Schifani praises Sammartino’s loyalty and transparency; Lega says investigation is timed to one month before election.

If Schifani speaks of a vice president as “loyal and transparent,” party colleagues contest the fact that the suspension of regional assessor Sammartino comes a month before the European elections. Numerous positions have been taken by the center-right.

Schifani

The President of the Sicilian Region, Renato Schifani, as stated in a note, “reaffirming full confidence in the judiciary, fully trusts that honorable Sammartino can prove his complete innocence of the facts attributed to him” and recalls how “he has carried out his dual institutional role with decorum, loyalty, and transparency.”

The Presidency of the Region officially communicates what Sammartino himself had stated in his own statement, that he has today resigned from the positions of Minister of Agriculture, rural development, and Mediterranean fishing and vice president of the regional government. The interim functions of the ministry have been taken on by Schifani himself, who will then appoint the new vice president of the council with a subsequent decree.

Durigon

For undersecretary Claudio Durigon, who is the League’s commissioner in Sicily, “it is disconcerting that, although the investigations were conducted between 2018 and 2021, the measures were only taken today just over a month before the European elections.” The head of the party in Sicily is confident in the innocence of the Catania exponent of the League. “We are guarantors, just as we were for Bari or Turin,” he emphasizes. “We are sure that Sammartino will be able to demonstrate his innocence,” he concludes.

Germanà

Sicilian senator Ninò Germana also focuses on the timing of the investigation. “While maintaining unconditional trust in the work of the magistrates,” says the Messina exponent, who is a candidate for the European Parliament and is destined to take over the party in Sicily after the elections, “I cannot help but note a serious untimeliness of the measures that are related to alleged facts hypothesized by investigations conducted between 2018 and 2020, but which are issued after over three years and a few days before the deadline for the submission of the lists.” Germanà is an ally of Sammartino within the League. “Knowing and having known Luca for years,” he continues, “I am sure he will demonstrate his innocence as soon as possible. Despite appreciating his generosity in handing over all the delegations received to the President of the Sicilian Region Renato Schifani, I am sure that, in respect of the law, which correctly excludes elected officials from suspension from public office, Luca will continue his political activity as a regional deputy with love and passion for Sicily and Sicilians.”

Crippa

Vice-secretary of the League Andrea Crippa intervenes similarly: “Between 2015 and 2018, Sammartino was not with the League. The investigations were closed in 2021 but the measures are only taken today, a month before the European elections, I wonder why…”. And then: “We are guarantors, we always have the benefit of the doubt,” he adds, speaking with journalists in the Transatlantic at the Chamber.

The deputies at the Ars

Also the deputies of the League group at the Sicilian Regional Assembly Marianna Caronia, Giuseppe Laccoto, Vincenzo Figuccia, Salvatore Geraci and Mimmo Turano release a note: “We are and remain guarantors,” they write. “and we are sure that our colleague Luca Sammartino, of whom we know the sense of the institutions and his dedication in serving Sicily, will demonstrate his innocence in the facts alleged against him.” No reference to the timing of the investigation.

Cantarella

An accusation comes instead from Fabio Cantarella, founder of the League in Sicily, now at odds with the leader Durigon. “Preferring the many easy votes of the newcomers to the few but genuine ones of the historical and consistent militants,” Cantarella declares. “For some time,” he adds, “I have been publicly denouncing what is happening in the League in Sicily and in response I have been isolated and even the current regional party commissioner, undersecretary Claudio Durigon, has proposed my expulsion from the party, also voted by honorable Stefano Candiani, who should know Sicily very well.”

“I was forced to sound the alarm in the press,” Cantarella says, “after they violated the Statute’s regulations by excluding me from every meeting despite the fact that, as the founder of the League in Sicily, I am a member of the regional assembly and board for the Statute. Durigon inherited the mistakes made by Matteo Salvini, in turn poorly advised by honorable Anastasio Carrà. I warned Salvini – Cantarella continues – also with numerous and precise messages and my heart and mind dropped when he replied verbatim “the more trials he has, the more I like him”.

“What I have been through just for asking for attention to the issues of legality and transparency,” Cantarella observes, “I do not wish it on anyone. Even what happened during the composition of the latest town council in Catania deserves qualified verification. Federal Secretary Matteo Salvini and the then regional commissioner Annalisa Tardino entered the mayor Enrico Trantino’s office and indicated my name as the second councilor of the League. From that moment on, unacceptable pressures began from Luca Sammartino who demanded and obtained that my name be excluded.”

“I have the right to know,” Cantarella concludes, “what happened, what kind of pressures were exerted to force a leader like Salvini to go back on his free conviction.”