Onorato’s battles: in Rome against Ruffini, in Sicily against ‘Scateno’

Rome. It’s the traffic jam in the city centre, a very busy spot where tempers are running high. Let’s start with Alessandro Onorato, who publicly professes his admiration for Ernesto Maria Ruffini. Next comes Bruno Tabacci, the Centro Democratico politician who supports Ruffini and refuses to grant the party symbol to Onorato, and finally we come to the socialist Enzo Maraio, who will lend his support to the Roman councillor by granting him the party symbol.

So let’s return to him, Onorato, who, with majestic, almost swaggering pride, repeats: “But who wants Tabacci’s symbol? Tabacci himself is the symbol of a worn-out political system!” (in short, he’s calling him a bit of an old-timer). He then adds: “I’m not the son of MPs, am I!” (Ruffini, on the other hand, is: the son of Attilio, a Christian Democrat minister). And again, he continues: “I’m not part of the elite!” (unlike Ernesto, the grandson of the bishop and cardinal of the same name from Palermo: more of a papist family than part of the elite).

And so here we have the gridlock in the centre, it was said, where any “respect for Ruffini” is lost amid the tension. A key (though not centrist) member of parliament from the Five Star Movement tells us that relations between the two are dire. That Giuseppe Conte, on the other hand, will always side with Onorato. Even if Onorato, at times, has “delusions of grandeur”.

So Conte will always be by his side, then. But will he really be there, from the centre to the outskirts? Will he be there from the Rome of the Ruffinis of yesteryear to the islands of the Catenos, known as the ‘Scatenos’?

In Sicily, too, in fact, the centre is in a right state. For the past few days, the former mayor of Messina, Cateno De Luca – better known as ‘Scateno’ due to his dishevelled appearance – has been posting on Facebook against the Roman councillor. One post, two posts, three posts. By the fourth post, Onorato, rather than playing dead – a lump of inert matter – does what one should never do. Onorato responds. But, before reading them, let’s recap.

The leader of the centrist bloc ‘Sud chiama Nord’ is standing for the presidency of the Sicily region. Neither on the right nor on the left, Cateno – known as ‘Scateno’ – finds his arch-rival not in a brother… but in his own son. ‘Godson’, he calls him on Facebook. The man is Ismaele La Vardera. In other words: the brother of Onorato (founder of the Controcorrente movement, part of Progetto Civico) who is competing against De Luca (and the others) for the presidency of Sicily. Two centres, in short, for a single island. So our ‘Scateno’ scours the internet. “Dear Onorato,” he writes, “to stop you from continuing to spout ‘nonsense’ at me…, I’m issuing you with a public challenge: you choose the day, time, venue and moderator, and we’ll face each other in the open.” Alfio and Turiddu. “What are you going to do? Accept the challenge or run off to ask Giuseppe Conte for help?” Duels of honour.

Onorato, who is neither Sicilian nor Sican but a true Roman, gives him a taste of his own medicine: “In my opinion, with a bit of lithium you might stabilise yourself.” Madness and isolation. “You’re obsessed with me!” Recounting his version of events, the leader of Progetto Civico insinuates: “It was you who asked all the centre-left leaders for the position of candidate for President of the Region.” Finally, he levels the accusation: “Faced with our refusal, you switched to the right and kowtowed to La Russa.” The councillor even suggests that “Scateno” is in contact with Vannacci. Who knows.

But the question at this point is: who, then, will Giuseppe Conte speak to? With whom will the former prime minister form an alliance in Sicily? What we do know is that Onorato is to Patroclus as Conte is to Achilles, with Bettini in the role of Nolan (or rather, Homer). And so, given the circumstances, will the Rome councillor defend Conte? If so, will he go so far as to back La Vardera and abandon, in Sicily, the broad coalition in favour of isolationism? That seems to be the trajectory. And so, from Rome downwards, the traffic jam is getting ever thicker, the roads ever narrower. It was supposed to be the centre, yes, but by now we are approaching the south of the world.