«I read Cateno De Luca’s statements and I note that he has returned, punctually, to his favorite role: that of the great empty accuser, tribal leaders, magic circles, political schizophrenia, performance anxiety. A colorful lexicon, effective in the media, but always the same. In the meantime, however, in recent years the Schifani government has financed, with over 110 million euros, many works proposed by De Luca because they are considered strategic for the development of the Messina area: from funds for local public transport in Messina to the archaeological park of Taormina and Giardini Naxos, from interventions for the urban waste sector to the redevelopment of the degraded areas of the capital, from the reclamation and valorisation of the former Sanderson to the allocations for the Area at high risk of environmental crisis in the Mela valley to the renovation of the Santa Teresa di Riva seafront. All concrete interventions, resources for local authorities, programming.”
Stefano Pellegrino, group leader of Forza Italia in the Sicilian Regional Assembly, says this, adding: «Is De Luca pretending to be forgetful? Then there is a fact that I cannot help but notice: since the beginning of the legislature, De Luca’s group has lost several traveling companions along the way. Exits, tears, increasingly evident distances. Perhaps, before explaining the Region with tribal categories, it would be worth asking ourselves why the political perimeter is progressively narrowing around it. I continue to think that politics is measured less by metaphors and more by results. The slogans make noise, the funded works remain. And in the end, apart from the press conferences, these are the ones that really matter.”
The statements of the Honorable Pellegrino were followed by the response of Danilo Lo Giudice, regional coordinator of Sud Gioca Nord: «Pellegrino has now taken on the appearance of the merchant in the temple. His words confirm, once again, that South Calls North is a political force that, despite being in opposition, has been able to translate its parliamentary action into concrete and recognizable measures, unlike many “non-drinkable” initiatives for which Pellegrino holds the rubric. In this column there are also the prices paid to “change the minds” of many parliamentarians elected with South Calls North, who mistook Parliament for a market. We could list for each single “purchase” the price that is engraved in that column, of which even the good Pellegrino is a worthy guardian. But it is better that on these occasions we are forgetful, to safeguard the modesty that should prevail in certain circumstances. We from South Calls North have become a political force of the people thanks to the good governance of the municipal buildings. So much so that we were even able to afford to refuse the departments, first offered to Cateno and then proposed to the undersigned. It is well known that Cateno De Luca refused to join the Schifani Council on three occasions and this shows that, if Stefano wants to be a Pilgrim among the merchants in the temple, there are those who, like the three veteran deputies from the South calls the North, manage to resist the logic of commercialism.”
Lo Giudice concludes with a clear political challenge: “Is Pellegrino in a position to explain to us what is the program that has united the centre-right political forces for Renato Schifani’s candidacy for president? If his master Schifani gives him permission, already denied to the regional secretary of Forza Italia Marcello Caruso, to come to Caltagirone on 17 and 18 January, we will explain it to him, with little flowers and hearts. We are not on Schifani’s payroll, and we have one master: the Sicilian people”.