«I apologize, this lesson was useful to me». Yesterday afternoon, after 48 hours, the mayor of Taormina, Cateno De Luca, apologized after the attack on Saturday afternoon against the former municipal councilor of Giardini Naxos, Alessia Barbagallo, a member of Fratelli d’Italia, accused of having shared the merits announced by the regional deputy Pino Galluzzo on the amendment to the regional budget which allocates appeals for Taormina and Giardini Naxos.
De Luca, contesting the reconstruction of the Melonians, had defined Galluzzo as Barbagallo’s “protector” and cast shadows on his career at the Taormina hospital, where he works as an anesthetist. An attack that should also be read in terms of the 2026 local elections in Giardini Naxos, where Barbagallo could be a candidate for mayor of the anti-Delucan front. “Enlightened” after receiving a painting depicting the Madonna as a gift, on the day of the Immaculate Conception De Luca thus backtracked on the decision not to apologize, expressed 24 hours earlier: «Today our Heavenly Mother is performing a first miracle – he said in a video with the painting in the background – I want to apologize to Alessia Barbagallo for having exaggerated with my language, I had no intention of touching a sphere that for me remains only and exclusively the political one.
Stress, tiredness, thoughts, responsibility is the mix that then leads me to make mistakes, but the important thing in the end is not to be what the jackals want you to believe.”