In 67 years Andrea Pezzotta will have been told many things, but perhaps never that he is “a yeah guy”. Yet this is how it was described several times, from the stage at the center-right candidate’s end-of-campaign party, by the presenter Oreste Castagna. Scenography: Piazza Dante. That the presenter, who perhaps lacked a preliminary political framework, defines it as “wonderful” while the candidate, more astutely, says that “perhaps it was better before”, he remembers when he used to come there as a boy and for this reason he underlines that «the squares are beautiful things and must not become cages, as happens a few hundred meters from here».
In the square the police estimated three hundred people for a party which, which started an hour late, included some speeches and then a concert by “Radio 80”, specialized in the decade in which Pezzotta graduated. And in the end the same candidateafter being forced to fiddle with wires to connect the guitar to the headphones, a go on stage. First for the opening riff of «Everybody wants to rule the world» (challenging project for a candidate) and then for «Walk on the wild side». It’s a party, «underlined three times», says Pezzotta. Many candidates are tired, the question that goes around most often, with various predictions and looks from the doubtful and the anxious, is who will win. A few hours earlier, the leader of Forza Italia and deputy mayor in pectore had ended his campaign Carlo Saffioti: «I hadn’t done it for 14 years, since the pre-social era, and I found a lot of difference. But I also saw a lot of desire for participation. Citizens feel the need to be listened to, which means that this hasn’t happened until now.” «The left is unprepared and divided – adds his campaign manager Maurizio Maggioni -. The outgoing administration, which was not from the left but from Gori, never did anything for the suburbs and the people felt abandoned. Instead, I have never seen so many new faces get involved as since Pezzotta took to the field. It’s an epochal change.”
In the square the tables are ready with the sparkling wine and the puff pastry breadsticks but the waiters have been ordered to wait for the end of the speeches. «We must trust people and not administer them from above as the left doesand this beautiful city cannot remain in their hands”, says FdI’s candidate for the European elections from the stage Massimiliano Salini, without missing the obligatory reminder to Atalanta with applause. «Atalanta cannot be exploited for electoral purposes», he says immediately afterwards Lara Magoni, which however refers to the Gori administration. The Northern League senator Massimiliano Romeo shakes the audience: «There are all the conditions for a good result. The candidate knows how to speak to the citizens, we have all the cards to be able to play it. The difference is made by those who believe in it».
Pezzotta had joked in the morning: “I said: I hope to stay alive until the vote, there’s still one day left”. But when she goes on stage first he admits: “I’ve been talking for four months, I don’t know what to say anymore.” And shortly after, while she is saying that “the people of Bergamo need us”, he stops to shed a few tears. «And yes, I wasn’t even moved by Meloni», he adds. He speaks directly to the audience: «I look at you and I see many beautiful people. In recent months I have been among people, I have met many simple people and I have been to many places that I did not know. It was an exciting campaign, no matter what. But you are beautiful, you deserve to win».
