Palermo, 10 June 2022 – The electoral campaign for the elections of the new mayor from Palermo they ended with another arrest of a city council candidate. After Pietro Polizzi of Forza Italia, today he is arrested Francesco Lombardocandidate on the list of Siblings of Italy. As for Polizzi, also for Lombardo the accusation is that of an exchange vote. The exponent of the Brothers of Italy was intercepted while talking on the phone with Vincenzo Vella, boss of Brancaccioalready convicted three times for mafia association
After starting the election campaign in a fiery atmosphere for the support of Marcello Dell’Utri e Totò Cuffarothe candidate of the center-right Roberto Lagalla he had to parry the blows even on the day that was supposed to be a holiday due to the closing of the same electoral campaign. “Two horrible events – commented the former Rector -. If unpresentable emerges from the Antimafia investigation, the parties will have to make them resign, otherwise I will resign”.
Brothers of Italy has already given a mandate to its lawyers to appear as a person offended by the crime, reserving the right to appear as a civil party if the prosecutor’s office exercises criminal action against Lombardo, who at the recent kermesse of Giorgia Meloni in Palermo he was on stage for the final photo of the managers.
To inflame the day of the final rallies, before the election silence tomorrow, was the news, in the morning, relaunched by the coordinator of Forza Italia, Antonio Tajani, on the presence “of the son of a boss who is in prison on the list of the Democratic Party”. In reality, the person involved is not from the Democratic Party: he is included in the ‘Palermo Project’ list which refers to Franco Miceli, candidate for mayor for the progressive area. It is about Nicola Piraino, candidate for the 6th district: his father Biagio was arrested two years ago in an anti-Mafia operation in the Noce district; the man, who was a mechanic, was accused of managing the business on behalf of the boss Giovanni Nicoletti. The child has not seen the parent in years.
The reaction from the Democratic Party was immediate. “Tajani’s attempt to muddy the waters is shameful: instead of distancing himself from Dell’Utri and Cuffaro, as we have been asking his party and his candidate Lagalla for some time, an attempt is being made to confuse public opinion with incomparable events”, replies the deputy secretary Pd,Peppe Provenzano. And Franco Miceli adds: “Piraino is a corporal, a soldier with a clear career studded with praise, who has denied his father, a choice for which a certain courage is also needed and which deserves the esteem of all of us”.
“I have been in the military for 24 years, I have sworn allegiance to the Fatherland – defends Piraino, 44 - I have no relations with the mafia and with my father. This clamor surprised me, but I am absolutely serene and I go ahead with the ambition of change my neighborhood “.