Milan City Council, Tancredi towards resignation. Sala's speech in council today

If the resignation of Milan's town planning councillor Giancarlo Tancredi, who is facing corruption charges and a request for house arrest, is now taken for granted, in the last few hours the hypothesis of a step backwards is also opening up for the mayor Giuseppe Sala, who is under investigation in the same enquiry into the existence of an alleged town planning lobby in Milan. For him the charges are induction to give or promise benefits and forgery.

Yesterday was a day of reflection for the first citizen, away from the spotlight. Today, instead, he is expected to speak at the City Council, where he will most likely announce a council reshuffle or, in any case, the search for a new name for Urban Planning; but it is not to be ruled out that he himself may eventually relinquish the post, thus starting a phase of commissarial administration for Palazzo Marino, prodromal to the elections.

The Democratic Party, both national and local, has rallied around him, also to avoid an early election, supporting his work but at the same time calling for a phase of 'change and innovation'.

The political problem, however, is significant, because for a prime minister under investigation for matters related to town planning - although he is not accused of corruption - it becomes difficult to hold the majority together and make decisions on issues concerning that very sector. In fact, Milan has important dossiers to complete: the imminent sale of the stadium and the San Siro area to the teams, the completion of the works necessary for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, the Pgt process, and the Housing Plan. Just to mention the most relevant chapters. These are the reflections that Sala is making in these hours, in addition to personal considerations on how far the narrative reported in the prosecutor's files is, in his opinion, from reality.

Meanwhile, on the investigation front, the two best-known suspects, councillor Tancredi and real estate entrepreneur Manfredi Catella, Coima's managing director, are preparing their defence for 23 July, the day on which the judge will have to decide whether or not to grant the pre-trial detention under house arrest requested by the prosecutors (due to the risk of reiteration of the crime). Catella is preparing a defence brief. After the interrogation, 'given also the inappropriate media coverage of the contents of the prosecutor's report, we will make the developed arguments available,' says Catella.