This time everyone is here. Candidates old and new, allies returning to the scene and new faces you never expected. Lecce vote for the mayor and the coalitions find themselves united as has not happened for some time. Put aside (at least for now) old grudges, differences that seemed unbridgeable and mistrusts considered insurmountable. With important ministers and party leaders who stopped in the city with a frequency that had not been seen in previous rounds. Just a few absences to scroll through the historical register of Palazzo Carafa, but which will not prove crucial. An electoral campaign with very high stakes due to the pairing with the municipal elections of the Bari “cousins” and for the view on the 2025 regional elections against the backdrop of a G7 that will put Puglia at the center of the world.
Salvemini aims for three in a row
Carlo Salvemini aims for a hat trick with a coalition that has expanded, overcoming many internal frictions: the “distinctions” on the left have returned (including part of the Democratic Party) after the purifying bath of the primaries and the broad field will be tested with M5s which in these parts is something new.
Some early centrists are missing, but we know that when the coalition grows the reorganization brings about some physiological escape. The one on the civic lists linked to Alessandro Delli Noci will be much more than a simple contribution: perhaps a decisive factor as it was for Salvemini I (the one from the Lame Duck) when the pact at the ballot tipped the scales.
Poli Bortone tries again after 18 years
Adriana Poli Bortone he’s trying again after almost 18 years. The heirs of Perron’s centre-right having eliminated themselves or settled on safer seats, we start again from the senator of Missina memory who has already led this city by removing it, coincidentally, from Stefano Salvemini, father of the current mayor: Poli Bortone for ten years mayor of the unit before the fratricidal clashes. And Poli Bortone will try to act as the new compass of that unit after having asked for forgiveness for the errors committed: in the lists there are true fittians, former opponents of the An now of strict Melonian faith and more or less civic members of the Northern League no longer wavering between enthusiasm and coldness. She says she has found her “people” between kisses and hugs, she promises change but she is called to compete with the physiologically hesitant under 40s.
Little dialogue and the age factor: the weak points for the opponents
And here we are at the alleged personal weak points on which, in truth, the opposing mayoral candidates have buried the initial hatchet but which continue to live hidden in the truest debate away from the spotlight. On the one hand the character of Salvemini, on the other the age of Poli Bortone. For the centre-left candidate it is what his opponents portray as a reluctance to dialogue which would take him away from the people: an excessively detached manner for a role which, instead, should be based on unfiltered affability. He replies: “You can’t please everyone, the important thing is to act in everyone’s interest.”
For the centre-right candidate, the weak point reported by her opponents is her age – 81 years old on August 25th – deemed unsuitable for a role that should presuppose a certain workaholicism as well as generational change. She replies: “I feel young, I have many kids on the list and to govern you also need a lot of experience.” A back-and-forth that continues to fuel WhatsApp and group chats, as confirmed by the list candidates who shuttle between condominiums and small squares to convince doubters and undecideds.
Ciucci and Siculella: oustider on the pitch
To complete the picture there are the outsiders: two this time, and ready to gnaw away any spaces left unprotected. Agostino Ciucci, a doctor by profession, puts forward a candidacy quickly identified with the anti-vax world but with the declared aim of going beyond labels. Alberto Siculella, business consultant, is a former M5s who with a list of new faces has chosen a different path than the wide field. Candidates with so many unknowns in the field to be unbalanced on exceeding the barrier threshold, yet decisive in determining a possible run-off which would open up a completely different game.
Antimo, Rosaria and risottos: the social challenge
And here we return to the latest electoral fires between rallies and “crazy” cell phones. And to the social duel that took over aperitif meetings and pats on the back, reinvigorating an electoral campaign that was initially tiredly reserved for the usual suspects. With Salvemini who breathed new life into the dialect with the stories of Antimo and Rosario, “returning” emigrants dealing with a changed Lecce, for better or for worse. With Poli Bortone in a home version ready to discuss, also in dialect, the “danger of extremism” with her niece in front of a risotto being prepared. The sign of contemporaneity in the smartphone era which does not always include the time needed to compare programs before ticking the card.
The cycle path man and the trolleybus woman
Salvemini and Poli Bortone also play it this way, in the last vote, from whom the voters more attentive to the res publica would perhaps have expected something more. The coast, the nightlife and the restricted traffic zone, the university city, tourism, commerce, the industrial area: everything is clear, or almost, in the programs if taken individually, but perhaps lacking a minimum common denominator to imagine what Lecce will be like in five, ten years. Without a route that is not the usual baroque wedding favor and forgetting the theme of the small “capital” capable of driving the increasingly metropolitan area called Salento. Without both admitting they made a mistake in order to move on. An example above all: mobility. Salvemini, the man of the almost always empty cycle paths despite construction sites and good wishes. Poli Bortone, the woman on the trolleybus which remained without passengers despite the deployment of resources. Neither one nor the other is willing to make a mea culpa to look for alternative solutions – for example, urban buses extended to neighboring towns or an enhanced interchange for those arriving from the province – for a city that should be rethought based on those arriving from Squinzano and from Tricase. A vision, in fact, which is missed beyond the small-scale controversies: perhaps not very social, yet necessary to build the future. And to prevent abstentionism from taking a further step. This, yes, everyone’s real defeat.
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