Status: 06/12/2022 10:43 a.m
Elections are held in almost 1,000 municipalities in Italy. Particular attention is paid to the vote in Palermo. There, anti-mafia mayor Orlando might be followed by a politician with dubious friendships.
It is a local election that is useful as a political mood test. Nine million Italians are allowed to vote, which is almost a fifth of all eligible voters in the country. The focus is on a symbolic city: Palermo. In the 675,000-inhabitant municipality on Sicily, the anti-mafia mayor Leoluca Orlando is resigning, following two terms in office he is no longer allowed to run according to the law.
What is causing a stir throughout Italy: Orlando’s successor as mayor in Palermo might be Roberto Lagalla, of all people, who is said to have close ties to mafia friends.
Orlando is concerned: “My strong, strong appeal to the Palermitans is: We must never once more be ashamed to come from Palermo. It depends on us and our decisions.” Sicily’s capital shouldn’t fall back into the times “when the government of this city was placed in the hands of a mafia boss,” says the 74-year-old.
Symbol of successful fight once morest mafia
In the 1970s, the mayor of Palermo was Vito Ciancimino, a Christian Democrat politician who had close ties to mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano and was later imprisoned for it.
Under Orlando, Palermo has become a symbol of successful mafia fighting. Orlando was mayor between 1985 and 2000. In his 25 years in the town hall, he massively pushed back the influence of the Cosa Nostra.
Leoluca Orlando was mayor of Palermo for a total of 25 years.
Bild: imago images / ZUMA Press
Criticism: Bad administration
Orlando Miceli is set to continue Orlando’s anti-mafia legacy – an architect and local politician supported by the Social Democrats and the Five Star Movement. However, Miceli is behind in the polls. He struggles with the fact that many people in Palermo appreciate Orlando’s commitment to fighting organized crime and helping refugees, but accuse him of poor administration.
Orlando friend and center-left candidate Miceli tries a balancing act in the election campaign: “I think that in Orlando’s time Palermo became a city with a different image, in Italy and abroad.” She now stands for crime fighting, hospitality and civil rights. But then, Miceli adds, there are also criticisms: “But I think I have the right and the duty to make other work suggestions here.”
Orlando’s critics say garbage collection isn’t working, roads are in poor condition, and the city’s coffers are empty. The anti-Orlando, the candidate of the centre-right alliance Roberto Lagalla, therefore promises above all a more effective administration: “In Palermo we had to return 30 million for waste separation to Rome because of administrative errors.” These are things that should never happen once more.
Mafia middleman shows up in election campaign
However, the alleged doer Lagalla is accused of working together with mafia friends during the election campaign. For example, he is supported by Marcello Dell’Utri – a name well known to those interested in politics in Italy.
Dell’Utri placed a well-known mafioso as an employee for Silvio Berlusconi many years ago. Twice he was convicted as a mafia middleman, in the last instance acquitted, but his reappearance in the election campaign in Palermo still made headlines.
Just like the support for the center-right candidate Lagalla by Toto Cuffaro, the former regional president of Sicily, who was also convicted of mafia contacts. Centre-left candidate Miceli says: “Lagalla has the support of Dell’Utri and Cuffaro. That worries me because there is a risk that this will be an ugly film that we don’t want to see anymore.”
Centre-right alliance candidates arrested
In the week before the election, two candidates from Lagalla’s centre-right coalition were arrested because investigators found they were planning to collude with mafia representatives. First it hit Pietro Polizzi, a candidate from Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party. The police in Palermo had intercepted a conversation in which the local politician offered advantages to a mafioso if he and his family voted for him, Polizzi.
On Friday, police arrested Francesco Lombardo, a candidate for the far-right Italian Brothers party, also part of the Lagalla coalition. According to the prosecutor, Lombardo had also asked a local mafia boss for support in the election.
Verona: Ex-soccer player Tommasi is up for election
In addition to Palermo, elections are held in 978 other municipalities, including Genoa, Parma, Padua and Messina. The voting in Verona, northern Italy, is considered to be particularly exciting. There, the right-wing Lega obviously has difficulties defending its stronghold. The centre-left alliance is represented by former international soccer player Damiano Tommasi.
Parallel to the local elections, Italy is also voting on five referendums, including on the judicial reforms of recent years. Among other things, it is regarding removing the paragraph of a law that prohibits citizens with a criminal record from running for parliament or holding a government office. The Radical Party, among others, but also the Lega and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia collected signatures for the referendum. The referendum’s chances of success are considered slim.
Local elections in Italy – fear in Palermo of the return of mafia friends
Jörg Seisselberg, ARD Rom, 6/12/2022 · 8:48 AM
