Bari municipality in chaos, M5s only gives external support: wide field already at risk

The wide field stubbornly sought by the new mayor of Bari, Vito Leccese , dissolved at the first municipal council meeting. The council meeting closed without the election of a council president and deputy, and amidst controversy raised by the PD and M5s. The Pentastellated group, composed of the two councillors Antonello Delle Fontane and Italo Carelli, announced in the assembly hall that they were not part of the centre-left majority in an organic manner, but wished to limit themselves to giving external support by evaluating individual measures from time to time. It was a decision that had been in the air for a few days, since Leccese appointed councillor Raffaele Diomede, an external technician, as indicated by provincial coordinator Raimondo Innamorato, instead of Delle Fontane himself.

"Within our Movimento5Stelle Bari family, someone has confused confrontation with authoritarianism, placing himself in antithesis with both the founding principles of the Movimento 5 Stelle, but also with what President Conte strongly wanted in terms of meritocracy and the enhancement of elected representatives," the two councillors pointed out. Innamorato's reply was not long in coming: 'We are surprised and displeased by the statements, which must be considered exclusively in a personal capacity. We hope and suggest responsibility in the actions of the council group, the same responsibility that President Conte has taken on towards the citizens of Bari and that cannot be diminished by virtue of facts that are far removed from the wellbeing of the Bari community and that of the Movement'.

But this is not the only problem that the mayor of Bari is called upon to solve in these hours to keep the majority united: even in the Democratic Party group there are stomach aches that emerged when Leccese asked for the postponement of the vote for the choice of the council president. Marco Bronzini, leader of the Dem group, complained that the choice was not shared and at the time of the vote 10 majority councillors abstained to send a message to the first citizen. Again, the friction in the PD is linked to the mayor's decision to name Romeo Ranieri, from the Con group, close to governor Michele Emiliano, as president of the council, while the Dems claimed the seat. The opposition's attack was immediate: 'The first meeting of the municipal council' of Bari 'of the Leccese era was worthy of a scene from a tragicomic film', FdI accused.