by Cecilia Gallotta
“Vote who you want”. Those spoken by Mimmo Lucano are not words of false modesty: the three-time mayor of Riace, candidate for the European elections and again as first citizen of his city, has genuine words for the public who on Sunday in Ferrara could not wait to shake his hand on the occasion of his arrival in support of Fabio Anselmo.
“I live this wait peacefully: whether I win or not nothing will change me on a personal level. I will continue to be a political militant, who chases ideals and not armchairs. This is why I don’t have slogans ready to convince those who ask me why they should vote for me.”
Moreover, the figure of Lucano needs no introduction: his legal case following the so-called ‘Riace Model’ which led to a sentence of 13 years and 2 months – canceled only a couple of months ago – precedes it.
“I think that many expectations have been created around me – states Lucano – because when you are a victim of judicial injustice a sort of aura is created in public opinion that places you as a protagonist, but I assure you that I do not have a special merit, I did what any person with humanity should do.”
And in the room in Piazzetta Cacciaguida the Calabrian candidate “is not the only one to have faced judicial odysseys” as Anselmo points out, looking at Ilaria Cucchi with emotion and inviting Lucano not to feel guilty about this. “We know this well, we have faced seven years of bad trials and 160 hearings. We grew old in courtrooms. But the tenacity in wanting to see justice triumph is what still keeps us here. To want to get involved, to want to get involved in politics.”
The president of Cittadini del Mondo Adam Atik also expresses his opinion on the issue of reception and migrants, at the center of the Lucan legal case, speaking of the Cutro 2 decree, “which beyond the Bossi-Fini and the damage it had already caused, creates situations of paradoxical irregularities: people in possession of special protection, in fact – he explains – cannot have the conversion into a work residence permit, even if they have obtained a permanent contract. An unacceptable situation as much as the absence of a clear information protocol in the issuing of such denials”.
The case of Cutro is, according to Lucano, “the lowest point reached by the Italian government, because they still have to explain to us why they called the Guardia di Finanza instead of the Coast Guard, and they still have to tell us what the residual loads mean. The Riace Model is an imperfect model, which model it is not: it is an alternative born spontaneously, in which I did not consider the problem of documentation as a priority. I think this is what sets us adrift: the fact that asking for documents is the first thing we think of, even when faced with obviously more important situations. You know, sometimes, bureaucracy kills.”
And then, after Lucano timidly admits his preference for a possible victory in his Riace rather than at the highest levels, Anselmo is left with only an exhortation, accompanied by a warm and heartfelt applause from the public: “We want you in Europe, Mimmo. Precious people like you are needed there.”
