Bari Mayor Antonio Decaro said
Wednesday if there is even the mere suspicion of criminal
infiltration in the city administration he will forego the
security detail assigned to him in relation to his anti-mafia
activity after it emerged on Tuesday that the interior ministry
has started a procedure that could lead to the dissolution of
the city council due to alleged infiltration by organized crime.
"If there is even a single suspicion of criminal infiltration in
the municipality of Bari I will relinquish my security detail,"
Decaro told reporters ahead of a press conference in the Puglia
regional capital.
"I have been living under escort for nine years, I'm going back
to living life. I cannot be an anti-mafia mayor and have the
access commission in the municipality," added the centre-left
Democratic Party (Pd) mayor in relation to the appointment of a
ministerial commission to verify possible criminal infiltration
in the city administration and municipal companies after 130
people including a city councillor were arrested in February for
so-called political-mafia electoral exchange in relation to the
2019 municipal polls.
On Tuesday Decaro said "an act of war" had been "signed against
the city of Bari".
"Minister Piantedosi informed me by phone that the access
commission has been appointed to verify the possibility of
dissolving the municipality" three months before scheduled
elections in June.
The interior ministry said the inspection "was necessary as a
result of an initial monitoring ordered by the ministry of the
facts that emerged following the judicial investigation that led
to more than 100 arrests in the Puglia capital and the
appointment by the Court, under Article 34 of the anti-mafia
code, of a judicial administrator for the company Mobility and
Transport Bari spa, which is fully owned by the municipality".
The suspects in the probe include Tommaso 'Tommy' Parisi, a
singer and son of the Japigia district mafia boss Savino, who
has already been sentenced to eight years for mafia association
at first instance, former regional councillor and lawyer Giacomo
Olivieri, and Olivieri's wife, city councillor Maria Carmen
Lorusso, who was elected in 2019 on the list supporting
centre-right mayoral candidate Pasquale Di Rella before
switching to the majority supporting mayor
Antonio Decaro during his second term in office.
"Now Mayor Decaro is in danger," said Puglia Governor and former
Bari mayor Michele Emiliano.
"He is already under police escort. If someone gives the
impression that, instead of defending him for his anti-mafia
activities, the interior minister is investigating him because
he fears there is something wrong with what he has done, it
weakens him," he continued.
"Mobsters are very quick to understand things. They are a little
slower at the interior ministry," concluded Emiliano.
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