Still troubled waters in the center-left of Bari: in the evening, during a press conference called within a few hours, Michele Laforgia, supported by part of the center-left (M5s, Italian Left, Italia viva, +Europa and socialists) has decided to hand over his candidacy for mayor of Bari to the parties that support him, asking that they decide whether the conditions are still there to move forward. «I believe – the lawyer announced – that the time has come, definitively freeing the field from any suspicion of personalism, to hand over my willingness to run for mayor to the same political forces that asked me and supported it, at least until today, namely the Convention for Bari 2024 and the 5 Star Movement.”
The hypothesis of a third candidate
«In the last few hours the two candidates, namely Vito Leccese and me, have been asked by several parties – he added – to meet, to take a step back and, perhaps, to identify a third man or a third woman who will avoid the split of the center-left in the now imminent elections of 8 and 9 June. It seems like utter nonsense to me, yet another symptom of the decline of politics.” And again: «It is not us, and in any case it is certainly not me, branded as divisive from the first moment – Laforgia went on to say – who can recompose, by magic, the wide, or fair or in any case united field, perhaps also specifying who should we do without. It is the task of the political forces, the same political forces that nominated us and that in these days and hours ask us to take dance steps, it is not clear where or how.”
The cancellation of the center-left primaries in Bari
The surprise announcement came a few days, after much controversy, after the cancellation of the primaries that should have been held last Sunday with the other centre-left candidate (Pd, Verdi and others), Vito Leccese. Last Thursday, a few hours after the arrests for an alleged vote swap, Laforgia and Giuseppe Conte announced that they would give up the gazebos due to the lack of “minimum safety conditions”. A choice that, in fact, split the progressive camp, creating a fracture between the Dem and the Five Star Movement, between Conte and Schlein. «I remain at the service of the center-left and waiting to know if and under what conditions I will be asked for a personal commitment – said Laforgia – After which I will decide what to do in agreement with everyone and all those who have been at my side in these months”.
Romito (Lega) centre-right candidate
All this is happening while on the other front the centre-right, after a back and forth that lasted four months, seems ready to make its candidate for mayor official: barring further twists it will be Fabio Romito, regional councilor of the League, 36 years old. It was already clear that something was moving last Saturday, when the leader of the Northern League, Matteo Salvini, from Turin spoke of a centre-right ready to win in Bari with a “young Northern League member” and on Sunday, from Bari he outlined a profile that think precisely of Romito. The turning point came last night, during a city meeting that gave the final green light. The regional councilor of the League would therefore have overtaken his coalition colleagues Filippo Melchiorre, an FdI senator very close to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and the deputy minister Francesco Paolo Sisto (FI) in the photo finish.
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2024-04-10 07:52:54