With the polls now closed for the regional elections on 5 and 6 October, while Calabria awakens amidst confirmations and renewed expectations, in San Gregorio d’Ippona there are those who are already looking ahead, with an eye towards May 2026, when the small municipality in the Vibo hinterland will return to the vote to choose the new mayor. Gregorio Lo Muto, a figure of local political activism, breaks the post-election silence and, with a measured but firm tone, launches an appeal for reflection and cohesion.
“We have the duty to open a new season of dialogue, shared planning and sense of institutions. The regional governments have said a lot about the planning will of the Calabrians, but now our local horizon must be San Gregorio”, begins Lo Muto, with the calmness of someone who knows that the times of politics are not those of clamor, but of patient work.
“This is no time for personalism”
“The 2026 appointment cannot and must not be reduced to a settling of accounts between political factions of 5 years ago or personal ambitions, but represent a turning point, in which citizens become protagonists again, not just passive spectators of logics that no longer represent them”, continues Lo Muto, choosing words weighted to the milligram, as is his style, almost as if he wanted to remember a political season in which the content mattered more than the shape.
“Open the doors, don’t close them”
Dismissing any spirit of opposition, Lo Muto repeatedly recalls the value of confrontation: “We need a common, civic, open, inclusive project, which does not fear the diversity of ideas – even between opposing poles – but enhances it. It is not the time to close the doors, but to open them wide to those who have the good of our country at heart. We must know how to talk to each other, even when we do not agree. This applies to all political forces”. A reference, not too veiled, to the political tensions that have often marked the local scene in recent years and up until the last post-regional days.
“Unity yes but with method”
To those who ask him if there is already an idea for a civic list, or a candidacy proposal with some other list in the pipeline, Lo Muto responds with typical aplomb: “Every path needs its time. Before talking about names and/or combinations of unitary political projects, we must talk about ideas for the citizen, about method and common political vision. Only in this way can we build something that lasts over time and that doesn’t crumble at the first vote against in the council municipal”.
“Bringing the community closer to politics”
In his appeal there is no lack of a call for a renewed relationship between citizens and institutions: “San Gregorio needs to regain trust. Only in this way can we return to being a community that looks to the future with seriousness, without illusions but with concrete hope”.
And then the appeal to the younger ones for a new season of politics…
With this intervention, Lo Muto seems to want to lay the foundations for a new course.
No clear break with the past, no Robespierre-style revolution but rather a “reasoned transition” as he himself likes to define it. His is a message that recalls the values of moderation, of dialogue even between political barricades that have been diametrically opposed for years, of cohesion, but with an eye towards a changing reality that requires new answers, without giving up the roots of San Gregorio.
It is precisely through the participation of the youngest that this country can truly change with a leap in quality that is already partly taking place.
“We need to rebuild a civic pact, which starts from the real needs of people, from schools, from roads, from attention to young people and the elderly.
There is no right-wing or left-wing San Gregorio, there is a San Gregorio that wants to live better. Let’s work together towards this goal.”
The relationship with the Farfaglia Administration
“In the last 2 years I have greatly re-evaluated the work of the Farfaglia administration.
As I have often argued to our Mayor, if I got involved in politics since I was a boy it is also thanks to him since the elections of 26 and 27 May 2002.
It’s something I recognize and I’m happy to do it publicly too. I really respect his work and the commitment he puts into San Gregorio.
We have a good dialogue and if he were to decide to continue the good administration project for San Gregorio, focusing on new figures like me, I think I could make myself available to him”.
Gregorio Lo Muto, with his mild but determined tone, seems to want to predict that political identities are not barriers but starting points for a fair comparison in an area where the engines of politics are already heating up in view of the next administrative elections.