The mayor of Catanzaro, Nicholas Flowerypresented the new municipal council this morning in the concert hall of the Municipality of Catanzaro, effectively putting an end to the political crisis that began last September 5. Here are the names of the new councilors: Giusy lemmaDeputy Mayor: Urban Planning, Private Building and SUE, Maritime Policies, Port System Development, Relations with the Health System, Demographic Services; Donatella Monteverdi: Culture, Entertainment, Equal Opportunities, University and Higher Education; Nuncio Belcaro: Public Education, Social Policies, Animal Welfare; Pasquale Squillace: Public Works, Land Management; Luisa Lacava: Budget and Taxes; Vincent Constantine: Tourism, Territorial Marketing, Youth Policies, Digital Transition; Giuliana Furrer: Economic activities; Anthony Battle: Heritage, Programming, Sports, Sports facilities, Labor policies; Irene Colosimo: Environment and Ecological Transition. Mayor Nicola Fiorita has retained for himself the delegations to Personnel, Mobility, Participated Companies, Security, Civil Protection, and Legal Affairs.
The mayor has chosen the members of the Council with a mix of politics and technical components. In fact, Donatella Monteverdi and Nunzio Belcaro are part of Cambiavento, the movement that supported the mayor; Pasquale Squillace is the mayor’s current chief of staff; Giusi Iemma and Irene Colosimo are part of the Democratic Party. Then there is room for technicians with the president of the Movimento Donne Impresa of Confartigianato Giuliana Furrer; Vincenzo Costantino (who is following the project of Catanzaro’s candidacy as the capital of contemporary art 2026), the current member of the Evaluation Unit Luisa Lacava, and the accountant Antonio Battaglia.
The executive which, as underlined by Fiorita «has a strong progressive, technical component» and «which confirms the female preponderance», It was launched with the external support of the municipal group of Action “from which a great act of generosity towards the city has come”. The new characterization of the executive, the third of the mayoralty, which reinforces its center-left matrix, became necessary after the mayor, elected in 2022 with the support of the Democratic Party, the 5 Star Movement and some civic lists but without a majority in the Council – which went to the center-right and to Azione, the expression of the candidate for mayor defeated in the run-off – had entered into a collision course with the group headed by the municipal and regional councilor Antonello Talericowho joined Forza Italia a few months ago, with the consequent elimination of the previous government.
«The new Board – he said Fiorita who glossed over possible disagreements on the choices that arose with the national Democratic Party speaking of an ‘open’ majority – was born to overcome the phase of stalemate, of indecision, of political inconsistency that did not allow us to work well but above all to transmit what we were doing. For this reason I reset the Council clarifying that we would start again only if we were able to give answers to this city. Now the ground, after the long phase of the ‘coupon’, shifts to the programs and the achievements».
Furthermore, «if today the Administration has restarted with a more cohesive and renewed Board, it is largely due to the courageous and unexpected choice of the leader of Azione, Professor Valerio Donato, to support this effort, without expecting anything. It was, I say this without rhetoric, a great gesture of love towards the city by professor Donato, councilors Gianni Parisi and Stefano Veraldi, and provincial secretary Roberto Guerriero. Azione has been the most intransigent group of the opposition and today this intransigence becomes the main stimulus to always do better. The programmatic contribution that Professor Donato and his advisors will give to the Council will be invaluable. On the political level, I note that this choice moves in a farsighted manner in the national wake that sees Azione supporting the candidates of the progressive area in the Regional elections in Liguria, Umbria and Emilia Romagna. I believe that the city should be grateful to the Azione council group for having avoided a political-administrative paralysis that would have caused enormous and irreparable damage.