A meeting attended by the last two former mayors of Messina, Cateno De Luca and Federico Basile, the current general director of the Messina Transport Company, Pietro Picciolo, and some representatives of the trade unions operating within the company itself. This is the crux of the dispute and the fuse for a new electoral controversy.
“If this is the case – the centre-right parties write today – the strong and serious fears that the mayoral candidate Marcello Scurria and, with him, all the forces of the centre-right coalition that support him, have been reporting since the date of Federico Basile’s resignation and the start of the electoral campaign would be documented and definitively confirmed. Service order no. arrives the morning after the meeting, confirming the thesis of political interference in the management of the investee company. 51 of 30 March 2026, signed by the DG of Atm Spa, with amendments and revocations relevant to the management of corporate human resources”.
The note was signed by the citizen representatives of Fratelli d’Italia, Forza Italia, Lega, Mpa-Grande Sicilia, Noi Moderati, UdC, Christian Democracy, Italian Republican Party, Animalist Party
“The management of the subsidiaries continues to be oriented by subjects who no longer have a role in the dynamics of the various entities”
“It is evident, therefore – continue the centre-right parties – that the management of the various investee companies of the Municipality of Messina continues to be oriented and externally directed by subjects, the “award-winning Basiluca company”, who no longer have any right to intervene in the administrative and management dynamics of both the ATM and the other instrumental bodies. In this regard, yesterday’s initiative of the centre-right parties to request the Extraordinary Commissioner to adopt a specific legality protocol aimed at to ensure the equidistance of the municipal administration from the electoral campaign. To this proposal the ex-mayor Basile, angrily, replied that the event he had attended at Palazzo Zanca for the signing of the employment contracts of the traffic policemen “was open to all. No private invitations, no side doors, no special passes. I entered like any citizen.”
“A democratic emergency that is distorting the electoral campaign”
“Well, at this point we ask Basile: was the meeting he attended on Sunday 29th also open to everyone? The truth is that in the City of Messina there has been a democratic emergency underway for some time which in recent weeks has been contaminating and distorting the electoral competition. This is why, from the beginning, we have maintained that the appointment of the sole directors of the subsidiaries on the last day of the board of directors and the continuing retention in office of the same top management was completely inappropriate, as well as illegitimate. today, from the Extraordinary Commissioner who has the duty to restore legality by revoking without delay all the appointments made in violation of the municipal regulation. We therefore await a formal response to this last question, as to that of the adoption of the legality protocol for the electoral campaign. And we ask at this point that the request, which is absolutely not the initiative of one party but the simple claim to restore and maintain a serene and impartial climate for the weeks to come, is also taken up and endorsed by Antonella Russo, by Gaetano Sciacca and Lillo Valvieri to intervene once and for all. If he feels he does not want to do so, the same appeal will be addressed to HE the Prefect and, in extrema ratio, to the Public Prosecutor’s Office”.