LECCE – The municipal council will be quite a puzzle. Meanwhile, the name of Angelo Tondo is being whispered about as the candidate for head of cabinet.
Ten seats for councilors, and four are for the pink quotas. One more reason for reflection for the mayor Adriana Poli Bortone given that there are 16 men and four women in the Council: too many contenders for six seats. Three pink councilors could be enough because Poli Bortone is competing to reach the 40% quota for gender equality. This is the minimum required by law, but nothing prevents the mayor from surprising everyone by appointing more women, even if it seems unlikely having to guarantee the political balance necessary to govern peacefully. And not only that.
To complicate the picture there is the match for the deputy mayor, a position that seems to arouse the wishes of Ugo Lisi who already during the election campaign was perceived as Adriana Poli Bortone’s natural number two. But Andrea Guido, the most voted in the centre-right coalition, would also be interested in the position, and it is not certain that there cannot be other suitors. Lisi would expect to become the “right-hand man” having taken a step back as mayoral candidate in favor of Poli Bortone. The same goes for the regional councilor Paolo Pagliaro (president of the Salento Region Movement) who took “a step aside” to leave the field to the senator and could now make claims.
But we must also take into account the possible claims of those who have made the difference in electoral terms: in terms of number of seats or lists presented. In this case, the Fratelli d’Italia would have a leading role in terms of the seats won and Roberto Marti in terms of the number of lists which obviously also generated places in the city council.
The other tangled point is that of women’s quotas. There are four women in the city council, but they are not the most supported and furthermore their appointment could mean the sacrifice of the councilors present in the lists from which Poli Bortone would eventually be drawn for the short-listed councilor positions. Both that and there are 9 seats, for 10 lists. If Poli Bortone decided on an “ecumenical” path, he could give a department to 9 lists, calibrating their political weight with the importance of delegation and the presidency of the council to the tenth, but what appears to be common sense does not always meet politics because after a victory played out to the wire, everyone will want to have their due part. In short, physiological headaches in the risk of building the municipal council, a “game” which also includes the aspirations of the first of the non-elected ones, who would enter the Council if some winning member of the list were appointed councilor. Luciano Battista is also among the candidates because it seems that Forza Italia’s desire to focus on him for the council has been confirmed.
In the meeting, for the centre-right, the following will sit for Fratelli d’Italia: Roberto Giordano Anguilla (769 votes), Andrea Pasquino (457), Oronzino Tramacere (392), Maria Luisa Greco (344); for Io Sud: Gianpaolo Scorrano (629), Massimo Fragola (277), Tonia Erriquez (Io Sud, 210); for Prima Lecce: Bernardo Monticelli Cuggiò (695), Laura Calò (481); Udc–Puglia Popular: Andrea Guido (1,349), Gianmarco Pagliaro (689); Salento Region Movement: Giancarlo Capoccia (671), Gianmaria Greco (449); Forza Italia: Luciano Battista (673), Luca Russo (536), Prima Lecce: Carlo Mignone (465); Lecce Futura: Luigi Quarta Colosso (347), Maurizio Botrugno (311); League: Severo Martini (446); All Lecce-Lisi: Sofia Lupo (150).
