«From today Ti Amo Sicilia enters the field. It’s not South Call North. It is a clear, political and programmatic choice.” This is how Cateno De Luca opened today’s press conference, clarifying the scope and meaning of the initiative which will lead to the official debut of the Liberation Government, scheduled for Sunday 18 January in Caltagirone.
“I will no longer carry out party activities in electoral competitions.” Farewell from ScN in January
De Luca explained that the change of pace sees the Ti Amo Sicilia Study Center in the field, established in March 2025 and now fully structured: «With the entry into the field of the Study Center I will no longer carry out party activities in electoral competitions. From now on my commitment will be aimed at explaining what will happen in Sicily in the coming months and what the Government of Liberation means.” The Sicilian leader announced that on January 3 in Catania he will formalize his farewell to South Call North, underlining that “the political geography of the Ars is destined to change in the coming weeks”.
The De Luca model: Sicily above the parties
The initiative on January 18th in Caltagirone, inspired by Don Sturzo’s Appeal to the free and strong, will be a moment open to all institutional and social components: regional, national and European parliamentarians, mayors, local administrators, social forces, employers’ forces, Anci, third sector and professional associations. «It will be the moment in which I will present my model of Sicily and how the Liberation Government will act – explained De Luca – with a clear guiding principle: Sicily above the parties».
Ideas, language, responsibility: the pillars of De Gasperi
At the foundation of the new course, De Luca recalled three Degasperian pillars: clarity of ideas, precision of language, distinction of responsibilities. During the press conference, De Luca announced the birth of a parliamentary intergroup at the Ars, open to all deputies who share the project: «I have no political or personal preclusions. Whoever wants to be there, will be there. Whoever gets embarrassed will take responsibility for it.”
Objective: wake up the Schifani government
An intergroup that will have a clear function: «To wake up the Schifani government. We can’t keep combing dolls.”
The analysis on the action of the regional executive is very harsh: «There is not one reform, just one, completed by this government. Ten steps forward and twenty steps back. The stability law has become the symbol of a method that mortifies Parliament.”
According to De Luca, President Schifani “no longer has a political majority” and the executive “is hostage to its own internal feuds”. Hence the announcement of a new phase: «The sense of responsibility cannot be non-refundable. Either there is a real change of pace or this legislature is destined to close. Schifani should appear in Parliament with the council eliminated and, given that there is no longer any political connection with the other majority parties, do a mathematical operation, assign one department for every four deputies, so all the tribal leaders who fueled these feuds will be satisfied from this point of view; obviously, in this reasoning the two councilors of the Christian Democrats will also have to be restored, considering that the two councilors had nothing to do, unlike other councilors of other parties, with judicial dynamics”.
A clear political signal
Also under scrutiny is the management of the regional budget and the mortification of parliamentary work: «You cannot have measures voted on in the Commission and then systematically removed. Thus the dignity of the deputies is trampled upon and Parliament is emptied.”
De Luca concluded by reiterating his political line: «I’m not for making a living. Either we start from scratch, with a clear political signal, or we have the courage to pull the plug and go back to voting. You can’t play with Sicilians anymore. We are moving forward with our strategy, which will also concern an intergroup that will be created in the Sicilian Parliament and which will translate the reform process of the Liberation Government into legislative proposals.”
Bridge over the Strait, De Luca: «The Government defunds the work. Schifani immediately freed 1.3 billion from the Sicilian Development and Cohesion Fund”
«The numbers speak clearly: the Bridge over the Strait of Messina no longer has a financial coverage of 13.5 billion euros, but of just 10 billion. Three and a half billion were diverted elsewhere with a political choice, not an accounting one. This means only one thing: the national government has decided to weaken and defund the bridge, causing it to enter a dead end.” Cateno De Luca declared this, speaking during a press conference at the ARS, during which he illustrated the data relating to the financial coverage of the work.
«Those resources – explains De Luca – were allocated to SEZs, aid to businesses and expensive materials: choices that I agree with on the merits. But these are definitive expenses, not recoverable in the future. Today, therefore, the Strait Bridge is underfunded by at least 3.5 billion, to which must be added a further 2-3 billion which will probably emerge with the executive project, which does not yet exist”.
For De Luca the central issue is now political and directly concerns the Sicilian Region. «In this situation, 1.3 billion euros of the Sicily Development and Cohesion Fund remains inexplicably blocked, tied to a work that no longer has certain financial coverage and a credible timetable. It is madness to continue to keep these resources still.”
Hence the direct appeal to the President of the Region. «I ask President Schifani to intervene immediately to ask for the reprogramming and release of that billion and three. They are Sicilian resources and must return to the availability of the Region to be used for the benefit of citizens, infrastructures and the real development of the territory.”
«There is no ideological approach, Ponte yes or Ponte no – concludes De Luca – but only a pragmatic and responsible approach: we cannot continue to play with numbers and block fundamental resources while it is said that the works are about to start. The numbers don’t add up, and someone must take the political responsibility of saying so.”