Di Maio ducks Corleone visit as M5S candidate says dialogue

(ANSA) - Rome, November 23 - Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio on Friday cancelled a planned trip to Corleone after a mayoral candidate from his party there said he wanted to "open a dialogue with the relatives of mafiosi".
    Di Maio said "the State must be careful not to ever get close to, not even in its image, those people." The leader ofthe anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S9, who is also labour and industry minister, took the decision after seeing a photo of the candidate, Maurizio Pascucci, with a nephew of late boss Bernardo Provenzano.
    Di Maio's visit was set up to support Pascucci's bid for office.
    Corleone was Provenzano's home, as it was of another late boss of bosses, Totò Riina.
    Parliamentary anti-mafia commission chair Nicola Morra, of the M5S, said "I can only fully support Luigi Di Maio's decision.
    "His words show how the Movement has as its priority the fight against the mafias and the support for the innocent victims of them, victims who are sadly very many.
    "We cannot accept any let-up or ambiguity...I repeat with Luigi Di Maio that we absolutely do not want the votes of mafiosi".
    Pascucci said he might now pull his bid.
    "I will talk with the meetups and make a decision shortly," he said.