The confrontation between the candidates for mayor Federico Basile (South calls North), Antonella Russo (Centre-left) and Marcello Scurria (Centre-right), who spoke last night in Scirocco, recalled the famous “Mexican stalemates” so dear to director Sergio Leone. A very close meeting, without pauses, during which the host Emilio Pintaldi, the director of Rtp Lucio D’Amico and the Gazzetta del Sud journalist Sebastiano Caspanello pressed the guests on the problems, projects, works and prospects of the city of Messina, which will necessarily have to be addressed by the future mayor. And in a destabilizing game of ephemeral dialectical alliances, made up of jabs and sardonic responses, we had a taste of what the city environment will be like in the month that separates us from the elections.
The rebalancing plan
If the question of the plan to rebalance the municipal coffers, presented by the outgoing mayor Basile in 2023 (who recalled that his administration and that of De Luca saved the municipality from bankruptcy, repaying the millionaire debts produced by others) and approved by the Court of Auditors, does not convince either Russo or Scurria, one of the cruxes of the discussion focused on the general urban plan. Scurria is particularly critical «Messina has wasted a lot of time. The Pug reform dates back to the Accorinti Administration, and, in the last eight years, nothing has been done.” Antonella Russo is of the same opinion: «The former deputy mayor Mondello declared that the outgoing administration stopped the revision of the Pug because of the Bridge. Anyone who has ideas about urban redevelopment must move forward regardless of a work that has not yet begun.” Federico Basile has a very different opinion: «The P in Pug means planning. I would like to remind you here that in the first years we had to face complicated situations, which we resolved. Then, in 2023 the law on the Bridge intervened, however we did not stand still, we activated a series of planning tools, which had never been conceived in Messina”.
The programs
The central theme, obviously, is that of the various programs that will be presented by the respective forces in the field. «In recent years – declared Basile – we have done impossible things, restoring the Municipality’s accounts and increasing essential public services. We have carried out many works and have started many others and will bring them to completion. We want to consolidate the work done to implement our projects, primarily the creation of jobs for young people, the completion of the new sea view and the expansion of the city’s cultural panorama”.
Scurria reiterated the key points of his project for the city: «Messina is not just the center. We need to take power away from Palazzo Zanca to create a local administration that listens to the citizens. Fundamental, then, is the creation of the Strait Metropolitan Area, the only possible path for development. The Minniti airport, awaiting the birth of the Mela airport, must represent a hub for Messina tourism, for which facilities are needed. I have already spoken with the minister and I would like to open a table with large entrepreneurs in the hotel sector. And then we need to reevaluate the Falce and structure the coverage of Franco Scoglio.” Antonella Russo, when asked on the same topic, also listed the fundamental points of her program: «We have a rigid position on the Bridge and we are in favor of dynamic mobility. I believe that social development is essential. Small examples include the opening of another voluntary termination of pregnancy centre. The increase in counseling centers, the creation of sports policies and an interaction point between the municipality and associations for gender equality.”
Roads and water
There is also great debate over decades-old problems such as road maintenance and water supply. For Marcello Scurria, talking about these issues is like «shooting the red cross. If I were the outgoing mayor I would apologize” and, even for Antonella Russo, the work of the outgoing administration was not at all worthy: “How can you not criticize Basile’s work on road maintenance, potholes are everywhere. The work was done in a non-compliant manner and no one checked. It’s absurd to entrust everything to Amam. We saw what happened on the “AcquaH24” affair.”
Basile defends himself, of course: «A lot has been done with the resources available, for example Via Cesare Battisti and other roads have been renovated with draining asphalt. The resources to solve the structural problem have already been identified, because the problem is not the potholes but the roads. And from May 26th we will be able to implement what we have planned.”
The centre-left candidate sent a jab at her “colleague” Scurria, guilty “of having shown his muscles in his visit to Rome, alongside Matilde Siracusano, to meet ministers who are doing badly and who have rejected the granting of funds to Sicily”. Scurria defended himself: “We need to dialogue in the interests of the city.” And Basile: «We are free from the conditioning of the right and the left, and we have always dialogued with those who represent national or regional institutions».