“I found that enthusiasm that I had lost over the years.” Thus Riccardo Pellegrino spoke of the new political path undertaken in the aftermath of his farewell to Forza Italia, a party in which he has been a member since the beginning and which in recent times has begun to feel too close to him. “Politics is the art of service, not of being served. Those who do not live to serve do not serve to live, Don Tonino Bello told us. Since 2004 I have always played in the same party, to which I have given everything, but which today has lost its values, transforming itself into a sole proprietorship at the service of someone’s interests. But there is no individualistic politics and I could no longer continue in a party that does not care for individual territories and does not reward meritocracy”.
The press conference was held today, in the council chamber of the Metropolitan City of Catania in Palazzo Minoriti, in the presence of Cateno De Luca, Danilo Lo Giudice, mayor of Santa Teresa di Riva and secretary of South calls North. In fact, Riccardo Pellegrino, together with the municipal and metropolitan councilor Melania Miraglia, the councilor of the 1st Municipality Carmelo Vassallo and Filippo Pellegrino, former secretary of Forza Italia in the 1st Municipality, have announced not only their exit from Forza Italia, but also their joining the political project of South calls North. Even if in the City Council, the councilors will temporarily join the mixed group.
The conference was therefore also an opportunity to present in Catania the “Government of Liberation” project promoted by South calls North, already illustrated in the other Sicilian provinces. “What is taking shape today in Catania is not an isolated membership, but the result of political work built day after day in the territory”, declared Danilo Lo Giudice.
“South calls North proves to be an open, credible and rooted political community, capable of attracting administrators and managers who seek a space free from the logic of traditional parties. Here we do not ask for affiliations, but for commitment, seriousness and constant presence alongside the citizens. The membership of Riccardo Pellegrino and the other administrators strengthens a path that in Catania, as in the rest of Sicily, is growing with solid foundations and a clear vision: to build a ruling class that is up to the challenges”.
In 2022 Pellegrino was sentenced to two years in prison, a suspended sentence, for electoral corruption. The sentence, which acquitted him of two of the five charges that were contested, was issued by the fourth monocratic section of the Court at the conclusion of the trial hinged on investigations by the Dia on the regional elections in Sicily in 2017 on the alleged support given, with the “delivery of money” and the “payment of 50 euros per vote”, to “obtain consensus in favor of Riccardo Pellegrino”, who was a candidate on the Forza Italia lists.