If you look at the numbers, there is no match. There is too much difference in favor of Forza Italia: more consensus, more administrators, more power. If only “strength” counted, there would be no doubt that the choice of the centre-right candidate for mayor would be an internal affair of Forza Italia, as the Hon. Francesco Cannizzaro that the governor Roberto Occhiuto. «In Reggio the next candidate for mayor will be from FI», the leaders of FI have repeatedly stated. However, it is equally true that FI alone is not going anywhere, to win it needs allies (small numbers). And then a discussion within the coalition is necessarily necessary, which does not appear as obvious as it might appear. Because the allies ask for respect and equal political dignity and do not accept the “super power” of Forza Italia. That’s why Sen. Tilde Minasi (Lega) explains that the choice of Nino Minicuci as a challenger to Giuseppe Falcomatà «It was a choice made by the League, but shared by the entire centre-right. Minicuci was a good candidate, he certainly didn’t have a political attitude, but he had great skills from an administrative point of view. It’s not that Salvini imposed this candidate, presented a list of names and then chose himself.” But Minicuci’s candidacy was not born in Reggio and this original sin was paid dearly because history later told us that not all of the center-right was cohesive in supporting Minicuci in the ballot box. And this is the mistake that the center-right does not want to repeat. He emphasized this several times too Peppe Scopelliti: «The candidate for mayor must be chosen in the city from among the best resources that the city offers and then brought to Rome for the final formalization». Could he be the white knight who will challenge the center-left? We’ll see, but today we have to take note that Scopelliti said he was unavailable to take the field. And Minasi has clear ideas about Scopelliti: «The city that understood the game that was played on Scopelliti. The only flaw we have is that we never valorise the excellence we have. When there is someone who excels we have to kill him or make him go away. Everything they don’t do in Catanzaro in Cosenza. What if I asked Scopelliti to run for mayor again? We made some jokes with Salvini, but I don’t think there is this intention and I hope he doesn’t leave Reggio again. Something bigger would be needed for him.”
So what? Who will be the chosen one? Minasi goes unbalanced: «We still don’t know the exact date of the municipal elections, it will probably be in the spring of 2026 and time is starting to run out. We haven’t had any meetings yet, but we will have them soon. Will the candidate for mayor still be chosen by the League? Well, let’s say that Forza Italia is in the Region, it has other cities and has expressed its candidates in almost all the large Calabrian municipalities. We only have one certainty that the name will be chosen in the area.”
And what if the candidate was Minasi herself? On paper she would have all the characteristics: she was municipal councilor for welfare for 10 years, then regional councilor and, finally, parliamentarian. He knows how the municipal administrative machine works and has the right connections in Rome. «I won’t deny that I would like it, but it’s not something I think about. In 2027 I would like to finish with politics, because I believe that I have now made my way and because I believe that space should be given to younger and more brilliant people. And in Reggio there are young people of value who love this city and will have to work hard to revive it.”
