Bologna, 4 June 2024 – “A Stefano Bonaccini we wish you well. We will open it for you on Thursday 6 June Unity celebration of the Two Madonnas, one of the most beautiful moments of this electoral campaign. You can’t do more than that.” Mayor Matteo Lepore downplays the controversy over the failure to invite the governor and president of the Democratic Party, leaders of the North East, to the initiative organized at Benassi Clubtemple of the big party that was.
An initiative dedicated to candidati dem of the Schlein wing Annalisa Corrado, Antonio Mumolo and Alessandro Zan, but to demonstrate her commitment to supporting the ‘Pres’, she also launches the audience’s applause: “Let’s do it to all the candidates. Also to Bonaccini” who, he says shortly after, “He was an excellent regional president”.
Lepore’s words, however, are all “for the new party”, a Democratic Party that has returned to “fighting injustices” and “also does risky things”. In fact, he returns to the decision to display the flag of Palestine who claims, “even if I know that even among us some did not agree, but the effect of this flag on the new generations is a powerful effect that we must deal with”, as “previous generations did with the Vietnam War.”
The first citizen, then, it is said “proud” of the assist arrived from PD secretary Elly Schlein who made it known that “displaying the flag does not in any way mean supporting terrorism. Making the equivalence between Hamas and the Palestinian people does not help isolate Hamas.” Words that arrived late, but which the mayor still appreciates. In the room there is a plastic representation of the ‘new party’, strictly in accordance with Schlein. The candidates Mumolo and Corrado they arrive by bicycle, accompanied by the dem Michele Campaniello and Mery De MartinoWhile Alessandro Zan, patron of the famous bill against homophobia, blesses Lepore’s choice on the flag and closes the controversy over the lack of invitation to Bonaccini: “Let’s do so many initiatives…”, mantra also repeated by the provincial secretary of the Democratic Party, Federica Mazzoni. At least 300 people in the audience at Benassi, but at the self-financing dinner the seats exceeded 500. “But why is the menu vegan?”, jokes some dems. In fact, even at Benassi, home of the left, but also tagliatelle with ragù, the “new party” instead of tortellini, ranges from asparagus risotto to vegan-style potato and vegetable flan. The former mayor Virginio Merola he jokes about it, while the mayor of San Lazzaro, Isabella Conti admits “that she has become vegan”.
At dinner also the former Sardina Mattia Santori, some councilors, the regional councilor Stefano Caliandro, the dem candidate from San Lazzaro Marilena Pillati and many militants. The secretary of the CGIL of Bologna nods, satisfied, Michele Bulgarelli, which led the banquet with the 4 referendum questions of the union, signed by Corrado. Lots of applause for the candidates of the new course. Corrado insists on the ecological transition “against the denialism of the right”, Zan underlines the need to keep “social and civil rights together”, attacks Matteo Salvini for his words against Sergio Mattarella and the “deafening silence of Giorgia Meloni”while the regional councilor Mumolo claims the battle for “the general practitioner for the homeless”.
