The security debate of Florence is transformed into one dispute towards the present municipal council. Yesterday, in the chapter house of the Basilica of Santo Spirito, the Caponnetto Foundation and the coordination of the city’s civic committees organized the discussion between the mayoral candidates on the subject of safety. Everyone present, except Sara Funaro (centre-left), who in his place sent the councilor for urban safety, Benedetta Albanese.
«This initiative has become almost obvious because all the candidates have included the issue of safety in their programme, including some of our points. For us it is already a victory,” he said Salvatore Calleri of the Caponnetto Foundation, in reference to the committee document which calls for greater integration between institutions, the fight against drug dealing, predatory crimes and degradation, as well as a citizens’ listening table. But after the review of the mayoral candidates, Albanese, who spoke last, did not give satisfaction to the audience: “I’m not here to take stock of what we’ve done: we need to look to the future, not the past,” he said while the audience roared.
His speech, focused on «complexity» of security policies, on the need to have new agents from the Government, compared to the 200 hirings in the municipality made instead by the Municipality, on the proposal to strengthen street educators for unaccompanied minors and on the idea of a different use of security cameras in agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office didn’t like it. So that a downtown resident stood up to ask her, brutally: «You are the Security Councilor, how courageously he comes here to talk about the future of Florence with all the damage you have done so far?”. «The democratic system gives me the courage – was Albanese’s response – In a democratic country, anyone who believes they have something to say has the right to present themselves in front of the electorate, who on the day of the vote will decide who should govern» . A sentence that was greeted by a roar of protests.
Until that moment, the speeches of the mayoral candidates had been welcomed without reservations, with more or less enthusiastic applause. Stefania Saccardi (IV) opened up to the involvement of citizens in a control room on safety in the Prefecture, while Cecilia Del Re (Firenze Democratica) wants to «invest in social security and youth hardship, focusing on the integration of unaccompanied foreign minors». A point on which he took a dig at the Democratic Party, which “did not respond” to the seven priests of Rifredi who complained about the absence of day centers for these children. Lorenzo Masi (M5S) pointed the finger at immigration policies that leave many foreigners without a residence permit, and therefore exposed to illegal work, or blackmail from drug dealing. And he denounced the state of degradation of the Santa Maria Novella station.
Among the most applauded was the centre-right candidate Eike Schmidtespecially when you are sided with Father Giuseppe Pagano, the prior of Santo Spirito, for the criticism received from Palazzo Vecchio (identical reaction from the audience even when Saccardi explained the same concept). Schmidt, who wants to stop drug dealing by also punishing consumers, has done it again full approval when he attacked Nardella: «There is no security by asking for the removal of the police commissioner». Applause also for Dmitrij Palagi (left): «When citizens have a problem, either politics is capable of constructing a response, or it is useless», he said in what seemed to be an implicit reference to the fact that the junta, in terms of security, calls in due to government failures.
