Decaro, the half-denial about the boss’s sister is a boomerang. “Embarrassment and discredit” –

The mayor of Bari Antonio Decaro tries to reverse course following the controversy sparked by the words of the president of Puglia Michele Emiliano who, speaking from the stage of a demonstration, said he had accompanied the then councilor to the sister of a neighborhood boss. A risky maneuver to say the least, because on stage in Bari he didn’t open his mouth on the subject. “As regards that particular episode, from almost twenty years ago, Emiliano does not remember well. It is certainly true that he gave me all his support, in the face of protests from a good part of the neighborhood, when we began to close Bari Vecchia at car, but I never went to any sister’s house,” says the mayor. “After some arguments with some residents, one day, as we entered the Cathedral, we met some boys in the square, who were also quite ‘skeptical’ regarding the new rules, who began to rail once morest me. Michele told them to leave me alone because I had to work for the children of the neighbourhood. However, as the news of the time reported, I met the lady in question on the street, long following it was closed to traffic, and I argued with her because she was not resigned to the installation of the flower boxes which prevented the transit of car”, is Decaro’s reconstruction.

Recalling the “context” of those years, Decaro states that “we must be absolutely precise regarding these things. First of all it is good to remember the context. There was an anti-mafia magistrate who had just been elected mayor in a neighbourhood, like that of Bari Vecchia, who had always been used to to wild parking in total illegality. Imagine what the reactions might be to a young councilor who allowed himself to enter the neighborhood to completely revolutionize habits, starting with mobility, pedestrianizing a large part of the streets and installing cameras on the access gates” .

Words that do not convince, and this is a euphemism, the centre-right forces. “Are Emiliano and Decaro aware of the institutional role they hold, of the words they pronounce, of the partial reversals and subsequent denials the following day? – attacks Tommaso Foti, group leader of the Brothers of Italy in the Chamber – It is true that the rally was originally intended for an indictment once morest the Minister of the Interior – and this already says it all – guilty of having applied the law and gradually took on the tone of the opening of the electoral campaign for Decaro’s European elections, today however it is clear to everyone that one of them lied.” Of the two, one. “Or Emiliano when he said he took Decaro to the sister of a boss, or Decaro when he says he met her much later on the market. One truth, however, is established: in one case or another, Decaro spoke with the sister of a boss. It’s worth saying: watch out for those two”, adds Foti.

Maurizio Gasparri also thunders once more: “The noise of his nails slipping can be heard loud and clear while Decaro tries to climb the glass. The mayor of Bari essentially says that Emiliano lied in front of the citizens when he recounted an episode from many years ago with wealth of details”, declares the president of the senators of Forza Italia. “Emiliano’s story was short, but precise. And while he was telling the story of the visit to this house, saying that he and Decaro had gone to knock, the current mayor of Bari endorsed the story, just review the film, miming the gesture of someone who knocks on the door saying ‘knock, knock’. Decaro didn’t deny it either on stage or immediately following Emiliano and he waited more than twenty-four hours to give a narrative that was partly different and partly coincident”, attacks Gasparri. In short, “Decaro’s posthumous denial increases the embarrassment and discredit for the two exponents of the PD”, attacks the senator who sees the margins for “investigations in political and institutional bodies on these connections of the left-wing administrations of Bari and family members of members to the clans”.