by Rebecca Belli
Valerio Abbate, entrepreneur in the tourism and hospitality sector and real estate agent but also with important political experience behind him, has run again for the Florence City Council for Forza Italia. In fact, he began in 1995 by joining the council of District 1, again with Forza Italia, and in 1999 he entered the City Council for the same party, the youngest councilor elected in large cities, participating as vice president in the Budget and also as a member of the Urban Planning Commission.
In 2004 he was the first of the non-elected with 480 votes and then, for a certain period of time, he chose not to run again to dedicate himself to other activities. For some years he has returned to work within the party in Florence before running again in 2022 in the last political elections for the Chamber of Deputies, again with Forza Italia.
Why did you stand for re-election in the next local elections? Because I feel the need to solve the problems of Florence which, despite several years having passed since my political commitment, have remained the same. In fact, they have even gotten worse. I believe that, thanks to my personal and political experience, I can give my contribution to returning our city to what it was, given that today, after years in the hands of the left, it is only a shadow of its former self.
What do you think is Florence’s biggest problem? I would say safety, a problem that involves the whole city. I live and work in Borgo Ognissanti which is part of the historic centre. An area that has transformed from a flagship into a sort of Bronx. Suffice it to say that in just a few months around forty shop windows have been broken in this street and it has been filled with drug dealers. Going out at night has become dangerous for anyone. This is not the city I want to live in. Everyone, both men but especially women, deserves to live peacefully in a place where they can feel safe and move freely. With my candidacy I want to contribute to getting my city back by restoring order, cleanliness and safety for everyone, even for tourists.
How can this be achieved? First of all, use the municipal police as an instrument of territorial control, deterrence and prevention rather than limiting themselves above all to issuing fines. We believe that a good part of the traffic police should be around the city to carry out these activities. Which the current administration has not done and this has led to degradation and neglect. Otherwise the city will return to being livable for both citizens and tourists.
Do you think the contribution of the police could also be useful? But they also have a different role that affects other types of crimes that need investigation. Instead, it is up to the municipal police to control the territory and deal with petty crime. Obviously there will be moments in which all the police forces will have to interact but above all the citizen wants to see the traffic policeman walking around the streets because this is reassuring as well as being a deterrent for criminals. We need to make better use of what we have before involving others. And this has never been done.
Does this also apply to other areas of Florence? The situation throughout the city is disheartening and today there are very few quiet areas. The quality of life is not comparable to those of ten years ago. There are areas where social degradation also reigns due to the lack of security. Surely there is worse but Florence has transformed from a living room into a landfill and this is not good. We want to bring Florence back to being a livable city, as it was ten years ago, and improve it. It is necessary to recreate the social, economic and tourist fabric. We talk about the center of Florence as the “living room” but we would like the whole city to be one. We must eliminate degradation everywhere, create green spaces, for example rethinking the Cascine, our green lung. But above all it is necessary that each area expresses its potential.
Tourism is important for Florence. What do you think? It is true that tourism is one of our fundamental assets but Forza Italia is convinced that it should be regulated. Let’s take overtourism, that is, tourists who visit Florence in half a day or from morning to evening, like cruise passengers, who arrive by bus, fill the city and economically bring nothing. It is this type of tourism that bothers us, not the various tourist booking platforms and Airbnb. In the latter case these are people who stay in the city for several days hosted in private homes. Obviously rules are needed but this type of tourist enriches the city and its citizens.
Mayor Nardella claims that Airbnb will empty city centers. It’s false. If we look at the flow of residents who have moved from the center we can see that this “exodus” started much earlier due to the lack of services which still does not allow those who want to live there to do so in a comfortable and normal way. We are talking about a lack of parking, the impossibility of often building elevators inside buildings, taking into account the population trend, which prevents people of a certain age from not being able to live on the upper floors and being forced to leave. Not only that, the municipal administration does not allow a privately owned apartment to be rented to tourists. However, it is the same administration that allows multinationals to create hundreds of beds, to intervene on the former Municipal Theater by creating 160 apartments in derogation of the municipal operational plan, allowing them to be rented for short periods. The citizen must do what he wants with his apartments and properties and the administration should have refurbished the hundreds of apartments he owned in recent years to satisfy the waiting lists of those who really need it. Which was not done. Furthermore, it has not even planned new interventions such as public or private project financing, as it did in the past, creating a situation of total inadequacy and inability. So Nardella hides by blaming Airbnb but it was he who did not know how and did not want to manage Florence’s heritage.
Were you among the first to declare that you didn’t want the tramway? The center is a UNESCO area and I remember that in the past the administration wanted to have the tram pass through Piazza Duomo. Now, however, it passes through Piazza San Marco, disfiguring it. I am proud of having been the first in 2001, even before Razzanelli, to inform all the shopkeepers of the center in the affected area of this project. They even gathered in a committee and, together with Forza Italia, held a demonstration at the Palagio di Parte Guelfa with great participation.
What do you think of the creation of the new lines? We are against the tramway because of the way it was built. It is now of an old concept with poles that disfigure the landscape and, for this reason, it is outdated. Furthermore, it is not a versatile infrastructure while we have long been proposing a road-based, electric system that does not need rails or power. A type of transport already used in China, 30 meters long, which can have a changeable route. At least for the tramway that goes to waste in Ripoli we would like to block the project and pay a penalty of around 50 million to the contracting company but we would save around 600.
Another topic that is close to her heart is the protection of Florentine craftsmanship and traditions. We must ensure that certain activities that are part of the history of Florence are helped and enhanced by taking inspiration from other countries as well. In France, for example, certain artisanal productions are supported because they are an important added value from the point of view of tradition and creativity. Those who work in these sectors must have an interest in doing so because, in addition to passion, it allows them to live decently. Today with taxation, rental costs, etc., it is difficult to make ends meet. We need to help these companies and Forza Italia thought about it by presenting the amendment to the Competition decree, approved by the Chamber and the Senate, which intends to protect and enhance the country’s historic commercial establishments and valuable commercial areas, considered a heritage to be preserved as a cultural asset.
Help them in what way? These activities must be supported with a lower tax burden, reducing, among other things, employee-related burdens. Artistic craftsmanship represents our identity and for this reason we must pay particular attention to it. We must protect our tradition so as not to lose it permanently. A cultural and creative heritage that must also be attractive to young people but also profitable. For this reason they must be valorised by our institutions also with dedicated paths and dedicated widespread events. Only in this way will this sector be able to overcome this difficulty.
: “The Florence I would like: quiet, safe and livable”){kind=link}