In the city council we return to talking about Piazza Cittadella and the atmosphere becomes heated. So much so that it led to the meeting being closed early. The debate continued heatedly for a couple of hours, but the peak came with the intervention of the PD city councilor, Boris Infantino. A decidedly harsh intervention, with Infantino pointing the finger at the centre-right for their attitude towards the issue of parking, the Citadel and false guarantees.
Boris Infantino’s speech
“Here we see a firing squad against the employees of this Municipality, without realizing that the construction site could have started on April 1, 2021 and instead we are here discussing it. We had to make a new financial economic plan, which is more burdensome than the one concluded in 2021, because in the meantime there was war in Ukraine in 2022 and this caused prices to levitate. So I don’t think anyone can deny me if I say that the increase in costs is due to the administrative incompetence of the centre-right”.
“The political objective of the centre-right is clearly and exclusively to destroy the city and the events of recent weeks demonstrate this. Alternative for Piacenza, I take the liberty of quoting you, leads in this respect a harsh opposition but which is to the merit of the work. The centre-right, however, had never expressed an opinion until today.”
“I believe that in this match in Piazza Cittadella, on the part of the right there is no idea other than that of inaction, of not touching and of doing nothing. So what does he do? Move the discussion to a legal and technical level: the addendum contains clauses that go beyond the limits of the resolution of 31 November 2023, or, I also heard this, the addendum does not have the double signature required for consumer regulation which would also apply to local authorities by virtue of a sentence and is therefore invalid. We hear about peremptory terms, forgetting that it is instead non-substantial procedural terminology, we are talking about a serious breach. Councilor Zanardi explained to us what a warning is and what it isn’t.”
“Why is the discussion moving to this level? And why do they not hesitate to attack leading officials with violence worthy of a better cause? Intimidate managers […] why are you doing this? Why did we have to witness a public trial in which a scapegoat was sought at all costs? It’s very easy to reveal why. Basically, by not being able to weaken the political party, you are tending to weaken the management. Because, we all know, it is the managers who carry the organization forward. And therefore I confirm what I said in the Commission and I reiterate it forcefully: the leaders are those who are capable of giving political direction and you, the centre-right, in your action of feverish destructiveness are thinking that by attacking the management you will succeed in your aim, that is to destroy the city. The city wants the works to be done, the traders want it and the productive classes want it. Don’t allow yourself to attack the leaders. I repeat, do not allow yourself to attack the leaders.”
At the end of his speech, Infantino asked for the council to be suspended.
“Mine are political discussions and therefore, in light of this, we believe that the conditions for participating in this City Council are no longer there and therefore I ask for suspension”.
Patrizia Barbieri’s speech
Patrizia Barbieri took the floor from the centre-right benches and in turn harshly attacked Infantino.
“I would really like to intervene to respond point by point because here, if anyone has discredited it, it was you by hitting the centre-right by saying a lot of stupid things that should be answered. So I also find it very convenient that you are now asking for a suspension.”
“The request to hear from the managers came from you. You! You made us watch this little theater which, I mean, in the first session was even embarrassing for some of you. Some of you also said you were dismayed because it had started as if it were the Nuremberg trial of someone. Then thanks to Trespidi we brought the discussion back together in the right channel. But you asked for it: we didn’t even want to hear from the managers.”
“Today you tell us that we must not talk about politics, that we must talk about trust, then you first make political attacks. You accuse us of things we didn’t do: none of us ever wanted to say anything against a manager, against managers.”
The centre-left councilors asked for a suspension to organize a meeting of the group leaders, but Barbieri’s response was a flat refusal: “I won’t come to your group leaders. Let’s not make people laugh.”
In the end the suspension was voted favorably and after the 10 minute suspension many councilors did not return to the chamber causing the quorum to lapse. The meeting therefore closed prematurely.
The note from Alternativa Per Piacenza
Democracy lost today in Piacenza. A city council meeting was scheduled today to discuss the Piazza Cittadella affair.
Council that could make use of what was heard in the commissions that were held, always on the same topic, last week, one of which with the presence of one of the main protagonists, the CEO of Piacenza Parcheggi.
And with the reading (hopefully) of the copious documentation provided which, until now, was not available to the councillors. It is superfluous to recall all the stumbles and difficulties of this affair, in particular with the issue of the false guarantee (on which, let us remember, there is an ongoing investigation).
We therefore expected, and the entire citizenry expected it, a frank, constructive and without hesitation discussion. None of this, also thanks to disastrous management of the board by a President who once again demonstrated all his difficulty in interpreting the role.
Interventions that to define as disappointing is an understatement, considering the story and all the aspects that are known so far, who knows how many surprises could still await us.
Between epic quotes and invitations not to go off topic (a truly tragicomic statement), attempts were repeatedly made to throw the ball into the stands.
Without failing to invite other councilors not to collect acorns from the ground (we remember the animal that has this habit is the pig) and not to accuse the managers, “don’t allow yourself to accuse the managers” it was said.
Specious maneuvers aimed at shifting attention to something else, interrupting the discussion several times, even failing to show up after a suspension in order to blow up the session. Today someone ran away from the confrontation, they were afraid of exercising a democratic principle such as that of the discussion in the city council.
The citizens of Piacenza, represented by the city councilors, were denied a sacrosanct democratic principle. Someone today ran away from democracy.
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