“The right in government, whether national or regional, always has the same obsession: occupying seats.” The attack by the secretary of the PD, Elly Schlein, puts the seal on the political brawl that broke out around the appointment of Luca De Fusco as general director of the Teatro di Roma: a decision taken by the board of directors of the Foundation in the presence of the three members indicated by the Region and the Ministry of Culture, in the absence of the president, Francesco Siciliano, and the councilor indicated by the City Council, Natalia Di Iorio, and immediately described by the opposition as a new bombardment by the Meloni executive in matters of culture. “We have exceeded the alarm level,” adds Schlein. “De Fusco is not right-wing,” responds the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano: for his appointment as general director of the Teatro di Roma “a meritorious choice was made.”
The new director “has a great deal of experience. And when he was young he was politically active in the socialist party. He is not right-wing, he is an expert,” Sangiuliano reiterates, convinced that it is necessary “to allow those who are not part of the predominantly Roman circles to be able to express themselves in the cultural sphere”. Furthermore, he specifies, it was “an external commission” that selected the three candidates and the board of directors, where I am represented by a single member, I am not the dominus, chose the most meritorious profile. “Everything is in order,” , reiterates the manager of FdI Cultura Federico Mollicone, who speaks of an appointment “legitimized by the control bodies and by budgetary emergencies.” The case reaches Parliament: the very role that Mollicone is said to have played in the matter pushes the Democrats to announce an urgent question to Minister Sangiuliano, while Mayor Roberto Gualtieri prepares to challenge the resolution.
Meanwhile, Siciliano again points the finger at the methods of De Fusco’s appointment, with a “blank delegation” assigned to a council member – despite his prerogatives as president – to define the details of the contract and, above all , the remuneration of the new general director, “150 thousand euros, in addition to the administrators’ fees): an “exorbitant” figure and “almost triple the “68 thousand euros” received so far by De Fusco in the Catania building . “I invited all councilors and mayors to intervene and desist from the objective described above, otherwise all subsequent actions will be evaluated,” warns Siciliano. “We will oppose this unacceptable act of arrogance in all forums,” Gualtieri reiterates. “It was an absolutely legitimate act. responsible choice,” responds the vice president of the Theatre, Danilo Del Gaizo, indicated by the Lazio Region. “The Foundation cannot function without a general director,” it would be “paralyzed without the administrative and also artistic management body, which is more important.”
Everything is also fine for Mollicone, who puts the Sicilian management in the spotlight: “Because of him, the Teatro di Roma is in temporary operation and risks losing ministerial funding, without which the budget balance would not be possible Hence the appointment. “Given the rebellious attitude of the representatives of the City Council, the deputies decided urgently,” underlines the exponent of the FdI, claiming for himself, as “the first institutional position in the cultural sector of Parliament,” ” the task of supervision “together with the Culture Commission, in all stable theaters and cultural institutions.” A role disputed by the Democratic Party, which with Matteo Orfini accuses Mollicone of “improper interference” and with Irene Manzi of having “placed Sangiuliano as commissioner.”
According to the democratic reading, the exponent of Fratelli d’Italia would have imposed himself on the minister, who could have supported the name of Onofrio Cutaia, current commissioner of the Maggio Fiorentino, to free up a position for Carlo Fuortes, the former director general of Rai was without charge after the judiciary rejected his nomination in San Carlo. Artists and actors also take to the field in the clash of these hours: from Matteo Garrone to Lino Guanciale and Elio Germano, from Maddalena Parise to Vinicio Marchioni sign an open letter in support of a shared election for the Teatro di Roma, while a Garrison of workers, headed by the Councilor for Culture of the Capitol, Miguel Gotor, in front of the Argentina theater, announces an assembly and mobilization initiatives.