Once again the mayor of Catania, Salvo Pogliese, is suspended. The general secretary of the Municipality, Rossana Manno, notified him a note from the prefect Maria Carmela Librizzi, with which he communicated that “the original prefectural decree of suspension of 24 July 2020 (issued pursuant to the Severino law) has resumed its effectiveness it will expire after a total of 18 months, net of the suspension period.
Pogliese had been sentenced on 23 July 2020 by the court of Palermo for embezzlement to 4 years and 3 months of imprisonment in the process of reimbursements to the ARS as vice president of the PDL group. As a result of the law Severino had been suspended by the prefecture the day after the sentence but had started a judicial battle and managed to return to office in December 2020, following an appeal to the civil court until the new decision was made following of a passage in the Constitutional Court.
Salvo Pogliese’s comment:
In a completely unexpected way I find myself commenting on yet another act that brings back the hands of my experience as Mayor.
This afternoon I received a note from the Prefect, in the absence of an order from the Court, which informs me of the suspension from the office of Mayor; all with a wrong interpretation of the legislation, in the opinion of illustrious jurists, in contrast with the same last sentence of the Constitutional Court against me, which sanctioned the “precautionary and non-sanctioning legal nature of the suspension”.
The Severino law itself will be subjected to referendum in the spring and there are numerous bills to amend it, after the similar story that last involved the mayor of the Democratic Party of Reggio Calabria.
I left a comfortable seat in Brussels and the parliamentary immunity that would have protected me from the application of Severino, to serve my city.
Refraining from the performance of the functions of Mayor due to institutional sensitivity, I will wait for the clarifications of the case before making all the appropriate assessments and making consequential choices.
