The last day of the electoral campaign before the run-off still held controversy and venom. The “battlefield” was once again that of Lupiae Servizi, a company entirely owned by the Municipality of Lecce which also deals with the care and maintenance of public green areas, for days at the center of a back-and-forth between the outgoing Carlo Salvemini (mayoral candidate for the centre-left) and thesole director Alfredo Pagliaro (brother of the regional councilor and publisher Paolo Pagliaro) who, after having contributed to Salvemini’s election in the first round in 2019, in recent months has instead merged – together with the Puglia Popular group, united with the UDC – into the centre-right.
The reasons for the break between Salvemini and Pagliaro
The last round took place on 21 June, which marked the definitive break between the two, previously allies and linked by a relationship of trust and now “enemies”. The reasons for the “breakdown of the relationship of trust – Salvemini explained yesterday – are to be found in two political steps and one management”. Two choices not appreciated by the mayor: «The first, which I contested and considered completely inappropriate, of his personal candidacy in the 2022 general elections, of which Pagliaro did not deem it necessary to inform the mayor and sole shareholder of the company he managed at the time. The second is that of his son’s candidacy, indicated by him, in an electoral list that is also opposed to the majority that wanted him as sole director». As regards the management transition, however, the outgoing mayor explains that it concerns a “specific request for the payment of a performance bonus additional to the ordinary compensation, equal to 5 percent of the profits accrued from 2020 to 2023: approximately 130,000 additional euros asked for themselves and which I absolutely did not feel I had to respond to.”
Pagliaro: «With appointment you cannot buy freedom of thought»
The reply from Alfredo Pagliaro, elected city councilor from the centre-left ranks and appointed sole director of Lupiae Servizi in August 2019, it didn’t take long to wait. For Pagliaro – to whom Salvemini himself publicly recognized the merit of having guaranteed the implementation of the composition plan – this is an unmotivated political attack. And he replies starting from the request for compensation: «I asked for the management payment of the performance bonus linked to profits, the law says so – he replies – I didn’t ask for that figure, but (as the law tells me) a percentage to be agreed, ranging from 0.5 to 5 percent. But she never responded.” Regarding the candidacies that Salvemini talks about, his one for the Senate in 2022 and his son’s for the city council in 2024, Pagliaro strikes home the blow: «With an appointment you cannot buy my freedom of thought, my acquired rights. Why are you talking about my son? I wonder if the parents who had their children nominated asked Mayor Salvemini for permission. My son has the right to run like everyone else.” The centre-right coalition also comes to Pagliaro’s defence, speaking of unacceptable “personal and political attacks”: “We are tired of constantly hearing lies and falsehoods. People’s freedom cannot be bought.”
