The city councilors resign, in Taranto we return to the polls

“I wish this city every luck. You have to pay some attention to select the ruling class because then it is not always easy to perform the many and complex miracles that we have accomplished in recent years in this continuous climate of divisions and attacks This division, this continuous, endemic schizophrenia is what allows other intelligence, to other powers, in Bari and Rome, to always overwhelm the interests of this territory. The mayor of Taranto, Rinaldo Melucci, said, after the formalization of the resignation by the majority of the city councilors who will determine the dissolution of the Council.

The resignation is, in fact, irrevocable. The city councilors this morning filed and registered the 17 signatures necessary to start the early dissolution procedure of the City Council and therefore the forfeiture of the Administration. “We could no longer tolerate the inability in the management of the now striking municipal machine, which caused the commissioner of the Municipality on the Mediterranean games, arrived because of the partzia of those who led the Municipality” says the PD of Taranto with Anna Filippetti and Giuseppe Tursi. And for Fratelli d’Italia the deputy Dario Iaia supports: “We remind those who today want to make up for an image that was not only the former mayor who failed, but the political project of the Democratic Party and the M5S. Both, in fact, have Melucci supported and shared the actions of the latter, participating in the choices adopted and the prebend of the armchairs “.

And Massimiliano Di Cuia, regional councilor of Forza Italia, says: “Today is an important day for Taranto: the Melucci administration has fallen after a long agony that prevented the municipal council from starting any initiative useful to the community. A immobility that has Forced us opposition councilors to perform a strong act, but we had no alternatives “.

The story is repeated, therefore, for Melucci, former Pd. As already happened in November 2021, this time too he will be forced to leave Palazzo di Città. Already last year the councilors tried to send him home with the same system, but did not hit the result because in the end a signature was missing. Melucci was re -elected mayor in June 2022 with 60 percent of the votes (the first election dates back to June 2017). Then he was at high altitude and guided a center -left alliance.

Then he left the Democratic Party and his majority also changed political sign. The Dem came out. Of the second mandate, Melucci made only half of the way, because the center -left and center -right, with a maneuver perhaps thought of for some time but set up in the last few hours, have coalized and sent it to home early. To the representatives of the two sides who had collected 15 signatures, two councilors came out of the majority of the mayor, Vittorio Mele and Michele Patano, and this made it possible to reach the 17 signatures. Who later became 19 because ‘also two other councilors of the majority of the mayor, the former Italy Viva Massimiliano Stellato and the former pentastellato Mario Odone.

Having registered the signatures before February 24, should allow Taranto to have – once the procedure is formalized – a short commissioner and return to the vote already in this spring. Also for this reason, the collection of signatures has been accelerated, that is, avoiding a long administrative holiday, especially since the city – one of the largest in the South – is struggling with complex games: from the sale of the former Ilva to the Mediterranean games of 2026, From the crisis of the port and the new governance of the port authority to the choice of Taranto as a priority hub, together with Augusta, for the construction of the large structures of the offshore elicum. And then the state of reclamation, the implementation of the Just Transition Fund (800 million to encourage Taranto transition and conversion) and the restart of the institutional development contract (CIS). And in any case, in addition to the intertwining of the social and economic nodes, the municipalities of Taranto, the second city of Puglia after Bari, will also cross the Apulian regional elections that see Michele Emiliano out for ten years as governor.