There are many open questions in Palazzo Zanca and its surroundings, the step of the first hundred days of Basile-bis administration served to recall some of them. But there is little to do, everything or almost everything revolves around one theme: electoral appeals. And in particular to that question that constantly hovers: will Messina be forced to return to the polls once again? And if so, how long would the administration last? So the basic question remains one, who was right on the issue of collecting signatures for the South calls North lists, which had already been at the center of controversy during the electoral campaign: the representatives of Cateno De Luca’s party, who “trusted” a substantial green light from the Local Autonomy department of the Region, having never known, except recently after an indiscretion from the Gazzetta, the opinion of the Legislative and Legal Office of the Region? Or who, on the other hand, supported and continues to support, with much recourse to the TAR, that those signatures should have been collected, as in fact confirmed by that opinion of the Legislative Office, classified at the time of the elections?
The near future of Messina politics and the administrative life of Palazzo Zanca all depends on this dilemma. A dilemma which, according to the provincial secretary of the Democratic Party, Armando Hyerace, opens up several questions that primarily concern governor Schifani. Hyerace remembers the timing of those hot days in mid-March: on March 11th De Luca, as group leader of ScN at the Ars, asks the Local Autonomy department for clarification, on the 13th his note is registered, on the 16th the response arrives. «The department responds in three days, and this speed in itself would even be a merit – says Hyerace -. The problem is how he responds: with a formulation that, to put it in the Sicilian way, seems to be made with trisiri and nesciri. Enough to be able to be used by those who asked for the opinion, not clear enough to close the issue.” The Dem secretary, however, asks himself: «Why express an opinion on such a delicate electoral matter without waiting for the opinion of the Legislative and Legal Office? Something in the sequence and timing of the acts does not add up and must be explained”, also taking into account the fact that the local government department was ad interim managed by the president of the Region. So much so that Hyerace adds: «That department responded politically to Schifani: we ask to know if that orientation was agreed with the political leadership or if an office moved alone on a matter that concerns electoral rules». Hyerace also recalls the exemption granted in 2024 by the president of the ARS to keep the South Calls North parliamentary group “alive”. The person formally asking for explanations will be the regional deputy of the Democratic Party, Calogero Leanza, who will present an urgent question to the regional government: «On a matter that concerns voting rules – says Leanza – precise answers are needed, without leaving any gray area».
It is not Cateno De Luca who responds, but the “man of the lists” from the South who calls the North, Pippo Lombardo, according to whom «the reconstruction of Hyerace essentially stops at the first and last frame, but in between there is more than a month of actions: already on 13 March the Prefecture of Messina intervenes, then the Prefecture of Enna, the Municipality of Messina and the Prefecture of Palermo intervene, and the electoral office continues to essentially reiterate the same orientation”. And above all «South calls North was the first to demand full clarity on this matter», with «a formal request for access to the documents», especially to know the famous classified opinion. And so Lombardo asks himself «what alleged “grey areas” to the advantage of the South calls the North are we talking about? If there are responsibilities, anomalies or steps to clarify, we were the first to ask for them to emerge.”
The parliamentary group? «No exceptions» says Lombardo, who explains how the authorization followed the legal requirements, «it would be enough to read article 23 of the Internal Regulations of the Ars. South calls North possessed all the requirements required for the establishment of the parliamentary group, which took place precisely on the basis of that provision. Furthermore, the relevant exemption was not granted at discretion, but was approved by the Presidential Council of the Sicilian Regional Assembly, a body in which all parliamentary groups are represented”.
