Minus fifty-one: on May 1st Cagliari dissolves the vote in Sant'Efisio for the 368th time. And when the Festival is just under two months away, few other times has the choice of Alter Nos been so uncertain and complicated. A choice that the mayor normally makes between March and April (in 2023 Roberto Mura was indicated on March 21) and which this year, due to some variables, is shrouded in mystery. In fact, the early end of the municipal administration and the consequent dissolution of the Council weigh heavily: on May 1st Paolo Truzzu will no longer be mayor of Cagliar i, the mayor will in fact have already resigned because he will have been proclaimed elected to the Regional Council (a circumstance which should occur within the next two weeks). Hence the doubts: given that the Alter Nos, a figure who embodies the union between religiosity and municipality, is a choice at the total discretion of the mayor, can Truzzu appoint a councilor who on May 1st, without a Council, will no longer be in office? Or will he have to turn to an administrative figure? The only similar precedent was in 2019 when the former mayor Massimo Zedda, who also resigned, chose Raffaella Lostia, a municipal official. A representative of the Municipality but not a political exponent, therefore.
No candidates
Assuming that the mayor can appoint a political exponent, a councilor or councilor, a councilor or councilor (less likely), one fact is certain: all those who will be candidates in the next municipal elections in June are out of the running. Paolo Truzzu has repeated it to his people on more than one occasion, "no candidates", and this criterion cuts off the majority of councilors.
Who enters and who leaves
The game of "papabili" turns out to be complicated, and the "roses" of names are full of thorns. The lawyer Antonello Angioni, for example, (Solinas Group president) could (in theory) be one of the first choices. He is not a candidate and is certainly a high profile figure, a lover, historian and enthusiast of the Feast of Sant'Efisio: he, for example, has documents that would anticipate the history of the dissolution of the vow to four years before 1657, when the plague did not it had arrived in Cagliari but had already hit other areas of the island. It is true that Angioni has always been very close to the mayor's positions (a point in his favour) but it is equally true that he is part of a group (created by the men of the outgoing regional governor) which in the last two years has created quite a few problems. We will see.
All (or almost all) plausible names face major obstacles, some apparently insurmountable. For example: Salvatore (Toto) Sirigu, in FdI quota, not being a candidate, could he be chosen? “Difficult,” some say. Antonello Floris would also be part of the mayor's party: the engineer has just been elected to the Regional Council and is therefore not up for re-election. "Possible but unlikely." Then there's Alessandro Balletto (now mixed): «As for Floris, possible but unlikely». If the choice fell on a councilor (Viviana Lantini was nominated in the past) there could be two names in the running: Alessandro Guarracino (Soil Hygiene), very close to the mayor, and Maria Dolores Picciau (Culture), surprisingly chosen by Truzzu in first reshuffle in the council.
Umberto Ticca's stock prices are very high: the chartered accountant, exponent of the Reformers (just elected regional councilor) is a high profile figure: he is on the list of possible candidates for mayor, he is young, competent, loyal. A figure with an institutional profile, therefore. At Palazzo Bacaredda he gathers consensus across the board, both among centre-right and centre-left councillors. Ticca remains a "strong" name, in short. Provided that in the end Truzzu's choice does not fall on a "technician", an employee of the Municipality as Massimo Zedda did 5 years ago.
But. Mad.
