A new political-judicial earthquake was recorded in Puglia today, after the controversy of recent weeks over the possible dissolution of the Municipality of Bari due to the mafia. The regional councilor for Transport Anita Maurodinoia (Pd) is under investigation for electoral corruption together with nine other people , including her husband Sandro Cataldo, representative of the South in the Center political movement, and the mayor of Triggiano Antonio Donatelli (supported by a series of civic lists). The Bari investigating magistrate ordered house arrest for Cataldo and Donatelli.
At the center of the investigation – coordinated by the Bari Prosecutor's Office – is an alleged vote-buying for the municipal elections of Triggiano in 2021 and Grumo Appula in 2020. However, the magistrates do not dispute the mafia vote.
Reached by the news of the investigation against her, councilor Maurodinoia resigned from her position in the Region and from all the bodies she is part of within the Democratic Party.
The investigation was launched after fragments of photocopies of identity documents and tax codes were found in a garbage bin on October 6, 2021.
The investigators' hypothesis is that Alessandro Cataldo purchased votes at the price of 50 euros each to re-elect the mayor of Triggiano Antonio Donatelli and two other city councilors, currently unopposed, to the 2021 local elections, as actually happened. to precautionary measures.
As for the Municipality of Grumo Appula, however, the objective would have been the re-election of the then Councilor for Security and Municipal Police Nicola Lella, currently in prison.
The system set up – according to the Prosecutor's Office – provided that in exchange for 50 euros the voter had to hand over a copy of their identity documents and the ballot paper to allow a precise counting of the votes section by section.
The comment from Elly Schlein, secretary of the Democratic Party, is harsh: “The Triggiano affair, if the accusations are confirmed, is very serious”, underlines the Dem leader. “The Democratic Party's line is very clear: we do not accept dirty votes. We do not tolerate bought votes. Anyone who thinks that politics is a taxi to indulge personal ambitions without any scruples cannot find any space in the party we are rebuilding, here they must find closed and sealed doors”.
The mayor of Bari Antonio Decaro also intervened on the case: “It is an issue that does not surprise me”, he observes. “First, during the last elections, I made detailed complaints, I made three. Two of those were for people who voted for me, for lists linked to my name. As I have said several times – adds the mayor of Bari – the guard level must be raised, the antibodies must be increased, all the political forces must do this, starting with those who administer. On this new investigation, I'm waiting to understand the evolution of the investigations and arrests this morning.”
The investigation by the Bari Prosecutor's Office comes a few days after the centre-left primaries to choose the mayoral candidate in the Apulian capital for the elections next June. On the pitch there are Michele Laforgia and Vito Leccese. But after today's judicial chaos, the 5 Star Movement has announced that it is withdrawing from the competition while continuing to support Laforgia.
“Today, the first judicial investigation is being joined by a second one involving vote-swapping, which we have been denouncing for some time,” says five-star leader Giuseppe Conte (from Puglia). “For the M5S there are no conditions to carry out the primaries peacefully, we believe that the reasons that led us to support the candidate Laforgia remain, indeed they are strengthened”.
“We will also discuss with the others in the coalition to try to tackle the electoral campaign here in Bari in the name of a new beginning, of a strengthening of the safeguards of legality, of maximum transparency. For us – continues Conte – this is an indispensable premise for making a political contribution, if it is not there we are not there, we have said so from the beginning. We will try to work with other forces demanding maximum guarantees so that these conditions exist. Otherwise we aren't there.”
The Democratic Party did not like Conte's exit. “Incomprehensible”, Nazarene sources define it. “If the 5 Star Movement thinks it can win on its own against the right, go ahead. But have respect for the city of Bari, for the center-left voters and don't think of giving morality lessons to anyone. The Democratic Party remains alongside Bari which has already demonstrated how important the Democratic Party is as a safeguard of legality and good administration. We are certain that the Democratic Party together with the center-left will win the elections again against this right.”
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