We should prepare a political bignamin to try to make the poor Calabrian citizens understand the babel ofCalabrian politics or presumed such. The latest news from the Calabrian political market – other than the transfer market – is that Antonello Talerico returns with Forza Italia. The event was presented with great fanfare by President Occhiuto with all the Forza Italia staff. At the conference, as De André would say, everyone was there, from the provincial coordinators to the regional secretary of Forza Italia. Next to Talerico sat Marco Polimeni and a little further away Michele Comito. The Bignamino would be useful for navigating the prevailing political jargon.
The story of Antonello Talerico is emblematic. An emerging lawyer from the Catanzaro Bar, where he held the position of president of the Bar Association, the perfect springboard for launching himself into the stormy waters of politics, he decided two years ago to stand as a candidate in the regional elections on the Forza Italia list in the central constituency, Catanzaro Crotone Vibo Valentia.
At dawn on October 5th, the awakening is bitter for our new politician who remains out of the regional council because he is overtaken by Michele Comito who doubles him in preferences and even worse by Valeria Fedele who also precedes him reaching above seven thousand preference votes . A searing defeat that leads Antonello Talerico to denounce a probable conspiracy hatched by the then very powerful regional secretary of Forza Italia, Giuseppe Mangialavori, who has now fallen into disrepair after having been cited extensively in at least 4 investigations by the Catanzaro DDA.
Rags, accusations and insults fly. The word passes to the stamp paper and Talerico, as a good lawyer, denounces the ineligibility of both Michele Comito and Valeria Fedele. The Court of Catanzaro and the Court of Appeal reject the appeal against Michele Comito (noblesse oblige) and instead declare Valeria Fedele lapsed because she had not placed herself on leave from the position of general director of the Province of Catanzaro. To give an idea of the “friendly” climate between the participants in the dispute, just read the fiery words against Talarico pronounced by Michele Comito at the time of the last sentence: “Although I am happy with the outcome of this judgement, I cannot however hide a hint of bitterness in noting how there was an inelegant attitude, to use a euphemism, on the part of those who believed that a result could be overturned in the courtroom electoral otherwise impossible to achieve. And this is also why I feel sorry for the judgment regarding my colleague Valeria Fedele, who, in the course of her activity within the regional council, has demonstrated that she fully deserves the vast consensus legitimately obtained in the electoral competition”. Today Michele Comito was at the press conference table enthusiastic about the return of his lost son. It is clear that he has worked through his sorrow for La Fedele…
Antonello Talerico, who entered the regional council, obviously did not join the Forza Italia group, but that of the mixed group, and created a consortium with Antonello Lo Schiavo from the De Magistris list to eliminate the then group leader Amalia Bruni which in turn leaves the mixed group and joins the PD council group. And here things start to get a little convoluted because we have a mixed group with two councilors united for the seats, but with Talerico supporting Occhiuto and Lo Schiavo who instead remains in opposition. At least on paper… because then the practice is a completely different thing…
But it doesn’t end here. In the municipal elections of Catanzaro the following spring, we are in 2022, Talerico runs for mayor, is once again defeated, does not even go to the run-off, where he supports, together with his friend Tallini, Nicola Fiorita, candidate of the centre-left. Heading the Forza Italia list that supported Valerio Donato, in turn coming from the Democratic Party, was Marco Polimeni, who the day before yesterday sat alongside Antonello Talerico, also happy about the return of his prodigal son.
Nicola Fiorita is elected mayor of Catanzaro and, not having a majority in the city council, he obtains the support of Antonello Talerico who sets up a new council group with councilors from the centre-right, decisive in giving the majority to Fiorita, with the significant name “changewind”… What the hell they would say to Cusenza… As a reward he gets three councilors in the last council reshuffle a few months ago which leads to the expulsion of other borderline subjects…
So to take stock of the state of the art until a few days ago we had Antonello Talerico who in Reggio Calabria, in the regional council, was part of the centre-right majority, but then in the evening when he returned to Catanzaro, in his capacity as municipal councilor , was part of the center-left. An artist, worthy of being called the Antonello of Catanzaro. The one from Messina definitely makes him look bad.
Logically, the return of our Antonello to Forza Italia would lead to his immediate exit from the Fiorita majority in Catanzaro, but instead nothing of this. No, he, Antonello da Catanzaro can remain in the centre-left majority in the regional capital. President Roberto Occhiuto does not oppose it, he is not shocked, he supports the initiative. Except that now there is the risk of having two Forza Italia, as in bobsleigh at the Olympics. Forza Italia 1 of Polimeni in opposition to Fiorita and Forza Italia 2 of Talarico in council with Fiorita. It’s politics in Occhiuto’s time, beauty.
There is no reason for scandal, we are people of the world, Totó would say. Nor are there any declarations of any kind from Mayor Fiorita and the entire centre-left. Someone whispers that the important thing is that he doesn’t join the council. Understand … with this music on Levaru. They would say to Catanzaro.
By now Roberto Occhiuto is the lord of Calabrian politics, a strategist who never misses a beat, the magnanimous master father who bestows titles, positions, promotions. With him the Ptolemaic theory comes back into fashion, he is the immobile earth in the center of Calabria, while all the others are celestial bodies that can always move freely around him. It is thanks to this theory that we have the Talerico case, but not only that. We have that in Vibo Valentia, in the next local elections, Forza Italia is loaning 4 candidates to Fratelli d’Italia who had difficulty closing the lists. Also in Vibo Valentia we have that the regional councilor De Nisi, while supporting Occhiuto at a regional level, may support the center candidate in the next administrative elections. And so on.
If you don’t understand anything, don’t worry, it’s not your fault, they’re the ones who… like to make it weird. However, any few days you will find our Iacchettino, the bigman of Calabrian politics, on newsstands. Naturally free, we hope for a regional contribution. And then they say that people don’t go to vote anymore.
