Meanwhile, lawyer Campailla, one of the three possible candidates along with candidates Primiceri and Torbianelli, converts to the League and attempts a forward escape by having himself photographed in Pontida with MEP Cisint and the regional secretary of the Carroccio Dreosto stirring a cauldron of polenta. But surprise choices are not ruled out.
Trieste – On September 30th, the brief mandate as commissioner of the MIT’s Ports Director, Donato Liguori, expires. In Trieste and Monfalcone, the appointment of the president of the Port Authority is agitating the waters again, after a month of silence following Liguori’s arrival: an emergency measure decided in Rome following the resignation of Antonio Gurrieri caused by the Prosecutor’s investigation for money laundering. There are no predictions or favorites yet, because neither the Ministry of Transport nor the Region has a strong name, despite almost 500 days having passed since the departure of Zeno D’Agostino.
And yet everything should be simple because, in the brutality of the ongoing partisan allocation of the AdSPs, Trieste falls to the League and the discussion between the center and the periphery happens entirely on the League axis. Or rather on a double League axis: on one side the Trumpist wing of Minister Matteo Salvini and the Monfalcone MEP Anna Cisint; on the other, the moderate soul of Deputy Minister Edoardo Rixi and the President of Friuli Venezia Giulia Massimiliano Fedriga. But political affinity is not serving to unblock the process.
In Trieste, the port community must meanwhile recover from the Gurrieri affair, while container traffic has halved due to the MSC-Maersk split, the neighboring ports of Koper and Rijeka are growing at a sustained pace, and the ro-ro spats between Grimaldi and DFDS continue. The choice of a president cannot be postponed, but everything is covered in uncertainty and it remains difficult to know what will happen. Fedriga, meanwhile, is sending smoke signals to say that it must be concluded by Tuesday: to the newspaper Il Piccolo, the governor lets it be known that the designation of the president will arrive no later than September 30th. “There will be no extensions,” says the president, and this was, after all, the commitment of Salvini and Rixi after the pro tempore appointment of Liguori.
From the Regional building, it also filters through that the chosen one will have a curriculum of a high standard; that the three local profiles in the running (Massimo Campailla, Sandra Primiceri, and Vittorio Torbianelli) are all running neck and neck; that discussions with the MIT are ongoing; that choices external to the territory are not ruled out. But who, if lawyer Alberto Rossi has declared he is not interested in the role, despite the ministry’s appreciation?
To complicate matters, a large pot of polenta also gets involved, which sends the opposition into a frenzy. A few days before the commissioner’s deadline, it happens that one of the aspirants, the lawyer from the Zunarelli Campailla firm, went to the Pontida festival on Sunday, having himself immortalized with Cisint and the League’s regional secretary Marco Dreosto, smiling and intent on stirring a capacious cauldron of polenta with a giant-sized whisk. In Trieste, the Carroccio holds the cards and Campailla aligns himself plastically, after having been mentioned in recent months as a name favored by FdI as an alternative to Gurrieri.
The photo appears on Cisint’s social media and is picked up by the local press. All hell breaks loose. The candidate doesn’t bat an eyelid: “I was in Milan and I stopped to have a chat with some people.
I am available because, having reached sixty years of age, I believe it is right to offer my expertise to the community. But the ball is in the others’ court and, if my availability is not considered, I will continue with my activities”.
However, the PD deputy, Debora Serracchiani, fires point-blank, speaking of “polenta as a viaticum for the presidency” and accusing the League of “party-based spoils system as the only method for deciding and taking on strategic positions”. No less harsh is the judgment on Campailla for an “inevitable vulnus to autonomy and credibility”. The M5s senator Stefano Patuanelli reinforces the concept: “If the starting point of Professor Campailla’s possible candidacy is the political affiliation flaunted at Pontida, that candidacy is not starting off on the right foot. On the ports issue, the majority has become completely tangled up and the port of Trieste has been without a president for a year and a half, while we are witnessing a decline in traffic and conflict among operators”. The only one in the center-right to speak is Cisint, who does not address the merits, but criticizes Serracchiani for being “much more present in TV talk shows and in the newspapers than among the people and in the streets of our region, where the League continues to work seriously, at the service of the citizens”.
However, there are two Leagues in the Northeast and Fedriga did not appreciate Campailla’s move blessed by the Salvini supporters, even though it is a name the governor continues to consider and which local port operators now indicate as the new favorite, despite having preferred Gurrieri in recent months. The other two profiles on the table are those of the former commissioner Torbianelli and the vice-president of the industrial consortium Primiceri, also expressions of the territory and both close to D’Agostino, but both with inconvenient past candidacies on municipal center-left lists.
The local shortlist is limited to the three mentioned above, who are not entirely convincing, so much so that Fedriga recently sounded out the president of Trieste Airport Antonio Marano, receiving a polite refusal. The MIT and the Region now have six days to decide, assuming the commitment is respected, and we have been accustomed to the opposite.
In the photo: lawyer Campailla (second from left) with MEP Cisint, the secretary of the League Fvg Dreosto and regional councilor Budai
