BARI – The irrepressible joy of Vito Leccese’s electoral committee for the victory in the run-off can also be measured in this way: the new mayor of Bari, accompanied by the governor Michele Emiliano, the outgoing mayor and new MEP Antonio Decaro and Michele Laforgia sing the song of resistance to excellence Beautiful Hello.
It is precisely the verses of Bella Ciao, with the Apulian governor among the first to sing them, that act as the soundtrack to the centre-left coalition which in Bari, after having rediscovered unity, gave 62-year-old Vito Leccese 70.27% of the votes and crowns him the new mayor of Bari in the run-off. His young opponent, the 36-year-old Northern League member Fabio Romito, stops at 29.73% of the votes with the entire centre-right coalition on his side.
In front of the electoral committee of Leccese, already after the first 60 sections scrutinized, many citizens and reporters gather waiting for the first declarations. Shortly after 5pm the new mayor arrives accompanied by the president of the Region Michele Emiliano and the outgoing mayor Antonio Decaro. «Vito, Vito», is the chorus that rises to welcome him.
Leccese thanks Bari for the “extraordinary result” and Michele Laforgia, a criminal lawyer who challenged him in the first round with the support of M5s and the Italian Left, obtaining 21% of the votes. «He supported me loyally», he highlights. Leccese’s satisfaction, which received 48% of the votes in the first round, also lies in the fact that the centre-left maintained its result despite the “physiologically low turnout in the run-off” which in Bari was 37.53%. It doesn’t seem like much compared to the first round when we were also voting for the European elections.
The coalition, which had split in Bari after the judicial investigations and arrests due to a political-mafia exchange vote, leading the Cinquestelle not to hold primaries for the choice of the unitary candidate, has reunited. And now, assures Leccese, “the ideals and values that animate it will inspire us in the government of this city”. The new mayor then underlines the phone call from the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein “who came here three times: I felt she was close and confident even when it was scared by the division of the coalition and today we can celebrate the victory of the united centre-left”.
«In the next few days – Leccese anticipates – we will resume the formation of the government team with the rediscovered coalition. After that I would like to be the mayor of all those who did not participate in the vote because they no longer believe in the power of politics over their future, I would like to restore their trust in the institutions, in what Decaro has transformed into the citizens’ institution. I will try to continue in the wake of this experience.”
The outgoing mayor himself says that he is “happy” to leave “the tricolor sash” to him: I am happy for him and for the city which will be led by a man with a big heart and who knows well how to administer it because for 20 years he has been a public manager at the Municipality”. Leccese has worked for the last ten years with Decaro and for the previous ten with Emiliano when he was also at the city palace. “He is a man who I have had close to me for many years and whom I respect deeply – says the current president of the Puglia Region – today is a day of joy because there will be another five years of good governance for this city”.
The centre-left, therefore, is preparing to reach 25 years of uninterrupted government of the Apulian capital. A result that could also put a small mortgage on the future of the Region where it is not excluded that the next candidate, barring a third mandate for Emiliano, will be Antonio Decaro who a few days ago, in the European elections, obtained around half a million votes.
