Regional Sicily, the surprise Cateno De Luca at 23%. “And now the mayor of Taormina” – Corriere.it

When chased the people of Messina with drones and megaphonesthreatening kicks in the shins for those who violated the rules of the pandemic, or when he railed against Minister Lamorgese in the videos, Cateno De Luca, as mayor of Messinawas described as a restless Masaniello capable of winning crowds and many votes. This is how it was in the last of his sprints, which began on 20 July, starting from the Strait towards Palermo on foot and by bicycle, crossing dozens of municipalities for the conquest of the Region. Leader of a small party born from nothing, Sicilia Vera, but gradually grown like a sudden avalanche, cloning another one, South calls North, had a specific goal. With his brusque manner, a few shoves on stage even to a Five Star mayor, insults to unwelcome reporters, he wanted to win the presidency of the Region.

House and Senate

Ambition held back by the rest of the center where he was born. But, conquering a stratospheric 24.5 per cent (and more than 488 thousand votes still in progress), De Luca imposed seven deputies on the Regional Assembly, including a former “jena” of Strip the news, Ismaele La Vardera, and managed to get a deputy and a senator, Franco Gallo and Dafne Musolino to be elected, thus landing in Parliament with a loot of 1 percent, collected mainly between the east coast and central Sicily. De Luca has passed the formations of Maurizio Lupi and Giovanni Toti. Now many are wondering who the newly elected will stay with. On a national level, perhaps on the side of Giorgia Meloni. In the Region, not with Renato Schifani of the center-right. These are the words of De Luca from the stage of Fiumedinisi, in the Messina area, where it all started: “I don’t want to have anything to do with him, with politics and the Mafia …”. Meanwhile, on Monday, De Luca returned to closed urns to prepare a broth for mum and dad, governing the goats of the countryside where he too relaxes with the clarinet. Yes why also has a band. And he offers concerts in all the squares, singing melodies composed by him such as “Terra d’amuri”, interspersed with serenades dedicated to his wife and chants with which he mocks the powerful.

The judgments of Schifani and Miccichè

For many he is just “a fool, a jester”, as the calm Schifani lets slip. But the plenipotentiary of Berlusconi on the island, Gianfranco Miccichè, advises caution: «It is not a phenomenon to be underestimated. A rupture of p … But it’s a mistake to ignore it “. They had ignored him in the Democratic Party where the hunt for the so-called “unpresentables” resulted in Catania in the removal of the provincial secretary dem Angelo Villari from Letta’s party to De Luca’s bet. A bit like, with less conspicuous effects, it happened in Palermo with the passage of Igor Gelarda from the M5S to the new consortium.

The arrests, the trials, the acquittals

He got the glitters in front of his people of Fiumedinisi: “I lost, I must admit, the Sicilian people did not understand …”. Obviously he was referring toambition to become governor, but he managed the rest. Grabbing votes all over the place. Multiplying the lists. In the end he had 39 of the 120 in the race. Lined up for an electoral campaign announced last year, when still in the prosecutor’s office in Messina they were asking for a three-year prison sentence for him, averted epilogue of a trial which ended instead with a full acquittal. As for two arrests and a dozen investigations accumulated over the years. Judicial errors, for some. A persecution for him. With direct challenges launched against various magistrates, as he does with reporters when he reads unwelcome criticisms or hears himself defined as Masaniello. It also happened with Bruno Vespa who claims he never said it: “Excuse me, as a Sicilian gentleman …”.

Nude, with the Bible and Pinocchio in his hand

IS done so «Scateno», as he himself calls himself with self-irony, since he was a regional deputy at the time of Cuffaro as president and one day he showed up in the press room naked, wrapped in the Italian flag, his hands raised, a Bible on the right, a pinocchio on the left. Picturesque? “But say why I did it. They had expelled me from the Budget Committee where I said no to the sale of properties in the Region which re-let them from buyers. Scams … ». When he tells it, the crowds applaud against malapolitics, following him between rallies and concerts. But who is really De Luca? “I, my constituents hurry up,” explains the director general of Fenapi, a sort of gigantic Caf organized, according to the web, “in 74 provinces, 19 regions and 13 foreign states through 510 clubs”. And he recounts «the hard but most beautiful years», when he traveled around Italy «with a cardboard suitcase, on a legendary red Opel corsa 1200 injection …». And now? He wiped his tears on Monday night: “Now I’m applying for the mayor of Taormina”.