by Francesco Biafora
Anyone who didn’t attend the last, “memorable” City Council can still do so. It’s all recorded, fortunately. Unfortunately, however, the “spectacle” witnessed at last Friday’s meeting was practically “the maximum of the minimum”, institutional and political. We have seen and heard, negatively, everything and the opposite of everything. And unfortunately, just when it came to discussing and deciding on an appreciable motion by councilors Iginio Pingitore (majority) and Enrico Pedace (minority), regarding the failure to reclaim the SIN of Crotone. An age-old and very delicate problem, which should unite and not divide, provoke unity and unity of purpose, and not spite, verbal attacks, useless personalism and political wars of the “poor”. Because this is what it was about, and what the last, and in some ways unseemly, City Council left us as a legacy. Where part of the majority raises its hand on command and regardless, and where part of the minority, see crutches and political agreements already closed, is increasingly disguised and transversal. Certainly not a good example for those who would like to get closer to politics, to trust in politics again, to rely on politics and on those who govern us. Because on Friday evening, let’s face it, yet another opportunity was missed to deliver a positive and politically comforting message to citizens. What was expected, what should have been and was not, especially on a particular and important occasion such as the discussion on reclamation, toxic waste and landfills. The motion was ultimately approved, but not by the majority of city councilors present, as it normally should have been. Because unfortunately it was not the “we” that prevailed, but the “I” at all costs, which consequently mortified the main and fundamental values of participatory democracy. See for example, the failure to include in the document a small but substantial addition, requested by councilor Carmen Giancotti. But also the “forcing” of the mayor who, on the occasion of the suspension of the City Council, requested to be able to collectively modify some parts of the motion, brought it back to the council chamber, resuming work, while some group leaders were still in the council room waiting . The general chaos, and a municipal regulation managed superficially and ad personam, did the rest, closing in the worst possible way, one of the unhappiest pages in the history of the Municipal Councils of Crotone.
