Is the South Calls North party really exempt from the burden of collecting signatures (from 700 to 2 thousand) for each of the lists that will be presented in the next elections? The regional department for local authorities, as we have revealed in recent days, when asked at the beginning of March, has already answered yes with two separate notes, in which, essentially, it states that the exemption provided for the party which presents itself with a symbol already represented at the Ars – which is, effectively, South calls North – can also be extended to the other lists (fourteen, in the case of Cateno De Luca’s party) which contain, within their own symbol, the same symbol, in small South calls North.
But according to Marcello Scurria, one of Federico Basile’s competitors, this is not the case and, at the very least, further investigation would be needed before we get to the “gong” of April 29th, when the deadline for submitting applications will expire at noon. As revealed last night on “Scirocco”, the RTP talk, the centre-right candidate, an administrative lawyer who has several electoral cases in his CV, has already formally acted, transmitting to the Messina district electoral commission what, legally, is called “signification act”.
A warning, in essence, which invites the commission to ask for a further opinion from the Legislative and Legal Office of the Region and to evaluate the non-admission of those fourteen lists, announcing that beyond the decision, “it will continue judicially”, therefore possibly with an appeal to the TAR, “to support the obligation to eliminate the lists additional to the first presented by a single electoral legal entity”. That is, from the South he calls the North, precisely.
Former mayor Federico Basile appears calm on the issue: «The rules apply to everyone, the regional department has responded and we are moving forward, there is no concern. If as a party I ask the person who deals with this case and get an answer, I feel protected by the system. I already know that there will be three thousand appeals, but this is Italy. There is no concern, but the awareness that the path was the one that should have been taken following a discussion with the Region, a path made in broad daylight.” Basile, however, defines Scurria’s warning as «caused alarm. If there is an appeal, we will wait for it and see what the law will establish. I think that, rather, we should focus on the programs.” Also on “Scirocco”, the centre-left candidate, Antonella Russo, also had her say: «I’m not passionate about the story, I like to talk about respect for the rules. The leader of the South did well by calling the North to ask and get an answer. Of course, for me the chaos of symbols and lists, which are barely memorable, is confusing, the enormous number of candidates has a political significance. In any case, if by chance some lists were excluded it would be a disappointment for me, it wouldn’t be good for the candidates on those lists”.
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