Bari, Decaro's photo leaks with sister boss: centre-right on the attack. The mayor: 'Extraneous to the clan'

A photo of the mayor with two relatives of the boss of old Bari; the arrival of the Viminale commission that will have to assess possible mafia infiltration in the municipality; the centre-right that, from the same room where Antonio Decaro days ago had defined the sending of the commission as "an act of war", attacks: "Hands off Bari, we say so". And while the premier, Giorgia Meloni, defends the interior minister's initiative by defining it as "shameful" and rejecting "the accusations of political exploitation" of this intervention, which "is not prejudicially aimed at dissolution", the mayor, at the centre of the storm for days, defends himself by explaining that the ladies in the photo did not even know who they were and had to consult the parish priest of the old city to find out: they are relatives of boss Capriati "but have nothing to do with the rest of the family".

Yet another stormy day in the city of Bari opened with a press review and a photo of Decaro with a sister and a niece of boss Tonino Capriati (who has been in prison for over 30 years and is a member of a large family with 11 brothers and many nieces and nephews). 'I woke up and found my face in some national newspapers juxtaposed with the word mafia,' Decaro recounts, 'I wondered who the two women in the photo were and contacted the people with whom I worked on social antimafia and the fight against organised crime. The former commander of the carabinieri in Bari Vecchia and then the former head of the state police and we had difficulty understanding who they were. I then called the parish priest of the cathedral and we understood that they were two relatives of boss Capriati but had nothing to do with the rest of the family'. 'I don't see why,' he says, 'they should find themselves in a photo just because they asked the mayor to take a photo in front of their shop, as I do dozens of times every day'.

Annalisa Milzi and her mother Elisabetta (the boss's niece and sister respectively) also wonder about this. They explain: 'It was the day of the patron saint's day, St Nicholas, and the mayor was walking through the alleys of the old town "I asked him: is it possible to take a picture? He replied: absolutely yes'. The photo shows her and her mother with the mayor in front of the entrance to their boutique in Bari vecchia and was published today by several newspapers. Among the comments on the photo that has gone viral on social media is one from Vincent Capriati, nephew of boss Tonino, in prison for 33 years, who writes: 'roba nostra'. For Annalisa Milzi and Elisabetta Capriati those two words have no special meaning. 'No come on, you always think bad' they reply to the reporter.

Beyond the photo, today in Bari was the day of the arrival of the Viminale access commission that will assess the possibility of mafia infiltration in the municipality after the DDA investigation that led to 130 arrests and unveiled cases of political-mafia vote swapping and the ability of clans to pilot the hiring of public transport company Amtab. The commissioners met the secretary general and then the mayor, who guaranteed 'maximum cooperation' from the offices. And on the commission Giorgia Meloni sent back 'the accusations of using these measures politically. We have not made any forcing. We would have forced the issue if we had not ordered an inspection, which would have been ordered under the same conditions for any other Italian municipality'.

While the commission was working, the centre-right was holding a press conference in the council chamber - with, among others, deputy minister Francesco Paolo Sisto and health undersecretary Marcello Gemmato - asking the mayor 11 questions asking him to explain, among other things, 'why he did not notice what was happening at Amtab' and why in the 'last eight years as president of Anci he has never objected to the 137 accesses ordered by the Viminale', describing them as 'an act of war in Bari'. In the evening Decaro's reply: as for Amtab, 'every time elements with a possible judicial relevance have emerged, the appropriate reports have been made. I have ascertained that Michele Emiliano pointed out to the public prosecutor of the time the issue of hiring relatives of organised crime figures, including Parisi'. The president of the Anti-Mafia Commission, Chiara Colosimo, also spoke on the matter, referring to the anecdote told by Governor Emiliano (and denied by Decaro) on the visit made years ago to a sister of boss Capriati: 'Emiliano's words, whether true, false or misunderstood, are profoundly mistaken,' said Colosimo, 'and it would be an act of profound political maturity to acknowledge this by saying that every time one suffers a threat, one must denounce it. On what the Antimafia will do,' he concluded, 'even for possible hearings on the subject, the bureau will express itself'.