Add the Gazzetta del Sud as a source
He doubled the centre-right candidate, quadrupling the distance with the centre-left candidate. A clear, indisputable victory, that of Federico Basile, which went beyond the optimistic forecasts of the South Calls North Study Centre. There’s no point in beating around the bush: the people of Messina have not only confirmed the outgoing mayor, but have given him a surplus of trust, compared to the success of four years ago. Cateno De Luca wins and his proverbial ability to mobilize when he senses the air of an electoral campaign, to anticipate his opponents’ moves, to lead them into his camp every time, where he has shown himself to be unbeatable for years.
But above all Federico Basile and his administration win. Because evidently this “gentleman” mayor, reluctant to enter the most aggressive and exacerbated arena of politics (the one where his leader, instead, acts as a teacher), is liked by the vast majority of the people of Messina. Because evidently the results achieved in recent years have been appreciated by most. And this triumph becomes a clear further assumption of responsibility, because the moment the electorate hands you these numbers, you no longer have alibis or excuses, you have a full mandate and you have to demonstrate what you are made of.
I forgive others. Defeats with different flavours, but united by a common thread: the centre-right and centre-left have planned the entire electoral campaign by shooting their arrows at a single target. “Basi-De Luca” and their political-administrative system. Both sides lost.
The centre-right, which won by a landslide in Reggio Calabria, on this side of the Strait, struggled, did not find its own candidates, in the end chose a man with a different political history behind him (Scurria was the last secretary of the left Democrats, before the birth of the PD), based the electoral campaign on the personal clash against De Luca and Basile. And he loses. Clearly, unequivocally. He loses, despite the arrival of the ministers brought by the undersecretary Matilde Siracusano. He loses, despite the apparent unity of the coalition which, divided in Sicily, seemed to have found the square here in Messina (unlike 2022 when the League supported Basile). He loses, right in the “Salvinian” city of the Bridge.
And nothing short of sensational is the collapse of the Centre-left, which has never been so weak, so irrelevant in Messina. The commitment of the mayoral candidate Antonella Russo is beyond question, but she was supported by just two lists, Elly Schlein was in the other cities and not in Messina, the 5 Stars and Controcorrente of La Vardera seem to have played a race only to advance their candidates for the City Council and the Districts. The result is disastrous: will the representatives of the Messina centre-left draw the consequences?