center-right in the regional council has presented a proposal motion of no confidence towards the president of the Puglia Region, Michele Emiliano. It was announced during a press conference called by the Fratelli d’Italia, Forza Italia, Lega and La Puglia groups tomorrow. But according to Bavaro, this should not put the regional government in difficulty. “Emiliano doesn’t have a problem with numbers in the regional council at the moment, also because there have been changes of direction from the right towards his coalition, at least three. It worries me little. What worries me is the divorce between the progressive coalition in Puglia and the healthy parts of Apulian society. I don’t know if we realize the gravity of the situation, when even the regional manager of Libera, Don Angelo Cassano, feels the duty to intervene publicly to say that the replacement of the councilors, and of Maraschio, it was a cosmetic operation”, underlines the head of the South of the Italian Left. “To think that this matter can be resolved with a vote in the regional council is foolish. The task of all political forces today is to rebuild harmony with the people of Puglia, which we risk losing.”
