Bari — Antonio Decaro is exhausted and embittered. He reacted to the center-right’s insinuations and to the minister’s decision to appoint a commission to assess the existence or otherwise of mafia influence in the Municipality of Bari by showing in a crowded press conference the articles describing the fight against the mafia conducted by his administration. He reacted, defending the city, and his actions, that of a mayor under guard. “I – he explained – am afraid for myself and my family, but a mayor cannot turn the other way.”
You said that “yours is an act of self-defense”. And that the appointment of the commission for access to documents was “an act of war”. Very strong words.
«I was worried when I saw a photograph of a group of centre-right parliamentarians entering the Interior Minister’s room. Among them there were also two deputy ministers who enter the room of a minister of their own government. They take a photo of this meeting and at the press conference ask to appoint an access commission that can evaluate the possibility of dissolving the City Council. Initially I thought it was a strong institutional lack of grammar, but I also thought it was a way for the centre-right to get ahead since the arrested councilor was elected in 2019 precisely with that side”.
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And instead?
«Then I saw an escalation of declarations, requests that were abnormal compared to what had happened and compared to the declarations of Bari’s chief prosecutor Roberto Rossi himself who, in a press conference on the day of the operation, had declared that it was still a limited case , recalling the work done by my administration in the fight against the mafia. I tend to trust the institutions, I am a mayor, the president of the Anci which in recent years has represented the mayors of all the municipalities, I have never disrespected a minister. But in this case it is the haste that worried me, the haste with which for example I had to deliver the papers to the Prefecture, at a particular moment, because we are in the middle of the election campaign where, moreover, I am not the candidate.”
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He is concerned? From the Interior Ministry they explained that it is a necessary act.
“The inspection will come, we will give all the support, but yes, the timing worries me.”
In the press conference you pointed the finger at transformism. Carmen Lorusso, the councilor arrested because she was accused of taking the clan’s votes, was elected in the centre-right and then joined the majority. Same thing for another councilor involved in an investigation in 2022.
«Their passage into the majority is not the result of an agreement with me, everyone knew that I didn’t want them, that I didn’t need them, that they had been violent adversaries in the election campaign. In May 2019 I received a citizen after the appeal I had made. I told the citizens: “Go and report if they offer you money to vote.” I have received three complaints. I took those people, I took them to the police station. I did it, not the center-right. The real problem in this city and in other cities, especially in the South of our country, is transformism. We must fight transformism: those two people who were arrested have become the majority. And we must not allow this anymore.”
The DDA investigation led to the appointment of a judicial commissioner for Amtab, the company that deals with public transport in the city where some hirings were allegedly controlled by the clans. Could more have been done?
«We appoint the directors, we cannot intervene in the dynamics within the companies. In all the companies there were problems linked to organized crime because they absorbed cooperatives in which there were ex-convicts.”
She, who lives under guard, has claimed responsibility for her action against crime, citing all the cases in which the Municipality has taken civil action against the clans.
«My administration has taken civil action against the clans 19 times. I stood alongside the traders who reported the racket, those who had received the bullets. I blocked the boss’s son’s concert. If there is the slightest suspicion, as I said, I am ready to give up the escort.”
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– 2024-04-05 04:37:02
