“Civitavecchia deserves more. It deserves sustainable development that respects the environment, aims at social well-being and is transparent.” Thus begins the appeal to vote for mayoral candidate Paolo Poletti a few hours before the municipal elections.
“It deserves a safer city – continues Poletti – with a social network ready to intervene in favor of the most vulnerable. It deserves a cleaner city, with welcoming and well-kept streets, pedestrian areas and car parks.
But to do this, politics must change, men, women and ideas. Entire sectors such as agriculture and fishing are waiting to be relaunched, they must be attracted with simplified procedures and packaged competitive services.
In this short time I have tried to describe Civitavecchia as a new city, illustrating ideas, analyzing projects and initiatives together with voters, trying to give it the national momentum and potential that are its own. I listened more than explained, I felt with my heart rather than understood with reason.
I was born in Civitavecchia. For many years, work took me far and it doesn’t matter if mine was a somewhat special job at the top of the Guardia di Finanza and then in the state apparatus. Even then, some of my colleagues told me that I wore Civitavecchia beneath my general’s ranks. Maybe because my mother chose to stay here to live. I left at 18 after finishing Guglielmotti high school to embrace life in the academy. And like all mothers she wasn’t very happy, but she knew how to pretend. And when I returned to her I saw my city go out like a candle.
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” that phrase from Kennedy marked an era for the young people of my generation. He invites us not only to imagine a better world (that’s not enough), but to directly take part in the change.
This is how I accepted the proposal to run for mayor, to make my contribution to change.
All this will not be completed in the next hundred days. Nor will it be in the next thousand days and this is why so much of my attention will be directed towards making young people protagonists.
Next Saturday and Sunday, this change and their very future, however, passes through your hands with your vote. And the only way to start doing something is to stop talking and take action.”
