Andrea Pezzotta at 67 years old he engaged in his second election campaign, but compared to the one won alongside Franco Tentorio in 2009this sees him with the aim of sitting in the same office occupied by his uncle Giacomo between 1966 and 1979. A heavy legacy. «When I couldn’t decide whether to run, I went to the cemetery, where my father and my uncle rest in the same grave, as if waiting for a sign. That day there was a small earthquake.” Pause and light laughter: «I wonder if it meant “yes” or “no”».
What have you discovered about politics in recent months?
«That what they tell you doesn’t always correspond to what they think. The beauty is the relationship with people, even with those who don’t think like you. The comparison is always stimulating, and for this reason I have never shied away from it.”
And what did you discover about Bergamo that you didn’t know?
«I have always lived and worked in the centre, I discovered the neighborhoods and their strong sense of belonging».
Many promises are made during the election campaign.
«If you promise that you will do everything they ask of you, one minute after the election you find yourself stuck. I have made it a rule not to make promises, it’s the wrong thing to do. I only promise the utmost effort to listen to the problems and to return to the neighborhoods if I am elected mayor, which the previous administration did not do. Gori and those of his council have disappeared. Carnevali makes promises that would require a much higher budget than he has. He talks about 50 more policemen, two and a half million would be needed. As well as aid for young couples or cuts in bus tickets. Economic resources are not infinite.”
You talk about filotto, that is, having the center-right in the Municipality, Region and government to get help. Does this mean that if the centre-left wins there will be no aid to Bergamo?
«If something has to be done for the community, political color must not come into play. But having personal relationships, telephone numbers, emails, has an impact. I saw the results with Calderoli, who I hadn’t seen since we were in class together in middle school. It will be like this when we ask for the military for the station area.”
If Carnevali asked for them, wouldn’t they arrive?
“The problem is that she really doesn’t ask for them.”
He says he will turn to super experts, for example for traffic.
«That is a subject that is studied at university. In Pontesecco if there had been a technically trained person it would have been better.”
But the address must be political: do you want cars in the center or not?
«The problem is the cars of those coming from outside, so it is necessary to allow them to leave the cars in the immediate suburbs, like at Reggiani, and then move by public transport. But parking has to be cheap and the bus has to be fast, you can’t take an hour. You cannot, like Gori, establish bans without first giving alternatives.”
Preferential lanes, for or against?
«Favourable if they are like that of the eBrt, the electric buses for Dalmine, a project that makes absolute and shareable sense. But those that last 100 meters and then end horrify me.”
The city secretary of the League contested the eBrt, to the point of asking for the project to be cancelled.
«I didn’t talk about it with him, but it’s legitimate to have different opinions. I talked about it with Carlo Mazzoleni of the Chamber of Commerce and I found the project convincing.”
The center-right has always contested limited traffic zones, pedestrian zones, cameras. So if you win you will cancel some of these measures?
«The 30 zones are the emblem of the ideological attitude towards roads. They must be placed in particular areas, but just placing a stamp on the ground is useless. The bumps are more useful.”
Give the example of a Zone 30 to be eliminated.
«Now I can’t think of a specific case. But overall the ideological choice of a Bergamo with 80% of 30 zones needs to be reviewed, without looking at the characteristics of the road.”
She doesn’t promise but remains vague in many things.
«I wrote the program trying to establish the actions I hope for as a person. Then on certain things, such as the restoration of free parking on holidays, the consequences on the budget must be assessed. I don’t make promises that I can’t keep, it’s a matter of seriousness.”
What difference would there be between a Pezzotta as mayor and a Carnevali as mayor?
«In some cases the programs overlap, the problems are the same. But I presented mine a month before: I’m not saying he copied it, but he read it. And it has taken more decisive action on safety. But theirs is not a program, it is a report, a list of things they could have done and don’t do. Instead of sending the police to measure the terraces, send them out onto the streets, into difficult areas.”
Is there a difference in approach to security?
«According to them, listening is fundamental, understanding the causes of delinquent phenomena. I agree but I say: if someone commits a crime, let’s first stop them and then try to understand the problem.”
You often talk about a city in disarray, which perhaps does not correspond to the perception of the citizens.
«The citizen has a perception of what is happening around him. There are friends who criticize me about this, but they live downtown. The suburbs have a different perception, it is there that I feel the desire to make a change, they feel like they have been rejected by the outgoing administration. Let’s think about the problem of homelessness, which affects the whole city, even the airport. This doesn’t happen at Linate. They are people who need to be helped but we are not the reception center for all of Italy. I discussed it with the authorities, they told me: in Santa Maria Capua Vetere it is worse. So even Gaza is worse, what does that mean? If it’s not drifting, there was a lack of attention.”
We hear people say: I would vote for Pezzotta but I have doubts about those around him.
«When I hear it said, I reply that it is the indifference of those who do not know. We have many quality people. And I don’t want to hear about anti-fascism, my grandfather ended up in prison because he had argued with the mayor.”
Maybe someone in the coalition has some problems with anti-fascism.
“If any idiot has any nostalgia, make do, I’m light years away and fascism is dead and buried.”
It seems that she is the moderate face and leaves the dirty work, the more polemical attacks, to others.
«They tried to make me be more populist. But I replied: I am what I am, I wouldn’t be credible.”
From social media we have learned that you should leave her alone if she is hungry or has a headache, and if it is late and the guests don’t leave she puts on her pajamas.
«My wife has more views than me on social media. Maybe she should have run.”
One argument of your opponents is that you would continue to be a lawyer so you would be a part-time mayor.
«There is someone who writes this to me every day on Instagram. I have a firm with six lawyers and that will be able to continue, I will give the Municipality all the time it needs. I say this forcefully. Maybe in the evening instead of going to see the opera on Raffaella Carrà I will go and study the files.”
What message would you give to an undecided voter?
“We and they have similar proposals, except that ours are credible and theirs are not.”
In what sense?
«Carnevali is now trying to communicate an image of a moderate person, but in my opinion it is a mask to attract a certain electorate. Then I see that they will reinstate some of the outgoing councilors. I have been councilor for urban planning, it is a position that involves considerable interests. If you do it for a long time, you create familiar relationships that don’t go well. You have to be independent. And then for a long time you lose enthusiasm. It is true that we must not destroy everything that a previous council has done because continuity on certain issues is important, but it is also essential that there is a replacement. Politics is a service, not a profession.”
