“I don’t think that a center-left without Giorgio Gori can do better and more than what it did with him. I think it’s time to change and move on with the center-right.” Carlo Saffioti, leader of Forza Italia and aspiring deputy mayor of Bergamo in the event of a victory for the centre-right, speaks thus in view of the next administrative elections.
What is your opinion on Giorgio Gori’s ten years at the helm of the city?
“I am not among those who demonize the Gori administration. The centre-left, in ten years, has done what it could do for better or for worse. The candidate to succeed him, Carnevali, is now highlighting a whole series of issues that she intends address such as safety, traffic, culture and street furniture. In fact, it is making the list of what the outgoing administration has not done”.
Do you think the mayor allowed himself to be too distracted by national issues?
“In recent months he has certainly been thinking about Europe. There has been the feeling that even the year in which Bergamo was the capital of culture has been lost. A lot of image, but little substance which is a bit reminiscent of the style of the former Councilor for Culture of Rome, Renato Nicolini”.
What is Bergamo’s main problem still unsolved?
“Safety. Everyone says it: from the elderly to students who are afraid to go to the station or go out in the evening. Secondly, the road system given that Bergamo, despite being a small city, has the traffic of a metropolis and this is truly a paradox. Finally, there is a problem of street furniture and integration of new urban developments with the existing city, moving towards the new, but without distorting the city. We then need a cultural policy that is not provincial but that enhances what is done in our city which has always been rich in artists”.
What can be the solutions to the traffic problem?
“On the one hand, it is not necessary to create ZTL areas or pedestrian areas as an ideological choice. We need to take initiatives useful to solving the problem and not to ideologies, leaving aside the persecutory approach towards private traffic. Our proposal is that of hearing from a pool of technicians to get out of the paradox that makes it impossible to shoot in Bergamo.”
What is your recipe for safety?
“Be aware of the seriousness of the problem and the importance of finding a solution. We must apply the slogan of the former mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani, “zero tolerance” towards violators through coordination of all police forces, including urban surveillance and greater use of cameras and bodies such as the national police association. We need 360-degree action.”
Finally, a question about football. What is the relationship between Berganmo and Atalanta?
“There is a very intense relationship between the city and Atalanta. In Bergamo they don’t say ‘I’m going to the stadium, but I’m going to Atalanta’, a symbolic team of the city. Yesterday, unfortunately, there was a great disappointment but we are aiming for the European final.
The love for Atalanta is so great that the people of Bergamo even willingly accept having the stadium in the center of the city.”
