In the end, the third time was the triumph. Palazzo dei Naxioti has a new tenant: it is Agatino Salvatore Bosco, 65 years old, who after the unfortunate parentheses of 2015 (when he came close to being elected by just three votes) and 2020, manages to crown a very long political run by winning the leadership of Giardini Naxos.
A victory with a historic flavor, which came at the end of a thrilling head-to-head. Agatino Salvatore Bosco, supported by the Centre-Right and Centre-Left, was elected with 2,745 votes and 51.69% of the preferences. Salvo Puccio di Sud calls Nord stopped at 2,457 votes (46.26%). Just 66 votes for Alfio Elia Mandri (1.24%), while 43 preferences went to Rosalba Cannizzaro (0.81%). Out of a total of 9,705 voters, 5,439 people voted, equal to 56.04% of the turnout
Distribution of seats in the City Council
The list linked to the elected mayor “Giardini Naxos Bosco Sindaco” with a total of 2,713 votes and 52.52% will have 8 seats. The “Puccio Mayor of Giardini Naxos” list with 2,024 votes and 39.18% of the preferences will have 3 seats. Furthermore, the mayoral candidate Salvo Puccio is assigned 1 personal seat in the city council.
No seats are available for the lists “On the Right Way in Giardini Naxos” and “An Extra March for Giardini Naxos”.
The fall of the “owl” strategy
The political data emerging from the Naxio polls is clear: the complex electoral machine set up by Salvo Puccio, a fifty-three-year-old geologist and leading exponent of the South Calls North movement, was not enough. Puccio, thanks to his solid administrative experience as former general director of the Municipality of Messina and his numerous regional positions, had presented himself at the starting line with an impressive barrage strategy. The candidate from Cateno De Luca’s camp could in fact count on 33 candidates for the City Council, spread across three lists: the main one and two “owl” lists (led by Rosalba Cannizzaro and Alfredo Elia Mandri) created ad hoc to capitalize on the cross-voting mechanism. An army of bearers of preferences which, however, broke down against the opinion vote and the desire for change among citizens, who evidently preferred to reward a more linear project.
The triumph of the “Giardini Model”
Supporting Bosco’s victorious sprint was a large heterogeneous but solid coalition, capable of bringing together the entire constitutional arc: from the centre-right parties to the Democratic Party, up to various deep-rooted civic forces in the area.
A “very broad field” born with the sole objective of giving stability to the Ionian town and which the voters rewarded, recognizing Bosco’s tenacity in never having abandoned the Naxi community in these eleven years of opposition. The signs of a comeback had already been felt in the final stages of the electoral campaign.