Cateno De Luca, are you there or are you doing?
«In what sense, sorry, I don’t understand …».
Candidate for President of the Region.
“Yes, absolutely yes. I am already working on an Island Liberation Front from Musumeci and maladministration. Sicily, after the misfortune of Crocetta and the disaster of Musumeci, needs a president who is up to it. And my resume as an administrator is the best business card ».
But in his curriculum there is also the convinced support, in 2017, for the current governor’s descent into the field. And now he looks like his number one enemy …
«I, in August 2017, was one of the first to side with Musumeci. And for this I broke with Lombardo, who instead was in love with the candidacy of Armao Meravigliao, and I did not list with the MPA but with the UDC. I chose Musumeci because he was a person I thought was capable from an administration point of view ».
Why have you changed your mind in these nearly four years?
«I changed it already in the electoral campaign. When on November 8, 2017, in the presence of my second arrest, Musumeci said: “Politics must arrive before prosecutors to prevent certain people from setting foot in the institutions”. It goes without saying that that arrest was overturned after fifteen days. And I’m in-cen-su-ra-to today. Now Musumeci reverses the approach: manettaro with De Luca, hyper guarantee with his protégé Razza to the point of challenging the judiciary by making him return ».
This could be a reason for personal resentment: the former “unpresentable” renegade who takes revenge on the governor-gentleman …
«No, because I forgave him that story. As a regional deputy I was loyal, I voted for the 2018 budget. My judgment is not resentful but objective. I enter into the merits. What are Musumeci’s reforms after three and a half years? None. Which situations inherited from Crocetta did he improve? None. Indeed, it has gotten worse. On waste, for example. The manager Foti unloads the hot potato on the mayors, fearing criminal and accounting responsibilities: he is creating the supercazzola that reproduces itself, to be pulled out in court. No, I’m not there. And I presented a complaint to all the Sicilian prosecutors. Musumeci spent only 1.5 of the 60 million available as commissioner. Out of the six plants that he had to build, he made only one in the Ragusa area, with the mayor Orlando who, in every act, writes “considering the region’s inertia” on the seventh tank of Bellolampo, which has been standing still for three years. The waste emergency will be very heavy, how heavy is the bureaucracy-pachyderm in which Musumeci, despite the Crocetta-style shots on employees, was unable to change anything. We are the only region that still has Urega. The Uregaaa … do you realize? ».
There were also sparks on the management of Covid with Palazzo d’Orléans.
“The management of the pandemic was disastrous. Musumeci refused the database, given to us by a company in California, for those who disembarked from the Strait, I made two orders and they were challenged in Rome. We made five complaints about the falsification of places in intensive care and the flow of data on positives and the positive-swab ratio, we asked the councilor Razza to remove the manager La Paglia because we were in nobody’s hands, we were the only city subway with a commissioner not appointed by the Region. They never answered us and Messina, despite my squeezes, in January became the red zone, the city with the highest rate of positivity in Italy … “
It seems to understand that she is not exactly cheering for the return of Razza.
“Her apologies about the “smeared dead” I do not accept them: they are late and hypocritical. Why did he resign? Why, as a good criminal lawyer, did he fear something worse from the framework of the investigation? Or because he realized he was wrong and therefore made a choice of high moral profile? In both scenarios, the criminal situation has not changed in two months. Why is Musumeci calling Razza in junta today? And I wonder aloud, quoting the governor’s stories, what did he and the former councilor have said to each other that day, in a face to face that began at 9 and lasted three hours after which the resignation arrived? Then there is a moral profile that also concerns me: in the interceptions the councilor and his brigades on how the mayor of Messina was to be “sedated”. It makes me sick! And I will not forget it ».
Unleash-Joker against Batman-Musumeci and Robin-Razza. But does it not sting vagueness of being exploited, or worse still used to be thrown away, by who is against the re-nomination of the governor?
«No, first of all because I am the good superhero and they are the bad ones … Seriously, I invite you to reflect: mine and that of Musumeci, for now, are two self-nominations, on the same level. It does not seem to me that applause or hosannas were raised in the coalition for Musumeci’s announced encore. Which should send affanc … the four centrist councilors present at the “pact of the pacchero” on a federation that has yet to choose who will be the candidate. Even Miccichè, saying that Musumeci’s re-nomination is no longer a dogma, came out in the open … ».
Are you aware that, by running against Musumeci, you risk repeating the split in the center-right that made Crocetta win in 2012?
«If the center-right framework, which I do not deny, wants to continue in the wake of Musumeci’s inability, who is a ‘sniper’ with me and Messina, then I’m on the pitch and I’m playing the game to the end. I can’t be mayor with the same governor who is responsible for 50 percent of my city’s problems. Another five years like this? Crazy!”.
Do you also know that he has to resign as mayor six months before the Regionals?
«I’ll give you a preview of the date of resignation: March 18, 2022, the day of my fiftieth birthday. This is to make her understand how we have already planned everything ».
Maybe the resignation, as in other social shows of his, then he will withdraw …
«I have 20 days to collect them. Do you want to see that a different solution from Musumeci will be found immediately after I introduce you? Another suitable candidate for decanting after the disaster, which is my only condition for not running. ‘
Does this “solution” have an identikit?
“A person of experience, not a stranger to the machine. One who has shown that he can do well as the mayor of a big city, a regional councilor who has distinguished himself for his work. In short, a capable person. Then I add a personal element: maybe if it were a person of venerable experience who allowed me to coin the slogan “five years and not one more day” it would be perfect. I complete the two mandates to Messina and in 2027 it’s my turn! “
But wouldn’t it be easier, given the feeling between you two, to be imposed as a candidate by Salvini?
“We are often in harmony with Salvini, but I also told him that I received only one baptism in my life: that in church. My strategy will be Sicily over parties, with a transversal scheme, since I have no prejudices either on the right or on the left. The theme is broader: it is not just the choice of the candidate for governor, but the general renewal of Sicilian politics. In my lists, to be clear, there will be no outgoing deputies. I don’t want to make an ugly photocopy of anyone ».
But he would not start in pole position. Did you put a bad impression on you?
«Politics is beautiful because it is the art of the impossible. When, on April 1, 2017, I announced my candidacy for mayor of Messina, it was considered less than an April fool amidst raspberries and transversal smiles. But what should this mayor of Santa Teresa di Riva do? The same thing they will say for the Region, in the salons of Sicilian politics. While they make fun of me, I begin the electoral campaign ».
Maybe there are those who do not mock her, but question that she has the “physique du rôle” to govern Sicily.
“I, who am a Gascon and a provocateur, claim to be an excellent administrator. I turned Messina inside out like a sock. I inherited 550 million in debt and reduced it to 150 million in less than three years. We were in last place in Italy in the spending capacity of the Pon Metro and Masterplan and now we are first and second respectively. Since my establishment, separate waste collection has risen from 10 to 40%. And then, with all due respect, the victory of the victories: the rehabilitation of the barracks, obtained thanks to the phony ordinances that blew up the case at the national level: here is 100 million after a century ».
In short, he is not afraid of getting burned.
«I always say: name me squares and not streets. I realize that due to my way of being and doing, I would risk having a bad end, but this does not worry me. The Region needs a free president, who cannot be conditioned, not baptized by anyone. And it’s me. If I am “Unleashed”, I am it to the end ».