The real safe conduct for Europe Caterina Chinnici found it in the least ally of all: Totò Cuffaro. Despite having set up the barricades to prevent him from forming an alliance with Forza Italia, to which she herself converted about a year ago, it will be the former PD MEP who will be able to benefit from the votes of the “friends” of the Christian Democrats, who took to the field to support of the same list. They will indicate among their preferences that of Massimo Dell’Utri, Noi Moderati candidate. With a note of no small importance: “With the votes of the DC and those of Lombardo, I am almost certain that the Forza Italia list will take two seats in Sicily and run to be the first party in the constituency”, Cuffaro said in a interview with the newspaper ‘La Sicilia’. Outlining a picture that not even the most optimistic, until recently, had thought about: that is, that the former governor – a reprobate, according to the beautiful souls – can give the coup that Tajani dreams of – overtaking Fratelli d’ Italy – and what Chinnici hopes for.
Yes, Chinnici herself that now, in the name of morality and history, he would have to refuse any ‘external’ help, especially if it came from the man who endured five years in prison in Rebibbia after a conviction for aiding and abetting. But not a word came from Santa Caterina dei Misteri (she never explained the reasons for her change of coat) after the agreement between Cuffaro and Lupi, which turned into a nice accumulation of votes for Forza Italia, to “be free ”, to “do and grow”. And if the preferences diverted onto her person by Luca Sammartino (the methods ended up in the papers of an investigation) in 2019 earned her the seat in Brussels in the Democratic Party, thanks to Cuffaro Chinnici could continue her moralizing work throughout Europe, with five years of bonuses that would otherwise have been greatly at risk. Although Tajani entrusted her with the role of leader of the list, the former councilor of the Lombardo government would have ended up suffering from competition from Edy Tamajo and Marco Falcone, who at this time are competing for supremacy in the party. And not even the renunciation of one of the two, or both, of their seat in the European Parliament would have meant a direct pass.
Why Massimo Dell’Utri he is a candidate on the rise, who with the votes of the DC becomes a serious contender for that position. Cuffaro will be able to weigh in on preferences. He will have the opportunity to make friends and enemies understand that his “stinking” votes can still make a difference and that before shooting the red cross to zero, citing reasons of expediency or calculation, or of presumed moral superiority, it would have been better to think about it . If Tajani had prepared all this knowing how it would end, we could be talking about a perfect strategist. But it is Cuffaro himself who claims paternity of the operation: “I did the operation with Lupi and Saverio Romano. The federative pact with We Moderates will continue even after the European elections.” Tajani has no merit, nor Chinnici, much less Schifani (whose electoral firepower is not mentioned by anyone). However, if things went well, all three could claim the growth of a party which in Sicily – listen – is not even affected by the death of its leader, Silvio Berlusconi.
But the most theatrical aspect of this clumsy affair – of Cuffaro first kicked out and then readmitted, of Chinnici first censor and then fake democratic – is that the other pendulum of the coalition, Raffaele Lombardo, could also come out to an advantage: “If with the second seat achieved thanks to the DC it were having chosen Chinnici herself, in the end she will even have to thank me – says Cuffaro -. How strange is politics…”. It’s strange yes. Lombardo, who had started the electoral campaign with the League (or believing, in any case, that he had to support Annalisa Tardino, to whom he had promised his commitment), broke off with Salvini and ended up diverting his attention to Forza Italia, thanks to Roman agreement signed with Tajani. The logical consequence of these pirouettes was the support for a character who was a little out of the way, in terms of rank and beliefs, compared to the Berlusconi and Guaranteeist history. Which, Chinnici, boasts ancient friendly and political relationships with Lombardo, at the time of the government of the Region: putting two and two together was child’s play. Imagining this outcome was a little less so.
Lombardo and Cuffaro are always rival states. They hindered each other in the search for consensus and in the recruitment of the ruling class. But at this stage, thanks to a strong business sense, they have decided to use their electoral power without hindering each other too much. By lowering the immune defenses and signing a facade pax, which lasts as long as it lasts. And indeed, with hindsight, they joined the triple alliance that Schifani was the first to propose last summer (the objective? “To enclose under the same sky all those who think like us”). It ended with a loud raspberry and a new departure. But in the space of a few months, thanks to the unpredictability of events, here they are all together again.
We’re just missing that in some places triplet Cuffaro asks his team to write ‘Chinnici’… Even if it is unlikely to happen. In a recent interview, the outgoing MEP defined Tajani’s choice to exclude the DC as “considered” and has never completely changed her mind, at least publicly, on this little game of the ‘moral question’. Which becomes a little more immoral if behind the shining armor of beautiful souls a useful advantage manifests itself: first Cuffaro scared her because a DC candidate would have had the weapons to oust her from the list of favourites; now that the new Christian Democracy could make her life easier, the perception has changed. And it even leaves room for a hint of laxity on issues of public ethics. Yes, how strange politics is. One seat is enough and the world changes.
