Cagliari «It is absurd that those who have created the city’s problems in recent years, or in any case have not been able to solve them, are now returning to the electoral campaign with what they say are winning solutions: if the actors on the field are always the same, why should people still believe their promises? We might as well focus on something new.” The one asking the rhetorical question (and consequently considering herself “the new one”) is Emanuela Corda, 49 years old, in Montecitorio from 2013 to 2022 thanks to the votes of the grillini and now one of the five candidates for mayor of Cagliari in the municipal elections in June. But this time running with Alternativa, i.e. the party (of which you are national president) born in 2021 by parliamentarians expelled from the M5s for the “no” to confidence in the Draghi government.
Emanuela Corda, let’s talk about Cagliari. She says she loves it and hates it at the same time. Please explain.
«I am a true Cagliari native who is very attached to my city, but I can’t bear to see it in these conditions of degradation and so badly managed, especially considering the potential it has at an international level. And this sometimes gives me a contrasting feeling compared to the visceral love I feel.”
What do you criticize the last administrators?
«Well, above all that they locked themselves inside Palazzo Bacaredda without listening to anyone. Who has ever seen them around? When have they ever really confronted the citizens?
What is the most urgent problem to address?
«The first, certainly, is that Cagliari is split into two sections, with the peripheral area totally separated from the context of the urban centre. It’s as if there was a wall separating the two realities. I was recently in the popular neighborhoods of Is Mirrionis and San Michele and I saw a painful situation, no longer acceptable, with places of drug dealing and child prostitution. The truth is that there is a lack of sewage systems, paving and street lighting. Not to mention the area of Sant’Elia buildings: there I saw scenes that are no longer seen even in the bombed neighborhoods of Beirut. It is clear that petty crime proliferates in such abandoned areas. Those buildings should be completely renovated by entrusting the work to those who take care of it seriously, not as they are doing in Via Roma.”
By the way, what do you think of the many open construction sites?
«What any sensible person thinks: they go in slow motion, you know when the work starts, but you don’t know when it ends. Clearly they must be closed as soon as possible, trying to get involved during construction to avoid any havoc. It is also urgent to verify whether the companies entrusted with these works are acting correctly, including within the timescales. I do not think so. And if the citizens give us their trust, we will start examining papers and projects carefully.”
How do you imagine the tourism revival?
«Cagliari’s tourist vocation must be encouraged without compromising the quality of life of those who live in the city all year round. This is why development models for a tourist economy must be promoted that generate real income and are not just functional in creating chaos and bivouacs until late at night.”
Then he dreams of the tax-free city.
«We want to carry forward the requests related to advantageous taxation by positioning ourselves as a credible and determined interlocutor with the other institutional levels that have legislative power on the matter».
