Center for Cuneo, a rift that has distant roots

The rift that took place last night (Monday 29 April) in the city council where the councilors of the “Centro per Cuneo” group left the session has distant roots. However, without having to go too far back in time and limiting the analysis to the council mandate currently in progress, it is worth remembering that the tensions within the Cuneo majority already begin with the choice of the candidate for mayor who must take up the very heavy legacy of Federico Borgna in the elections of June 2022. Both main majority forces (Centre for Cuneo and Democratic Party) claim the right to that seat. The centrists believe that that position rightfully belongs to Luca Serale who was Borgna’s deputy for five years (and they even launched his candidacy with an official press note already in March, three months before the elections ed.), while the Dems propose Patrizia Manassero by virtue of the agreement that five years earlier had brought the PD back into the majority from which it remained outside in Borgna I.

In the end the “Dems” prevail so, on 26 June 2022, Patrizia Manassero is the first woman to become mayor of Cuneo. But not even the electoral dispute is useful in understanding “who wears the trousers” in the majority, given that both forces win seven seats in the city council. However, for the PD, having the mayor means having to pay a very high price in terms of departments. Only two places on the council (Gianfranco Demichelis and Sara Tomatis) against the four (in addition to the position of deputy mayor) which, together with the most important delegations (Budget and Public Works above all) go to the centrists Luca Serale, Valter Fantino, Cristina Clerico and Luca Pilgrim. In the composition of the executive, the mayor struggles tremendously to find the balance capable of satisfying the four forces that make up the majority and in the end she is unable to satisfy everyone. Immediately after the presentation of the new council, within his own party, there was a first heavy defection: Antonino Pittari who, despite the 334 preferences not receiving any department, leaves the Dems and moves to the mixed majority group.

The thorny issues that the majority must face (Tettoia Vinaj, Piazza Europa, Miac, etc.) do not help to calm the atmosphere, but it is above all the support of the Center for Cuneo for the regional “Cirio List” that establishes the first serious fracture. And the mayor herself admits it: “it will be difficult months”, he repeats several times in the classroom. But the straw that breaks the camel’s back, as admitted by the centrists themselves, is the composition of the “board” of the CRC Foundation. The lists of candidates facing each other must be filed by today, with the supporters of Mauro Gola on one side and those of Federico Borgna on the other, who however seems to have little hope. The majority of the members of the new board of directors are in favor of the entrepreneur from Peveragne, former president of the Cuneo Industrial Union and of the Chamber of Commerce. It is he who must indicate his team, the CDA, made up of seven members who can also be co-opted, i.e. be external to the 20 names of the general council. And this is where the majority fails to find the square: Centro per Cuneo does not like the names of Federico Borgna and Luisella Cavallo indicated by Manassero, preferring that of his Beppe Delfino. But the mayor said last night that she does not intend to submit to blackmail. Who will win? Today we will certainly know more.