The Bari mystery, with the clockwork resignation and arrest. It almost seems that in the Apulian capital there is someone who follows the trail of the judiciary and tries to anticipate the moves of the investigators, in an attempt to stem the scandals. The last, the third that shook the Democratic Party due to electoral corruption, overwhelmed the former regional councilor Alfonso Pisicchio, very loyal to the governor Michele Emiliano, who, until a few hours before the issuing of the precautionary measure of house arrest, was head of the regional Arti agency. From which, strangely, he had announced his resignation, before the Guardia di Finanza showed up to arrest him. A timing that casts shadows on the whole affair. So much so that the vice-president of the Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission, Mauro D’Attis, said: «It’s a sin to think badly, but it’s clear that Emiliano knew what was about to happen. Ergo, someone warned him. And this is a very serious thing.”
How very serious are the accusations for Pisicchio, who ended up under house arrest together with his brother Enzo, two big names in the Democratic Party, head of the Democratic Initiative for Puglia, the movement that supported the governor in the 2020 regional elections. The Pisicchios would have received 156 thousand euros in cash from companies attributable to the entrepreneur Giovanni Riefoli, also in the form of fictitious consultancy. Not only. The two dems, in competition with the director of the Municipality of Bari Francesco Catanese and with the member of the tender commission Gianfranco Chiarulli, would have rigged a contract for almost 6 million euros, for the assignment of the collection of the Tarsu-Tares-Tari. The brothers would have used the money resulting from the alleged corrupt pact for themselves and for the political initiatives of the center-left. The two employees of the Municipality, led by Antonio Decaro, would instead have been “repaid” with the hiring of his wife, the first, while the second was waiting for a permanent contract for his son. Not to mention the long list of gifts received from Enzo Pisicchio, including furniture, cell phones, private parties.
They are responsible for a series of crimes: from corruption for an act contrary to official duties to fraud, aggravated for obtaining public funds, up to the disturbed freedom of auctions. The investigating judge Ilaria Casu, in the provision, underlined that the accusations against Alfonso Pisicchio concern the period in which he was councilor of the Emiliano council, when he would have used «his political influence and his relationships, through his brother Enzo, for the management patronage of his role, with favoritism to obtain returns in terms of electoral consensus, through hiring in favored or advantaged companies of people who ensured the vote and who had also served in his party”. In short, yet another blow for the Democratic Party, grappling with the moral question and the breaking of the alliance with the 5 Stars, firm on the candidate Michele Laforgia. Laforgia himself is Pisicchio’s lawyer. And the day before the Finance operation, he had spoken of rumors about imminent new arrests. After a few hours, the handcuffs went off.
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2024-04-12 09:57:52