Equal opportunities forgotten. Vittoria is being discussed by mayor Francesco Aiello’s choice to appoint councilor Fabio Prelati in place of the resigning Anastasia Licitra, who resigned seven months ago. The council is now complete and only councilor Francesca Corbino is part of it. At the beginning of the council, two years ago, there were also Katya Ferrara, who resigned after nine months and Anastasia Licitra, who remained in office for two years.
“Gender equality has been mortified”
“The council is made up entirely of men: out of seven boxes only one is covered by the female sex. We believe that gender equality is being undermined.” This was stated by the opposition municipal councilors Alfredo Vinciguerra, Monia Cannata, Pippo Scuderi and Valeria Zorzi.
In Sicily, the only region in Italy, the law requiring 30 percent female presence on councils does not apply, but almost all administrations, even without a specific obligation, have female representation on councils.
Mayor Aiello: “I respected the law. But at the end of the year I could change again”
The mayor, Francesco Aiello, replies: “I respected the law, which only requires representation without indicating the precise number – replied the mayor – but the principle of gender representation is important to me. At this moment we needed to complete the council, with one person, Fabio Prelati, who already had the delegations that I assigned to him, for Sport and Youth Policies. In the future, perhaps within the year, I do not rule out other changes in the council.”
Waiting for appointments in Vittoria Mercati. The “rumors” of the day before
In majority circles, there has been talk for some time about the future structures of the council and the administration. After the motion of no confidence at the end of the year, which did not find the necessary numbers and which in the end was not voted on, Aiello has recovered some pieces of his former majority and now in the city council he once again has the numbers that allow him to govern. There has been persistent talk for months now about the possible appointment of the daughter of a city councilor as the future president of Vittoria Mercati.
“I don’t rule anything out – replies Aiello – I have an open dialogue with the elected councilors of my majority. We talk a lot about plans for the city. First of all, at Vittoria Mercati, we will have a board of directors of three people. We need to be very vigilant and avoid the anomalies of the past, some of which I have already reported to the prosecutor’s office. Meanwhile, the current president, Carmelo Diquattro, has carried out his mandate well, which was to verify what was in the past management and to restore legality. We will decide on the names and appointments shortly, with a view to better functioning of Vittoria Mercati”.
Francesca Cabibbo
