In the chaos of electoral appeals, there will not be anything that could have caused some embarrassment in the League of Messina. Giusi Caruso, candidate for the city council and wife of Nicola Cucinotta who, instead, was a candidate for the presidency of the fourth district, announced that she will not appeal, despite “a right that I believe has been seriously damaged by evident critical issues in the electoral operations”. Caruso explains that his was «a painful choice, which leaves a bad taste in the mouth, but which does not represent a renunciation of my reasons nor, above all, of those of the hundreds of citizens who have placed their trust in me. A decision dictated by a profound sense of institutional responsibility. In a phase already characterized by the pending nature of several electoral appeals, which could even affect the overall validity of the consultation and determine an early return to the polls, I felt it was my duty not to fuel further political and institutional tensions, also avoiding creating a situation of objective embarrassment for the regional secretary of the League, Sen. Nino Germanà”. The dispute arose from the fact that several preference votes in which only the surname Cucinotta had been indicated had not been attributed by the polling station presidents, despite the fact that the candidacy had been presented with the candidate’s name, Giusi Caruso, and the addition “called Cucinotta”, precisely to avoid a dispersion of votes which, in the end, occurred anyway.
«Estimates speak of over one hundred potentially unattributed votes – adds Caruso –, a number that could have had a decisive impact on the assignment of the seat in my favor in the city council», to the detriment of the current group leader, Cosimo Oteri.
No appeal, but the discussion is far from closed from a political point of view. Indeed, explains Giusi Caruso (and evidently also her husband Cucinotta), “a reflection is opened that I consider indispensable even within the League” as “the consensus obtained demonstrates that in Messina there is an important political heritage that deserves to be valorised through an organization that is increasingly modern, inclusive, meritocratic and deeply rooted in the territory. No political force can grow if it is perceived as the heritage of a few, the elected or the “chosen””.