Limbiate (Monza and Brianza) — At the bar where he often went, a stone’s throw from the Town Hall, they remember him like this: «He entered, asked for coffee and then “thank you and goodbye”». Nothing else. For many he was the unsuspected person at the next desk. The suspended architect (and perhaps here some doubt could arise) who managed public projects. One of those who knew how to put into practice a maxim known to those who come from certain latitudes: the best word is the one that is not said. Or, to quote a prominent proverb on his Facebook page: “Whoever doesn’t mind his business is looking for trouble with the lantern.”
In front of the municipality of Limbiate35 thousand inhabitants in Brianza, the flags of Europe, Italy and Lombardy are waving. But you can glimpse it from here a piece of Sicily. To enter you walk along a walkway adorned with flowers. Entrance barred, the mayor does not receive. In offices, meetings and gatherings. From the secondary exit the employees go on their lunch break and some give in to questions. You knew Massimo Gentile? «Of course, he was a colleague of mine – says an employee -. I found out everything this morning in the office, when I turned on the computer and saw the news.” And what was she like? Superlatives abound: “Dedicated to work, very good, very calm.” Another official: “No one could have imagined…We are a bit shocked.”
A life apparently like many others, that of figurehead of Matteo Messina Denaro. Wife teacher, young children. They took him in a pale pink condominium, surrounded by identical buildings at the end of an asphalt road, in a hamlet ten minutes’ drive from the office. Here, yesterday morning at dawn, the neighbors saw the flashing lights. Now, when you ring the intercom, a curtain moves slightly away. And a small car driven by a woman with her face covered by a hood speeds away. Visits are not welcome.
Where did this Sicilian from Erice, in the Trapani area, born in 1972, come from, with a long CV published on the Municipality website, many posts on social media to show how the works are progressing? On Facebook he shows the progress of the roundabout in Via Lombardia, the redevelopment of the athletics track, the construction sites completed for the school, «another project financed with Pnrr». Signed: Massimo Gentile, «public works architect Limbiate». Hired in 2019 as a simple “category C” technical instructor, who became “responsible” in 2021 with a managerial disposition and tasks that were not exactly secondary (such as the “management of personnel and financial resources”). At the beginning of 2024 the selection for a place in Turate (Como) also passed: «For us he was suitable but then he didn’t accept», he recalls the mayor Alberto Oleari. Yet in 2018 he was excluded from a competition in the Brescia area. The reason is to be found in the less than praiseworthy page dedicated to him on the website of the National Council of Architects: «The professional is currently suspended following the disciplinary measure imposed on 16/01/2016».
Suspended. But in Limbiate he managed to get the job in 2019. Apparently, because all he needed was a diploma. Yesterday, until late afternoon, there was a meeting in the Municipality between the centre-right mayor Antonio Romeo, the majority and opposition leaders, and the municipal secretary. By necessity, an in-depth study will be carried out on all the works in which Gentile was involved even if the mayor warns: that of the architect is «a bad personal affair of an employee but it does not involve the Municipality in any way», ready to “maximum collaboration for all ritual checks” but convinced of having “always worked in compliance with the law”. In the town that has discovered that it hosts a supporter of the most elusive former boss, there is anxiety: «It is a question that concerns the community – he says Cristina Ursino, leader of the Democratic Party –. We are very worried”.
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– 2024-03-29 19:55:39
