He returned to Sicily in 1909. In 1913 the Italian Socialist Party appointed Barbato as its candidate in the electoral district of Catania against his former ally of the Fasci Siciliani and fellow volunteer in the 1897 war in Greece, Giuseppe De Felice Giuffrida, who had joined the Italian Reformist Socialist Party supporting the Italian invasion of Libya. He lost, but voters also condemned the political attitude of the De Felice Giuffrida abstaining en masse.