Regional council, Schifani closes the loop on the two-step reshuffle: immediately the positions for Christian Democrats and autonomists

The timing was defined in the middle of last week: it will proceed "immediately after the referendum". But, well-placed sources at Palazzo d’Orléans note, "the result of the vote on the justice reform has nothing to do with it". The delay is solely due to reasons of political etiquette: to avoid tensions in the center-right during the referendum campaign. But starting tonight, at the Region, the reshuffle operation begins. In two phases.

Renato Schifani has decided not to wait any longer for the timing of the other allies - especially the judicial ones, of Brothers of Italy - and in the coming days is ready to assign the two positions (Family and Local Autonomies) left vacant in the council by Nuccia Albano and Andrea Messina after the corruption investigation into Totò Cuffaro: one will be returned to the DC, the other will go to the Mpa. And, it should be noted, to respect the gender quotas in the regional government, they must be one man and one woman.

The turning point came after the latest consultations in recent days. With a face-to-face meeting between the president of the Region and Raffaele Lombardo. It started with a blunt question from Schifani to the ally: "But do you really want the second assessor? Can't you do without it?". The response, translated from “Lombardese” (a rather obscure local dialect for most), is roughly this: "The doctor certainly didn't tell us we must have it, but the national leader of your party assured us of it." In fact, the moral suasion of Antonio Tajani to ensure that the agreement between Forza Italia and the autonomists, crucial for the election of Caterina Chinnici to the European Parliament, is respected has become more pressing lately. And so Schifani, somewhat reluctantly, must give up the additional position hypothesized for his party.

But who gets what? Both the Dc and the Mpa would prefer the delegations that belonged to Albano (Family, Social Policies and Labor), but the attribution weighs on a reasoning, correct, put on the table by the "orphans" of Cuffaro: «We have already given up a position and therefore we have the right to choose the department». The designated candidate remains the regional deputy Ignazio Abbate. However, Schifani (who has asked the Christian Democrats for «a high-profile name») continues to have some reservations about him, mainly related to investigations dating back to his time as mayor of Modica: one for fraud regarding compensation after a tornado and another for improper allocation of public funds for book vouchers. The Dc group at the Ars, despite some distinctions, insists on Abbate, while keeping the option of Messina's return as a plan B.

Lombardo, in his conversation with Schifani, besides insisting on the Family (receiving a polite but firm refusal), also tried to reverse the gender: a man for the Mpa, a woman for the Dc. Perhaps Laura Abbadessa, the regional president of the party, as well as the wife of Massimo Russo, a magistrate still highly regarded by the autonomist leader. «They don't want her», was the governor's response. And so the former governor, who might have placed the well-tested Antonio Scavone at the Family (where the other possibility could have been the Catanese councilor Serena Spoto), now has to propose a woman for Local Autonomies. The most likely name, already anticipated by La Sicilia at the beginning of the reshuffle saga, remains Valeria Caci. She manages, on behalf of the Mpa, the delegations for Social Services in the municipal council of Gela. In the autonomist camp, there is also discussion of «a technical profile, from the world of professions and academia». And someone points to the profile of Vera Greco, former superintendent in Catania and Ragusa, an appreciated regional director of Cultural Heritage. But the favorite remains Caci.

And what about the rest of the reshuffle? It will be discussed again between late April and early May, after FdI resolves the judicial issue concerning Elvira Amata, with a possible reshuffling of positions and delegations between the Melonians and Forza Italia. Thus, in the first part of the two-stage reshuffle, they remain empty-handed. And this, for Schifani, is also a risk. Calculated, but still a risk.