Matteo Salvini’s League was the first centre-right party to formalize the list that will run in the local elections on 8 and 9 June in support of Stefano Zuccarini’s re-nomination as mayor of Foligno. And he did it in the presence of the national secretary of the Northern League and minister of Infrastructure and Transport, who chose the third largest city in Umbria to kick off his tour around Italy. A tour during which he will carry out the Lega’s electoral campaign but also to present his latest book entitled “Controvento”. “A book – he explained to the audience of supporters in the Santa Caterina auditorium in Foligno – which talks about the past, present and above all the future. A book in which we talk about politics, work, security and young people, but in which I wanted to offer Italians – he underlined – also Matteo the father, son, grandson and not only minister, giving an idea of the future that the League has in mind.”
Before going into the merits of the book, however, the deputy prime minister reiterated his support for mayor Zuccarini and also for president Donatella Tesei in view of the regional elections next autumn. “Stefano will win in the first round – he declared -, Donatella will be confirmed and after them there will be others. The goal is to move forward and complete a journey.” Speaking to the press about the Umbrian candidates, Minister Salvini spoke of Donatella Tesei as a governor who “in these five very difficult years has taken Umbria by the hand and brought it to the top places at a national level. I am happy with the work you have done in the Region of Umbria – you continued – and also in the municipality of Foligno. I chose to start from Foligno because there is an absolutely concrete, effective mayor with whom the League and the centre-right can win in the first round because managing well is absolutely fundamental for me”.
As mentioned, the Santa Caterina event was also an opportunity to present the League’s candidates to the city of Foligno, including new entries but also many confirmations, such as the outgoing councilors Decio Barili and Michela Giuliani or the councilors Federica Bagatti, Barbara Betti , Marco De Felicis, Paolo Galli, Mauro Malridotto and Riccardo Polli. Furthermore, the candidacy of Renato Colavita, former president of Foligno Calcio, did not go unnoticed. “Young and old – explained the regional secretary of the League, Riccardo Augusto Marchetti – an expression of the entire territory, of good governance and of a city that has returned to being at the center of the world. We are for tradition – he then added – which also wants to be innovation, but identity and history should never be hidden, they must be encouraged. We want to leave the Democratic Party for another five years in the place where it deserves to be, that is, in the opposition.”
“Five years ago we were taking a gamble – said the outgoing mayor Stefano Zuccarini -: overthrowing such a consolidated tradition was a feat and if so much was achieved it was also thanks to Matteo Salvini”. “From a promise we have become a concrete reality and the Foligno we see today is thanks to all of you” he added, addressing the Northern League councilors and also underlining the climate of collaboration with the other parties of the coalition. “We are preparing for this second round with the awareness of having done everything we could, despite those who were there before, the good ones. They criticize us because we cut many ribbons: they inaugurated projects, we inaugurated concrete things.” Zuccarini then spoke on the South Variante and Scopoli junction, “which – he said – Minister Salvini knows well”. “They are part of the second phase of our mandate – he reiterated –: the southern variant to mend the city, the Scopoli junction to provide an outlet along the route in terms of safety”.
“Matteo Salvini’s presence makes us particularly happy because it shows that our region, although small, is in his thoughts. Together we are working to bring home priority results, such as the Perugia hub and the Media Etruria high-speed station, which I hope will give Umbria breathing space and bring it out of isolation”. Moving on to Foligno, President Tesei referred to it as “an important railway centre”. “Starting next year it will have the Freccia Rossa stop – he continued -, but we have also worked on the implementation of the former Ogr, with funding that will allow it to maintain new trains, which will translate into employment: currently there are 300 units but it is a number destined to increase.”
Returning, however, to Minister Salvini, among the topics touched upon by journalists during the interview that preceded the Foligno meeting, the vice prime minister spoke about General Vannacci and the protests of the last few hours in Naples. “Ideas are responded to with other different ideas. If someone goes to make trouble in Naples or Livorno because they don’t like Vannacci and Salvini and according to some extremists they don’t have the right to speak, it means that we were right to nominate General Vannacci in the name of freedom of thought, speech and writing . Never in my life would I dream of clashing with the police to stop someone from speaking. General Vannacci fought ISIS, he was in Iraq and Afghanistan and I think he is not afraid of some undemocratic demonstrators in Naples.” On his absence from the lists of the European elections, however, he said: “I am the secretary of the League and the minister, let’s say that my days are full: we are defining the details on an issue that concerns all Italians, that is, housing, for the which I have the delegation and the objective is to finally be able to approve, after years of waiting, a regularization of all the discrepancies and problems within the four walls of the home of millions of families, a topic that takes me away hours and hours. So I will have a good electoral campaign in support of many absolutely capable candidates, I am thinking for example of Valeria Alessandrini who I will support with all my being as spokesperson for Umbria in Brussels, but the work I do for the League and for the Italians in the ministry”. Finally, a passage on Europe which will have to be “totally different” and which “cannot be guided either by von der Leyen or by Draghi, nor by the left – he concluded – which destroyed it”.
THE LEAGUE CANDIDATES:
Federica Bagatti46 years old, outgoing councilor
Marco Baldoni61 years old, commercial consultant
Decio Barili61 years old, outgoing councillor
Barbara Bettioutgoing councillor
Francesca Carboniniflight attendant
Davide Chianella29 years old, mechanical engineer
Simona Civile54 years old, works in the family veterinary clinic
Renato Colavita60 years old, entrepreneur
Luigi Coppola75 years old, retired
Marco De Felicisoutgoing councillor
Giampaolo Eleuteri25 years old, student
Marco Farneti57 years old, entrepreneur
Paolo Galli65 years old, outgoing councillor
Michela Giuliani40 years old, outgoing councilor
Cristina Iaquintodoctor of biology
Mauro Malridotto46 years old, outgoing councillor
Natalie Mostarda37 years old, lawyer
Riccardo Polli45 years old, outgoing councilor group leader
Paolo Raneripsychologist-psychotherapist
Sabrina Saccomannilawyer
Dario Signorelli46 years old, founder of the MotoClub Foligno
Paola Silla66 years old, employed
Patrizia Solfanelli69 years old
Stefano Vernaccia32 years old, pharmacist
