Elly Schlein’s unscheduled event in Palermo: they call her from the balcony and she goes up to have a coffee with the witness of the La Torre murder

PALERMO. A leaden sky hangs over the heads of these one hundred people gathered in front of the plaque commemorating the killing of Pio La Torre and Rosario Di Salvo, which took place in this little street behind Corso Calatafimi 41 years ago. The years of the massacre of Palermo by the mafia. Elly Schlein is here and people appreciate it. To the point that the lady on the first floor, when it’s all over, yells at her from the window to go up and have a coffee, because «I’ve been hearing these things for years. If you come up, you sign me that you will do as you say and I offer you a coffee.’ After all, the lady does not send her to say … «the one from last year he didn’t go up to my house and see how it ended ….». Signora Silvana calls and Elly replies, «all right». Except for the coffee, which she doesn’t drink, but accepts a peach juice and biscuits, while Silvana tells her about that sudden terror, «about that morning when I heard shooting outside the house, I was going down to go out, a minute before and they would have killed too myself. I looked out and saw La Torre’s leg coming out of the car window». An unpublished and chilling testimony, which Schlein listens to seriously, looking at Signora Silvana. And promising her that she won’t let go.
Down the street, microphone in hand, he had said clear things, after those of Anthony Barbagallo, the regional secretary of the Democratic Party. After greeting one by one all the deputies and administrators crowded to meet her in person. There is the regional councilor Valentina Chinnici, namesake of the MEP, «I am the good Chinnici, the one who remains in the Democratic Party», greets her and Elly laughs. Leoluca Orlando approaches, Mayor Lagalla of Forza Italia makes an appearance, Schifani is not there but sends one of his friends. He stops to talk to La Torre’s son, «tonight I heard the commemoration of his father made by Enrico Berlinguer», he tells him, «when he said that this murder caused pain not only in all of Sicily but in the whole country, because L Torre has left a deep mark».

And it is of this sign that Elly Schlein speaks in public. “They were terrible years for the city and for the country, we here today must not limit ourselves to remembering how they died, we must commemorate how they lived,” he begins. Recalling that “the mafia has as its objective illicit enrichment and the La Torre law, approved after his killing, aimed at this, introducing the 416 bis and the confiscation of assets”. But today things are not going well. «There is a drop in tension in the fight against the mafia. Wrong to weaken the procurement code and raise the ceiling on the use of cash. Today we also need to fight poor work and businesses. I quote Belinguer: “La Torre was killed because he was serious”. The simplifications that speak of a defeated mafia do not convince us. It is a shame that after months Parliament has not activated the national anti-mafia commission. The application of the La Torre law has had a more lax application in recent years. Remembering La Torre also means assigning that half of the confiscated assets to social use. Here on the island the assets stolen from mafia crime are located. In order not to see the 300 million provided for by the Pnrr disperse, something must be done ».

And again, the invitation «not to underestimate the ability of the mafias to infiltrate the economy. This would mean betraying the memory of those who, like La Torre and Di Salvo, wanted to leave us the commitment against organized crime. We need to raise the safeguards of legality and transparency rather than lower them, instead of trying to eradicate the safeguards of the procurement code and introduce the cascading subcontracting which makes controls on legality even more difficult and we also need to work on the fight against labor exploitation and illegal hiring» .

After greetings, selfies, handshakes, Elly sets off for eastern Sicily for an electoral round. Some boys await her silently with pacifist banners against weapons, her car in front of her. one of the unresolved problems at this stage for the Pd secretary. However, that does not prevent in many realities even here in Sicily, an agreement with the 5 stars.