Heads or tails. Coin has two sides, reality has many more. The new season of Rtp has started and, during the first episode of the program hosted by Francesca Stornante, we started with a question: has Basile bis’ Messina improved? What signals have been detected in these four months, positive or negative?
The mayor himself responds first. «The furrow has been traced, we are working to complete everything that has been started». Basile refers to a somewhat controversial work, criticized by many: the redevelopment of the former villa in front of the Royal hotel. «I use it as an example because each work we are creating is not disconnected from the others, there is a general vision. You may like Piazza Quasimodo or not, but today it is an open, multidisciplinary space, we have returned a degraded area to public use.”
A “restart” that has exceeded the threshold of the first hundred days: «We have resumed the administrative machine, after the physiological “slowdown” that occurred under the three months of administration. We have identified strategies and we are listening a lot, today we should all put the poisons of the electoral campaign behind us.” The heated climate inside Palazzo Zanca, with the call for a strike by the unions? “Since the day I returned, I have tried to ease relations, there is great respect for the municipal staff and there is a desire to work together with the Council.” The first test in the Chamber, however, was particularly delicate: the contract with Messina Social City. «The majority was united – states Basile –, the Administration’s line was coherent, only a technicality led us to withdraw the resolution, but the correctness of the acts was fully reaffirmed». And the time council? «No one has ever said that in a few months the councilors will leave and be replaced. It’s a methodological choice, to always keep everyone “on track”, no one, starting with me, should take things for granted.”
Then there is the question from the director of the Gazzetta del Sud, Nino Rizzo Nervo: after Cateno De Luca’s choice to ally himself with FdI and the centre-right at a national level, isn’t there now a risk of having such a large majority as to also create problems for the city administration? «We started with a single color and today we still are – replies the mayor -. It is premature to talk about what will happen tomorrow. We will evaluate everything that needs to be done, but De Luca was clear, the agreement currently concerns the national level. But I only care about one thing: I was voted on the electoral program and I want to be judged on that. In politics I am a neophyte, everything changes and evolves, there was once a yellow-green government made up of the League and M5S, the approach given by De Luca at a national level does not change the reality of Messina, over 58% of voters want answers on what we have said and promised. And we will do everything we can to give them.” On the delicate issue of the Torre Faro car park, Basile reiterates that “certain choices can be criticized but we have always demonstrated administrative transparency with facts, in every act”.
We move on to the debate, in the RTP lounge, present, in addition to the Gazzetta del Sud journalist Sebastiano Caspanello, the deputy mayor Laura Castelli, the councilor Massimo Finocchiaro, the lawyer Marcello Scurria, voice of the opposition in the Chamber, after having been candidate for mayor of the Centre-Right (the same Centre-Right which has now made the agreement with De Luca…), and the regional deputy Alessandro De Leo, who has moved to Ismaele’s Countercurrent movement La Vardera.
Laura Castelli accepts the role of “trait d’union” between ScN and the national centre-right: «I have worked for many years, in Parliament and in large cities, ideology is less than real problems, we have worked in this direction, opening a constructive dialogue on local authorities with the Government. Do I call the link between the South and the North and FdI? I gave my contribution.” For councilor Finocchiaro, «in these four months we are already seeing the change of pace, because today, even after the TAR ruling, there is the serenity of being able to work for five years, consolidating the path traced. I don’t feel like a “temporary” councilor, we need coupons, the Administration is a “management”, we all work towards a common goal.”
Scurria does not change his opinion on Basile and his Administration: «No one denies that the city has changed in these 8 years, we need to see whether for the better or for the worse. For me Messina has gotten much worse. Am I the only one in opposition? I am well accompanied, certainly after the elections, I cleared out my friends’ diaries. I take care of my city, I have a passion for politics, I don’t deny anything about the electoral campaign, from inside the Council I don’t see this “good Administration” that people talk about, we are in limbo.”
Alessandro De Leo defines his choice to go with La Vardera as courageous, criticizes some aspects of the Basile Administration (“Starting with the cycle paths”), but also recognizes that several things have been done, even if they need to be improved. «We will see Basile bis now, in the previous 4 years there was no original imprint but only continuity between his Administration and that of De Luca». Laura Castelli speaks of a «season of extra gear, the next few months will be a further leap in quality» and Finocchiaro recalls «the before and after, Messina has improved a lot». There is also room for a controversy between Scurria and De Leo, old waste from the electoral campaign.
The voices of citizens are heard, interviewed by Simona Castanotto. There are those who see a city that has grown positively, those who underline some problems, those who see blue, those who see black, those who express appreciation “for an active mayor”, those who ask for “a reserve question”. Because, in the end, if the coin has two sides, reality has many more…