Coronavirus, De Luca in consiglio: "Hospeso sangue per salvare Campania dal disastro, vergognatevi''

"I express my utter contempt for those who intervened in this debate, offending the dignity of Campania." Regional President Vincenzo De Luca spoke after nearly four hours of debate in the Regional Council, convened via video conference for a briefing from the governor on the coronavirus. The discussion was made public only a few hours after the session ended, given the lack of a livestream that usually accompanies all sessions. For about ten minutes each, councilors from each group were able to express their opinions after more than two months of absence from debate. These questions clearly did not sit well with the regional council president. "The regional government," De Luca says, "has shed blood to save this region. We've held on only thanks to the extraordinary commitment of doctors, nurses, and public employees, and then, if I may say so, because there was a president who shed blood from morning to night. I want to discuss matters with men of intellectual honesty, not those who ignore the facts. You should be ashamed, and I won't argue with you: as the philosopher Bacon said, stupidity is not an argument." De Luca defends his decisions, dismissing criticism and launching a show-stopping speech against the entire opposition. "Your interventions," he says, often raising his voice, "are like Totò's letters, conceived and written months ago, not during the emergency. Unbearable demagogy. I'm not speaking here as a member of the center-left, but who cares about the center-left? I speak as a man who wants to collaborate with men of good faith; I don't care about the center-right, the center-left, the pipipi, or the pipipa." On closer inspection, many of his criticisms are aimed at the center-right, guilty of having criticized "the miracles we've performed. We're the only Region that has a 1 billion euro social economic plan and some councilors criticize? Before, the litany was to think about the poor and the economy, so what? An eminent statesman in this council told me that we shouldn't support the passive economy but the active one. Active-passive are ambiguous concepts, but what does that mean? They present themselves as the center-right, while I present myself as De Luca, I'm nothing anymore. You took away two hours of my time to make other ordinances in view of May 4th." Finally, a thought for his majority colleague Tommaso Casillo, who chaired the session. "I see Casillo's face. President Casillo is all nice and tanned. Evidently the quarantine has done you good: while you're living the good life, I'm pale, like an office rat who has to suffer." Source: Dire Agency Subscribe to Repubblica: https://s.repubblica.it/scopridipiu . Podcasts, investigations, newsletters, and much more.