Cuffaro struggles to choose candidates, Laura Abbadessa refuses due to instrumentalization of her relationships with DC members

Last Updated: May 1, 2024

La difficile scelta dei candidati di Cuffaro, dice no anche Laura Abbadessa: «Strumentalizzate le mie relazioni con esponenti Dc»

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After Zambuto, Laura Abbadessa also renounces her candidacy in the Renzian list for the European elections. “I cannot accept the candidacy proposed by the leader of Italia Viva, there are no conditions to carry out the electoral campaign serenely,” she writes in a note. She was the surprise name for the list of United States of Europe for the Islands constituency. A lawyer from Palermo, Laura Abbadessa is the wife of Massimo Russo, who was an anti-mafia prosecutor and is now at the Prosecutor’s Office for Minors and who between 2008 and 2012 was the Health Assessor in the Lombardo government.

“ I have never been actively involved in politics, I have never been a member of any party; I have many friends – continues Laura Abbadessa, who in recent months was a consultant in the regional Labor department led by Nunzia Albano, on behalf of Cuffaro’s DC – who are involved in different parties, with whom, as a citizen, I share values and ideals. However, I perceived that an inadmissible instrumental propaganda would have been mounted on my personal relationships with some DC representatives, which forces me to give up the exercise of my right not to jeopardize my personal dignity and the serenity of my family “.

Totò Cuffaro, former president of the Region who has served a sentence for aiding and abetting the mafia, yesterday seemed on the verge of closing the deal with Renzi and Bonino to place candidates in the United States of Europe list. After receiving rejections from Forza Italia and Lega, Cuffaro and his DC returned to the starting point, collaborating all day on composing the list of Renzi supporters in Sicily. And it’s no coincidence that among the few parties that did not deposit the list yesterday is Renzi’s party. The names indicated were two, Abbadessa and former mayor of Agrigento Marco Zambuto, who is Cuffaro’s son-in-law. Both said no. “If the DC voters had recognized themselves in my candidacy and in my new political commitment – Laura Abbadessa concludes -, this would have happened in broad daylight and in a transparent manner, as happens in a true democracy. I really thank Matteo Renzi, a politician I have always respected, and my friend Davide Faraone for strongly wanting me within their list.”

The fear of ending up in the media storm also prompted Zambuto to say no. “In these hours – he wrote last night – I have thought a lot about my candidacy and about the controversy over the relationships in my private life. I have decided to prioritize and safeguard the serenity of my life over a just commitment, but full of malicious controversies. Zambuto, also a former regional councilor, in the past in the Renzian Pd, does not forget to thank the leader of Italia Viva. “I thank Renzi for proposing my candidacy, but I have decided not to accept it,” he concludes.