A few days before the vote (also European, but few are interested in it) there is a strange atmosphere in Bari: everyone, on the right and on the left, seems to be holding their breath.
They are keeping him on the right because this time it could be the right time to take back “their” municipality after twenty years. And they keep it on the left because they fear collapse and it would be too painful to lose in Bari after the city has become beautiful and livable as it has never been in its past thanks to their administrations.
Let’s say straight away that the right is right to hope: the opponents play defense and appear weakened, having suffered all sorts of things in recent months.
Suffered, because it still remains an open wound, the sending of commissioners by Minister Piantedosi to look for evidence of mafia infiltration in the administration of Antonio Decaro, after an investigation had been opened by the judiciary, with related arrests, for the sale of votes. An investigation that did not even touch the mayor, who was actually praised by prosecutor Rossi for his reporting against these infiltrations. Just as the President of the Region Michele Emiliano did not touch on the second investigation – again by exchange of votes – which saw a regional councilor investigated. An even bloodier wound after what is happening in Liguria, where the President of the Region Toti, arrested for corruption and in prison, does not even have the decency to resign.
Two weights and two measures, say the people of Bari.
Romito’s challenge
But in addition to having suffered them, the left has also given them and sought them: today they come to the polls with two candidates, Vito Leccese, the environmentalist soul of the Democratic Party, and Michele Laforgia, a well-known criminal lawyer, after the primaries had been ruined by Conte who had practically accused all his former allies of criminals. And we know that this, asking for votes for the same political area while presenting themselves as divided, is not a good business card: if they are already arguing now, how will they govern together?
The Northern League champion who represents the centre-right in the challenge, Fabio Romito, young in age (36 years old), but with considerable political and administrative experience having climbed all the steps, from representative of students in Law, where he graduated, to district councilor, to move on to provincial councilor, up to his current position as regional councilor. Romito goes wherever he is invited to explain his vision of the city. Which obviously should take a completely different path from that followed by centre-left administrations. One of these ways concerns the image of Bari itself. He said in one of the electoral meetings that if it were for him, we should go back to building in the city, wherever possible; and if it were really necessary to provide the city with more greenery, it would be enough to “verticalize” all the buildings of up to 3 floors in the historic center (the Murat district, built by the Napoleonic general), demolishing them and in their place building tower blocks which, soaring into the sky, they can leave space on the ground to make gardens.
To be an idea it is, but what kind we leave to the reader’s imagination. Romito, despite having been chosen by Salvini in full light of 2018 to be one of the southern leaders of the National League, has an entirely Berlusconian history, having been selected by Berlusconi himself, with a casting at Villa Gernetto, one of the properties of Fininvest, as one of the new faces of Forza Italia. In fact, to the correspondent of Corriere della Sera, Goffredo Buccini revealed that he feels like an “anomalous” Northern League member, who has a passion for “Bolivarianism” and that Fidel Castro is his “favorite revolutionary”. He does not insult his allies and indeed in the debates he almost always says he agrees with Michele Laforgia, so much so that the interested party is forced first to say that he is “disturbed” by the advances and immediately afterwards to joke and ask him for the vote. Which Romito also does in return.
Leccese against Laforgia
The curtain doesn’t work with the other candidate of the left, Vito Leccese, who according to polls from a few weeks ago, should pass to the second round by beating Laforgia and then clashing with Romito. Laforgia pinches him in every public meeting, inevitable given that he asks the people of the left to vote for him and not for the Democratic Party. Obviously pointing the finger at the unfinished: especially life in the suburbs, where objectively, the glamour You can’t see Bari at all. So much so that Leccese, usually calm and measured, complained a lot about this behavior, stating that Laforgia uses the “baton” against him instead of against the right.
Vito Leccese comes from an ancient history: an early Green, parliamentarian for two legislatures, very expert head of cabinet of the centre-left councils, he was a councilor when the Albanians of Vlora landed and changed the world. Councilor of that mayor Enrico Delfino whom President Cossiga mocked by calling him an “idiot” because when those 20 thousand desperate people arrived in the port he said “they are people, desperate people. They cannot be sent back, we are their only hope.” The same words, translated into Morse code and placed alongside the date of the landing, 8.8.1991, were sculpted, with input from Decaro, a demonstration of the values that inspire the left, in a sculpture that faces the sea in one of those neighbourhoods, San Girolamo, north of Bari, which however is now waiting for other works to be able to enjoy the glitter of the city centre. Vito Leccese is a shy man, gentle, behind the scenes rather than on stage and in fact he tried in every way to ward off the “bitter cup”, accepting the candidacy, strongly supported by Decaro, just when time was running out and the names of other party colleagues were burned.
As for Michele Laforgia, if today he is the representative of the 5 Star Movement, it must be said that he would have gladly done without the hug with Conte. He has his own political history in the city, in addition to that of an important and well-known criminal lawyer. Above all linked to experiences of active citizenship. First as one of the founding members of “Città Plural”, the association of Franco Cassano, the unforgettable sociologist of “meridian thought”. It was thanks to the tenacity of Cassano and “Città Plural” that the conflict with the centre-right administration was opened over the eco-monster of Punta Perotti, tower blocks built almost on the seashore. And when Emiliano became mayor, in 2004, it was again the association that pushed him to finally sign for its demolition. Today Laforgia is president of another association, “La Giusta Causa”, a refuge for the wealthy bourgeoisie who feel the Democratic Party is too “to the right” and who is often accused, obviously by the citizens, but also on the right, of actually being a club for only the rich who, although they aspire to be closer to the people than the Democratic Party is, only the housemaids and carers they have at home know about that people.
This is the picture.
The hypothesis that one of the candidates wins in the first round is discarded by all observers and secretly also by the contenders. The run-off is therefore obvious, but between whom? The most accredited is the one between Leccese and Romito. And everyone is wondering: will the “Laforgiani” then vote for Leccese? Or out of ideological hatred will they choose not to vote or, worse, to throw themselves at the young promise of the center-right? Laforgia swears that since he is “a man of the twentieth century”, he cannot change his mind about the values that inspire him. So never to the right. But will his “army” do it? And Conte’s troops, how will they behave? Many whisper that in reality many five-star voters will already vote for Leccese in the first round, but who knows. As for the hypothesis of a run-off “internal” to the left, between Leccese and Laforgia, an open-ballot primary, the result appears equally unclear. If it had really been the primaries, everyone you talk to claims that Laforgia would have won them hands down. But now that so much water has flowed under the well-known bridges? Maybe.
The only thing that is certain for everyone is that the next mayor of Bari will not be Fabio Romito.
But as president Emiliano, who supports Leccese, declared, the risk of a sensational surprise is “unavoidable”. He was referring to a possible victory for Laforgia over Leccese in the first round and then in the run-off against Romito.
Or not?
