«Health used for politics». Now Brothers of Italy and Autonomists are attacking Schifani

The Sicilian healthcare system has been used for political purposes. And the health needs of citizens have taken a back seat. The disheartening image emerges from the words of one of the most important allies of the President of the Region Renato Schifani: "We need to get our hands on healthcare immediately – said the regional commissioner of Brothers of Italy, Luca Sbardella – thinking more about Sicilians and less about the parties." Unambiguous words that fall on the already heated ground of the investigation involving the general director of Strategic Planning, Salvatore Iacolino. Now, the allies are pushing and doing so with tones that are anything but relaxed.

For example, the melonian mayor of Catania, Enrico Trantino, has also entered the fray: "In Sicily – he wrote on social media - it seems that politics has lived in lies: not only the ones told, but those that each person acting in a function has convinced themselves of. Because we need to believe - or pretend to believe - that we have no faults and that we are always victims of events. I am not interested – he added - in the judicial fate. I just need to know that those who commanded healthcare trusted a person sentenced to nine years for mafia association, to support 'economic needs and entrepreneurial prospects.'" Words that gradually shift from the judicial universe to that of public affairs: "It would be a first compensatory gesture, on the part of politics, to bring back into the wards the 'children of' who are hidden in the Department despite the shortage of doctors in the wards," writes Trantino, with a clear reference to Giorgia Iacolino, daughter of the investigated official who, the mayor adds later, "I am told returned last December."

But it is clear that the controversy is now entirely political. And if the words of Trantino and those of Sbardella may sound like two (very authoritative, in the party, in reality) clues, the third sounds like proof of a real party line: "For years Iacolino – said national deputy Luca Cannata - exercised enormous power within the Sicilian healthcare system, without adequate countermeasures being adopted, despite the presence of events and behaviors that had already raised strong concerns. The Sicilian healthcare system – he added - can no longer afford wrong appointments," and the gaze is already on those of his province, where the choice of the new managerial commissioner of the Asp of Syracuse is awaited.

But now, the risk is that the Iacolino case could become a real black hole, capable of swallowing Sicilian politics. In fact, aside from the investigative findings on which it seems that even yesterday at Palazzo dei Normanni there was a certain unease, the image that has begun to circulate in the majority circles is that of a palace that is starting to give way piece by piece. "We need to decide – confides a bigwig of the center-right – whether we will let ourselves be worn down for a long time or if we should anticipate the elections." A topic, that of early elections, also brought up by Ismaele La Vardera, during the opposition press conference. Statements that received blatant denials from Sbardella himself ("Unreal scenario") and from Mpa of Lombardo, accused by the deputy of wanting to bring down the government. For the Lombardians, La Vardera "strives to interpret the thoughts of the autonomists and would do well to interpret his own, since he thinks one thing and does a hundred. The coordination – reads the Mpa note - has urged President Schifani to initiate a radical process of recovery in the government and in the bureaucratic apparatus. He has the authority to carry it out and certainly will not lack the strong and unconditional contribution of the autonomists." In short, action must be taken before everything collapses. "Early elections? For now, it is political fantasy," explains another bigwig of the center-right who then adds: "For now, indeed."