CREMONA – Bitter awakening for the Cremonese center-right. The words of Luciano Pizzetti, former senator of the Democratic Party and leader of the civic list in support of Andrea Virgilio, Cremona sei tu, they hit the mark: lack of clarity of contents, circularism and a ‘double face’ attitude on the issues of the new hospital and the Cremona-Mantua motorway. The sender is Pizzettiwho like a sniper hits where it hurts most. The recipient is Alessandro Portesani, hit hard by the former senator’s assault. The exchange of words began with Pizzetti’s hope of the opening of a new political season thanks to Virgilio, a stimulus, in short, to a change of pace compared to the ten years of Galimberti’s reign.
Now Pizzetti reveals that Portesani wanted to meet him three times: «In all three circumstances – explains Pizzetti – Portesani told me that if I changed my mind and ran for mayor he would support me with his own list».
Portesani’s opening to the centre-left before becoming the flagship candidate of the opposing faction is nothing new, yet Pizzetti’s words leave their mark on a topic that had already annoyed quite a few exponents and militants of the Cremonese centre-right. For many, this ‘double oven’ policy – to use a primo-republican expression that came into vogue a few years ago – has left them in their stomachs. Not a mystery: the Giovetti – Security and common sense for Cremona list, led by the former Forza Italia doctor from Cremona, was born in the wake of the internal controversies on the right over Portesani’s candidacy.
After a few hours of internal turmoil, however, it is Portesani himself who tries to put out the spark that risks blowing everything up, explaining: «Initially I assessed whether there were meeting points with the centre-left, but when I understood that the Democratic Party would support the past, represented by Virgilio and Galimberti, I decided to lean towards the centre-right. My list is called ‘News in Cremona’ and not ‘Continuity in Cremona’. I have always ignored or rejected any proposal to go to the left.” And regarding the meetings with Pizzetti, according to Portesani «there was no ‘political jam’ operation, a subject of which the former undersecretary is so fond. Unlike what Pizzetti states – specifies Portesani – there were two meetings and not three. He proposed to me a third group of virtuous people, an alternative to the two sides, with him as the candidate for mayor. It is he who should clarify his positions »and dismisses the words of the former senator as «yet another attempt at distraction to protect his ‘political protégé’ Virgil from the inconsistency of his political proposal».
Ferruccio Giovetti and Alessandro Carpani
Regarding the motorway and the new hospital, Portesani underlines that «the centre-right is in favour, but we believe that the citizens of the No to the new hospital movement must be listened to, because they represent the requests of six thousand people, which cannot be ignored, as Galimberti-Virgilio did and as Pizzetti-Virgilio want to do”. And if the discontent in the centre-right can be said to have subsided – for the moment -, Giovetti’s ‘alternative’ centre-right goes on the attack: «The summary of the Cremonese electoral campaign – he comments on social media (Facebook) Alessandro Carpani, former city secretary and municipal councilor of the Northern League, now among the Giovetti supporters -: on the one hand the candidate of Fdi, Lega and Fi, who proposes himself to the left, before choosing the centre-right. On the other the Giovetti list, where both I and Ferruccio Giovetti we obviously declined the requests to enter the Pizzetti civic hall”.
Giovetti himself confirms this, adding more: «That Portesani had offered to support Pizzetti as mayor was an open secret – comments the doctor, candidate for mayor ‘against’ the formal centre-right –: everyone knows that Portesani met the center-left before the center-right. The center-left sought me and Carpani to run with them. We declined the invitation because we have very different ideas from the people of the left, despite my personal esteem for Pizzetti.” Meanwhile, the ‘meme’ from Carpani, with a Portesani-superman, champion of the Democratic Party, leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the centre-right.
