Five questions to the candidates in the next regional elections. The answers of Giulia Marro, candidate for the Green and Left Alliance in support of Gianna Pentenero.
1 – What are the reasons for the candidacy (or re-nomination)?
I have been involved in proactive politics for some time, being among people, creating a network, imagining a safe and supportive society, convinced that it is necessary to consolidate the social pact between the various souls of citizenship. I would like to put my multidisciplinary and international experiences at the service of our Region, convinced that they can be a useful tool for broadening our outlook in a plural sense. Mine aims to be a candidacy made up of concrete actions, of reflection on the processes of building civic coexistence, to strengthen participation, inclusion and understanding of others. I am running because at the center of this regional campaign there are issues that are close to my heart, which I know well and which are interconnected: public health and prevention, addictions, the perception of insecurity in our cities, the housing emergency , the environmental crisis. The solutions of the right on these issues have already proven to be largely unsuccessful, it is time to change course.
2 – What should be the priorities to work on for the next regional administration?
Definitely healthcare: we must oppose the dismantling of public healthcare, which is now clear for everyone to see. Piedmontese healthcare today must not only defend itself from the danger of the privatization of services, implemented in recent years by the right and by Cirio, but must adapt to a society that is changing, and have a more widespread territorial rooting. The model must not be that of the few, luxurious and inaccessible elite hospitals: we want healthcare that reaches everywhere and is among people, which promotes a true society of care. And then there is the urgency of the climate crisis, which affects agriculture, transport, our mountains, our lifestyles. Despite the evidence of what is happening, those who have governed us for the last five years seem not to have noticed the elephant in the room. But it’s not enough: we need to strengthen welfare for the most vulnerable groups, we need to defend the rights of women, LGBTIQ+ people and migrants, under constant attack from the right even in Piedmont, we need to work on youth representation and participation, we need to resolve the housing crisis, we need to invest in public RSAs and nurseries.
3 – Healthcare: what are the main issues to be resolved and what can the Region do?
Immediately ask the government for additional resources to deal with the serious crisis in the Piedmont healthcare system. While the budget of ASO and ASL is deep in the red (at least 200 million euros), there is a dramatic need for new staff, at all levels, starting with basic medicine. That resources be allocated as a priority to reducing waiting lists, promoting preventive diagnosis and desaturating emergency rooms. We need to start the complete reorganization and strengthening of publicly owned territorial socio-health services, we need to complete the creation of digital healthcare, in particular the computerization of personnel management processes and access to bookings. The second line of intervention concerns hospital structures, for which it is necessary to intervene with new equipment, equipment and furnishings, improving their overall efficiency. We must abandon the expensive and ineffective policy of the current administration, based on the construction of new hospitals in collaboration with the private sector, instead directing all the necessary resources towards strengthening local healthcare, both in the city and in the province and in the internal areas, with particular reference to the recruitment of general practitioners and specialists for clinics and health homes.
4 – Transport: what are the main issues to be resolved and what can the Region do?
The adoption of a Sustainable Mobility Plan is necessary which invests in public transport and multi-sharing systems, electric mobility, strengthening of cycling mobility and cycle-pedestrian paths, elimination of architectural barriers, be they physical and/or sensorial, and safeguarding of pedestrians. We want free public transport for those under 30 and for disadvantaged categories. All this involves the strengthening of the regional railway network, with the restoration of sections that are still unused or suspended, the increase in the frequency of passages and the scheduling of the renewal of the rolling stock. Furthermore, we need more efficient public transport at discounted prices for everyone in the internal areas, so as not to create a gap between class A citizens and class B citizens.
5 – What wealth of personal experiences can you make available to Piedmont?
I am in transversal contact with different generations and social contexts. With my training as a social and cultural anthropologist I can bring new methods, perspectives and ideas to the community. I have done this in recent years through my role as councilor of the Cuneo Centro neighborhood committee, as spokesperson for the Cuneo Possibile committee, as a member of the coordination of “Living the Constitution” of the Province of Cuneo. My work activity in a mediation office in Corso Giolitti in Cuneo allows me to accompany foreign people in the infinite process full of quibbles of renewing their residence permit, while at the Immigrant Information Center of the ASL CN1 I work for those who find themselves in a situation of legal irregularity and needs temporary healthcare assistance in order to be treated. I am a humanitarian worker with Doctors Without Borders, with whom I started as a health promotion manager for multiple missions in places tormented by wars and environmental disasters. I am also a socio-cultural operator: I helped found the Zoé in Città Festival, which then led to the birth of the Zaratan Collective, of which I am vice-president, and I collaborate with the ARCI Cuneo Asti committee in associative development and planning. Finally, my role as a freelance journalist and collaborator of La Stampa Cuneo allows me to cultivate the detachment necessary to talk about this changing society of ours. All these experiences give me a transversal and systemic vision of the many problems that concern our cities and our provinces: I want to put them at the service of a region that needs radical change.
