Pesaro, 19 April 2024 – Pending of the official candidacy for the European elections, Matteo Ricci, pedal (“With your head held high”, he says), towards Rome, where the national PD leadership will meet at the Nazarene on Sunday morning. Among the items on the agenda is the approval of the electoral lists. Translated: yes they will know the names of the Eurocandidates.
Ricci arrived at the start on time, dressed as a cyclist: the Arco Augusto of Fano. The intention of the outgoing mayor of Pesaro is to cover up 316 kilometers in five stages.
Do you feel trained? “No. I have both the muscle bike and the electric bike with me. To look cool I start with the first one and at the first corner I change to the other one.” “Is this ride a way to ease the wait? Ricci, laughs. “No, it’s a journey with a thematic value: with the people I’ll meet along the way I will discuss key issues for the development of Italy, to mend the country and defend it from disintegrating actions such as the bill on differentiated autonomy. Then the theme of sustainability and that of Peace”. But why start from Fano? “We chose the old Via Flaminia which was one of the main roads connecting Rome and the East”.
For Ricci the 316 kilometers to Rome will have the meaning of one “cycling for Peace“. “It would have been better to get to Furlo, the destination of the first stage, along a cycle path. For years an ideological debate, set back by the return of a railway that will never return, has blocked the cycle path project. Why not relaunch this important project instead for the Metauro valley?”. For Ricci “the Region merely demonstrates, in this case too, a short-sighted and nostalgic vision. One of the many failed promises”.
The day on two wheels he saw the arrival in Cantiano, where Ricci was welcomed by the mayor Alessandro Piccini, then an electoral dinner for Mazzacchera mayor in Cagli. With Ricci, a caravan made up of amateur athletes, including the Pink Panther group, covered kilometres. At the center of the discussions between Ricci and Piccini was post-flood management. “In Cantiano, unacceptable delays on resources, procedures and projects. Wake up – observed Ricci to Acquaroli – we need to speed up. A year and a half has passed since the flood that hit our hinterland in 2022. The Marche Region and the extraordinary commissioner Francesco Acquaroli do their part quickly.” Behind the two, the Roman Bridge awaits interventions: “Times have taken too long – observed Ricci –. The bureaucracy is excessive: the rules have not been streamlined as has happened in Emilia Romagna. As far as I can, I will relaunch the issue at a national level”, concludes Ricci. The mayor of Cantiano nods and adds: “The great concern remains that what happened could happen again, because in a year and a half no action has been taken to mitigate the hydraulic risk and the material is not being prevented from continuing to flow downstream.”
