Of Andrea Mori
LAWN – And so after months of intense electoral campaign, here we are: tomorrow, from 3pm to 11pm, and Sunday, from 7am to 11pm, the people of Prato are called to the polls to elect who will be their new mayor for the next 5 years.
We asked the candidates the reasons why Prato voters should vote for them. Here are their appeals to vote.
Paola Battagliari he is at the helm of the Alternative list for common goods, a left-wing political grouping within which there are subjects of civic activism and people from the communist Rifondazione.
“At the center of our symbol stands a large drop, the same drop that on the day of the Bisenzio flood last November caused the ’cause’s back’, causing the flooding and evacuation of the place that should have been the safest , or the new emergency room of the Santo Stefano hospital”, says Battaglieri.
The reference is also to that vital drop “for our daily needs, of a resource such as water, access to which represents an inalienable right, unfortunately subject to financial speculation with the Multiutility operation, designed to incorporate all the current companies into Alia subsidiaries of municipal services (PubliAcqua, Consiag, Estra, PubliServizi, etc.)”, specifies the candidate.
“The denunciation of this financial speculation to make profits on essential services and rights – specifies Battaglieri – represents the central reason for the political commitment of our list, which opposes the ‘derby’ of the transversal business party, made up of FdI and Pd, with the complicity of the M5S, which betrayed ten years of opposition to seek a place in the sun.”
Finally, the candidate warns, arguing that there is “a serious danger of a democratic emergency in Prato, with the risk that the next city assembly will be guided by a corporatism oriented towards particular interests and composed of factions conniving with this drift, to the detriment of citizenship and the protection of common goods.”
Alternative for common goods – concludes Paola Battagliere – “wants to be the solidarity and eco-compatible barrier to the exploitation of the environment and people”.
For Ilaria Bugetti, candidate of the centre-left, “Prato deserves to be loved, protected and safeguarded. We must be determined to carry forward our ideas of equality, social justice, legality, attention to the environment and development – says Bugetti -. My Prato will be contemporary, innovative, supportive and industrious; I therefore ask for the trust of all citizens for a city that will be taken care of in the small things but without giving up big projects. A city that runs and leaves no one behind.”
“Tomorrow and Sunday the future of our city will be decided – comments Bugetti –. Let’s remember that Prato is Tuscany, but it is also the world. Prato welcomes, Prato includes, Prato innovates, Prato is the future, ours and that of the new generations. Let’s get to work together to ensure that our city never gives up on being itself.”
Second Gianni Cennicandidate for mayor of the centre-right, we need “discontinuity and a change of pace: this – he says – means giving the vote to the centre-right coalition, a useful vote to allow the city to leave behind ten years of inaction, of flights of fancy, of unattainable dreams , of unfulfilled promises and commitments”.
Choosing the centre-right coalition means “bringing the territory and its citizens back to the center through listening and attention, giving priority to the concreteness and feasibility of both large and small things”.
The candidate closes by recalling what he himself said on the first day of the electoral campaign, repeating it now on the eve of the vote: “Mine is a pact with the city, signed looking people in the eyes, strengthened by discussion and sharing of the administrative programme. Doing the common good well: this is what I am committed to doing and this is what I will do.”
Proceeding in alphabetical order we arrive at Fulvio Castellanicandidate for the Italian Communist Party, “the latter returns to the ballot papers, and does so because we believe it is necessary to build a real and concrete alternative that puts the fundamental theme of work back at the center, in addition to that of public services and ‘public water’.
The candidate then speaks of a mobility hindered by the lack of practical projects, with “public schools that need to be redone and an inadequate hospital; the Textile Hub project which will bring neither benefits nor the ability to intervene in a district in which scandals revolving around dinner parties, freemasonry and labor exploitation, as well as a multi-utility which once again betrays the popular will expressed by the 2011 referendum”.
Finally, the final appeal: “We are workers, male and female, and we suffer the problems of Prato on a daily basis. We have the obligation to build a political alternative for Prato. And there’s nothing better than doing it with a garment worker leading the city.”
“Why vote for us?” he asks Mario Daneri, candidate with the Prato Merita list (liberal-democratic and reformist area): “Because our first objective is the good governance of the city: we offer balance, pragmatism, moderation. With a clear, precise, detailed program. To those who are tired of the polls we say not to throw away an opportunity. There is a need for a central force that keeps coalitions increasingly displaced at their extremities in check – the candidate claims, concluding that – if we are decisive in defining the future balance of local government, our Municipality will really have the possibility of changing and changing for the better. Prato deserves a vote. Because Prato deserves more.”
Finally there is Jonathan Targetti, who is running to become mayor with the Targettopoli civic list: “In a few days the city will be called to express a truly important vote to finally try to turn the page and give the push needed to build a better Prato – says Targetti -. We promoted a civic project and presented a list made up of competent and free people, disconnected from the power dynamics that unfortunately characterize the traditional party system”, observes the candidate critically. And then he is keen to remember that “self-financing, from the beginning, has been our clear and transparent political method towards our city. Refusing any type of support from companies or entrepreneurs is a choice we would make again a thousand times. As well as that of building a shared vision of the future from the bottom up, together with those who wanted it. Those who vote for Targettopoli – he concludes – do so because they feel the need for fresh air.
