Add the Gazzetta del Sud as a source
The electoral campaign for the mayor’s seat in Messina is heating up more and more. The last spark was sparked by an electoral leaflet signed by Marcello Scurria, candidate of the centre-right, who proposed a support measure for workers in the commercial sector: free parking passes with an estimated saving of 100 euros per month. The reaction of political opponents was not long in coming.
De Luca: “Marcello here, 100 euros for everyone!”
The case was raised – we add as usual – not by the candidate for mayor of “South calls North” Federico Basile, but by its leader, Cateno De Luca, who after receiving the photographic report of the promotional material (which apparently circulates on the counters of some public places in the city) used very harsh tones, stigmatizing the initiative as a disproportionate and unrealistic electoral promise: “If you vote for the centre-right candidate Marcello Scurria you will have a 100 euro discount voucher on parking lots! We are not joking aside! I have now received this photo – wrote De Luca – with this message: ‘Found on the counter of a bar and reported to me by a Friend and Colleague… if true… it is a very serious fact… for any of your appropriate assessments. After Cetto La Quale cchiu pilu all… now HERE MARCELLO one hundred euros for everyone!’
On the poster, which ended up at the center of the controversy and significantly titled “Messina changes with Marcello Scurria Mayor”, we note the explicit wording “Facsimile flyer” associated with the slogan “Help for a sector in difficulty”. The measure is specifically aimed at all commercial activities that operate in areas with paid parking (blue lines) and the proposal provides, upon request, for the issuing of two free parking passes to commercial activities that have two or more employees. The issuance of only one free pass for activities with a single employee. The declared objective is to allow business employees to park for free, generating an estimated saving of 100 euros per month per worker.
Scurria’s harsh reply: “They have brought trade to its knees”
Marcello Scurria’s rejoinder did not take long to arrive, defending the legitimacy and economic rationale of the proposal, counterattacking on the grounds of the outgoing administrative management and accusing his rivals of having desertified the historic center by penalizing the workers: “He continues to pursue aid for the employees of commercial companies. You have ‘burned’ 800 car parks in the city centre, brought commerce to its knees and every day the workers are forced to shell out a lot of money, taking it away from their meager salaries. you are scandalized by a proposal of fairness when to avoid social reactions you have made all interchange parking free until 2028 and for unwise choices ATM has paid the tax authorities 600,000 euros in 2024 and 900,000 in 2025”.
According to the center-right candidate, the introduction of free passes would not be a demagogic expedient, but rather an act of “social equity” necessary to compensate for the loss of over eight hundred parking spaces in the heart of Messina, an urban planning choice that would have severely damaged the local economic fabric and impoverished the salaries of employees. Scurria also raised strong doubts about the solidity of the accounts of the Messina Transport Company (ATM), denouncing alleged particularly burdensome fiscal outlays (600 thousand euros in 2024 and 900 thousand euros in 2025) deriving from “unwise choices”, as well as criticizing the generalized free parking of interchanges extended until 2028, labeled as a purely palliative to curb popular discontent.
De Luca’s rejoinder: “Promises and discounts in ambiguous and biased ways that risk turning into tools for gaining consensus”
“Compensatory measures to support commercial activities that have suffered inconveniences due to public works carried out in the collective interest are one thing. It is another thing to use, in the midst of an electoral campaign, promises and discounts in ambiguous and biased ways that risk turning into tools to gain consensus.” Thus Cateno De Luca intervenes on the initiative launched by the candidate Marcello Scurria, which provides discounts on parking linked to his electoral campaign. “I had already announced it publicly a few days ago during a live broadcast: the measures that the Administration has envisaged for Viale San Martino and for other areas affected by construction sites were created as temporary compensation for traders and businesses who have endured sacrifices and inconveniences due to works necessary to improve the city. These are institutional, transparent and regulated interventions. It is another thing to show up in the electoral campaign saying, in effect, ‘vote Scurria and you will get 100 euros discount on parking’. A message that appears clearly oriented towards gathering consensus through a promise that borders on a vote exchange. Scurria’s initiative, unfortunately, recalls the worst seasons of Messina politics: those of favors distributed in exchange for consensus, of packages of pasta in the most fragile areas of the city. On the ATM issue we apologize to Marcello Scurria if the Basile administration has chosen a different path than that of the Special ATM Company of the past, which accumulated over 83 million euros in debt, with budgets not approved since 2003 and around 50 million euros still owed to the Treasury in contributions and unpaid taxes. And all this happened precisely in the years in which Scurria was permanently present alongside the various mayors, whether from the right or the left, it didn’t matter, as long as he continued to maintain his role and his professional fees, often put before any political coherence to another school: taxes are paid, even when public bodies are managed.