Frost. Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia certainly have a sort of political duty towards the official centre-right coalition, which supports the engineer Grazia Cosentino in the broad pact with the moderates. They “suspended” the agreement that should have led to Meloani’s candidacy for mayor and are now the cornerstones of the Cosentino project, together with centrist groups such as Italia Viva and Dc, among others. The Azzurri are working to complete the list, “only the last candidates are missing”, says coordinator Vincenzo Pepe. For those observing from the outside, the race for mayor of the former municipal manager, who later became technical manager of Impianti Srr (in-house waste service), marks more than a few shortcomings of the parties. There was no strong hand to push through a flagship candidacy but an agreement prevailed centered around an outsider, who certainly is not an expression of the most popular parties in the area. “I exclude that the candidacy of the engineer Cosentino translates into a weakness of the parties – adds Pepe – personally, I would have liked the pact with Fratelli d’Italia to be respected, giving him the possibility of having the candidate express himself. However, Vincenzo Casciana, who has excellent political ability, decided to withdraw understanding that otherwise the center-right would be split even further. His move was to be appreciated and it is no coincidence that I think he will be deputy mayor if our coalition wins. All the conditions are there to obtain an excellent result.” Pepe rejects the reconstructions that see “Nissene or Palermo” intentions behind the outsider Cosentino. “It’s not true at all – he specifies – his candidacy was proposed by a group of local representatives who saw in her the figure capable of uniting the centre-right and the moderate area. She was chosen for his expertise. After thirty-six years in the municipality, you have great knowledge of the administrative machinery. You have ideas of a certain type on the revival of the urban planning sector and on financing. You will allow us to avoid the mistakes made by the Greco junta. The current mayor, unfortunately, had obvious difficulties and did not accept the advice he received from his allies. Even the failure should have been declared earlier, we would have saved time and had more space to plan.” Forza Italia starts again from the exponents who in recent years have always been close to the party and who see themselves in the territorial coordinator and Ars deputy Michele Mancuso. On the list, there will be the outgoing councilor Rosario Trainito, among the big names at the starting line, while the other representative at the civic assembly, the doctor Carlo Romano, has withdrawn. He has already declared that he will support Scerra and “Alleanza per Gela”, even without running for re-election. “Romano had communicated his intention to us – concludes Pepe – we know that relationships of friendship and esteem also bind him to Scerra. Outside the party? Our party did not put him out. He is an esteemed professional and has great qualities, clearly, by not participating in meetings and decisions, he is putting himself out.”
