There is only one certainty about today’s Regional Council meeting, May 7: the motion of no confidence against Emiliano presented by the centre-right will not pass. The opposition does not have sufficient numbers. The regional statute provides that an absolute majority of votes (26 out of 51 elected) is required for the motion of no confidence to be accepted. And in this way we obtain Emiliano’s resignation, with the consequent dissolution of the Council.
The votes
The math is easy: there are 17 centre-right councilors. The latest arrival in Forza Italia, the former civic Tupputi, has already announced that he will not vote for no confidence. So we drop to 16. To these will perhaps be added the vote of Lanotte (UDC, former civic), of the grillina Laricchia and certainly of Massimiliano Stellato (Italy alive). Yesterday he was clear on this point Matteo Renzi, leader of IV: «I consider Emiliano one of the worst governors of this country. And not for the investigations concerning his closest collaborators: I’m not a justicialist. We criticize Emiliano for politics.” Renzi doesn’t stop at the vote of his advisor. He adds another reflection: «Let’s see if the others, starting with 5 Stars and Action, will have the courage to vote with us against the governor. Or once again they will make Emiliano a crutch.”
The advisors M5S (Laricchia aside) they will say no to the no-confidence vote, having recently left the council: they certainly cannot vote against the political decisions that they have supported up to now and which are contested in the motion. The same Giuseppe Conte, on Sunday, from Bari, he said that the M5S “will not lend itself to instrumental initiatives of the centre-right”. Different speech for Action. The three Calendians await answers from Emiliano on the replacement of the head of the health department. “We will decide based on what the president says in the Chamber” says shareholder Amati. The feeling is that Action has taken a contrasting posture, for various reasons: because it has to respond to Renzi’s provocation; because shareholders want to continue the interdiction game they are adept at; because the proportional vote in the European elections excites souls and everyone wants to stand out.
A “visible” majority
One thing is certain: it is not enough for Emiliano that the motion of no confidence is rejected, as will happen. He will ask that his majority be manifested in a clear and visible way. And that therefore he has therefore at least half plus one of the components (at least 26) and it is not a given. There will be several absentees (dem Metallo and perhaps la Maurodinoia). Furthermore, the civic member Tammacco (For Puglia) could be missing, protesting for the slow progress with the Molfetta hospital project. In the end, it could be the 5 Star Movement that inflates the numbers of those who oppose the motion. Except that the 5 Stars are not officially part of the majority. Councilor Fabio Romito (centre-right mayoral candidate in Bari) stings them: «The 5 stars should have a little more coherence in their choices». Last note: Flavio Fasano, deputy coordinator of Senso civico, the party of former councilor Pisicchio, under house arrest, announces that the movement will be out of any political competition.
