Infrastructure, Simplified Logistics Zone and Petrochemicals. Common cultural paths, broad area reasoning and the Chamber of Commerce. The menu of the evening which saw the mayor of Ravenna, as well as president of Upi Michele De Pascale, and the centre-left mayoral candidate Fabio Asnelmo face each other, was quite rich. The audience of the Buontemponi club, the other evening during the event organized by the Democratic Party, had its own tribute of content and was able to listen to some of the points that characterize the program of Alan Fabbri’s challenger to the local elections on issues related to the development of the city. “The merging of the chambers of commerce – admits De Pascale – was a marriage more of interest than of love. But now, we must know how to exploit all the levers to grow what we must increasingly imagine as a single territory”. Just as “the Petrochemical” must be considered unique: the two plants, in fact, are strongly connected and work in synergy. If the geography between the two territories is somewhat generous – essentially a road runs from Argenta to the first Ravenna offshoot – the structural limits “are evident”. “We are close – he continues – but we are very far away: if the interventions on State Road 16, as well as those on the Rimini-Venice railway, which intersects the two cities, do not become a priority, we can forget any reasoning linked to development”. From infrastructure to infrastructure, a passage through the port “in Ravenna”, not of Ravenna, was inevitable. While the regional budget councilor, Paolo Calvano, in the room – the copyright belongs to him – nods, the candidate Anselmo takes the opportunity to underline his line.
“If we want this territory to become more competitive – he states – if we want our city to be more attractive for new business settlements, we need an acceleration on the Simplified Logistics Zone. The government has not yet signed the decree. But it is a priority for our territory: we must look more and more to Ravenna and the port as a strategic hub, just as we should look more to Bologna emerging from the isolation of recent years”. Given the conformation and vocation of the territory, Anselmo – after the ‘initial blessing’ of the dem municipal secretary, Alessandro Talmelli – returns to the topic of agriculture. “Agricultural businesses in the area – he continues – despite some claiming that we are being invaded, are finding it increasingly difficult to find manpower. And this is why the inclusion of migrant people could also represent an added value in terms of competitiveness”. As well as, to some extent, attempting to “reverse the trend of the progressive aging of the population which has become increasingly worrying in the Ferrara area”. If the mayor of Ravenna, reporting his experience relating to the process to start work on the port and the quay, outlines the operational contours of an administrator on the issues of territorial development, the centre-left candidate closes with a hope and a wish. “Because of my work – he concludes – I have always frequented the courtrooms of assize courts. In this, for now brief, political experience I have felt incredible sensations, great energy, great strength. A civic sense that must be cultivated, however these elections go: the city must no longer be afraid, it must wake up.”
