Bergamo, 8 June 2024 – Here we are, today and tomorrow, 9 June, we will vote for municipal elections in Bergamo and in 163 other provincial municipalities.
There are three competing for the place of Giorgio Gori, who has reached the end of his mandate: Andrea Pezzotta, Elena Carnevali and Vittorio Apicella. With them 367 aspiring city councilors (for 32 places available). If Carnevali were to succeed in the electoral round, she would be the first woman to lead the Orobic capital. At 11pm on Saturday, the first available data on turnout, she had voted 21.25% of those entitled in the city.
Learn more:
2024 municipal elections in Bergamo and its province, the municipalities and the mayoral candidates. Saturday at 11pm turnout at 19.43%
Three mayoral candidates for Bergamo. The lawyer Andrea Pezzotta, 66 years old, for the centre-right (Fratelli d’Italia, Lega, Forza Italia, the civic list Pezzotta mayor and Bergamo Ideale), the former deputy Elena Carnevali59 years old, for the centre-left (Pd, civic list Gori for Carnevali, civic list Elena Carnevali mayor, Bergamo Insieme, Bergamo Europea, Futura, i.e. Greens Alleanza Verdi Sinistra-Oltre), the two favorites of these administrative elections, and the third inconvenient, the 60-year-old teacher Vittorio Apicella for the 5 Star Movement.
Bergamo, electoral confrontation between Andrea Pezzotta, Vittorio Apicella and Elena Carnevali from the left
In recent weeks, the main focus among the candidates has been the issue of safety in the city, central to the programmes Pezzotta and Carnivals. And the solutions to try to guarantee it are similar. More officers in the area – in the train station area, but also on the outskirts, neighborhood police, mobile patrols – and an operational garrison of the local police at the Propylaea of Porta Nuova. Safety in the city is also a priority for Apicella. But as for Carnevali, also for the candidate of the 5 Star Movement, alongside greater patrolling by the police, a cognitive investigation of the phenomenon is necessary, which involves not only the institutions but also the schools and the community, the neighborhoods and associations, then thinking about a systemic intervention to prevent the phenomenon.
Then there is the mobility chapter. “We have a real problem – underlined Carnevali –: 40 thousand cars entering the city every day. It is not a question of war on cars, but of creating the possibility of placing interchange car parks for inter-mobility on the local public transport axes : we have planned the infrastructure of 5 thousand more parking spaces”. “Mobility in Bergamo is a disaster – attacks Pezzotta –. In recent years there has been a lack of the help of a trained technical figure who could give an overall strategic vision: to intervene effectively on the issue it is necessary to have a similar figure, who at the moment the Municipality does not have and which we propose”. “On the road system – explained Apicella – we are in favor of increasing the ZTLs and strengthening public transport and infrastructure. We offer a discount on bus passes to public and private employees, subject to agreement with the companies, because we have realized that traffic is concentrated more during office hours”.
With regard to welfare, Pezzotta instead opened up to dialogue. “We must act in total continuity on the management of social policies, moving in the same direction: nurseries, the possibility of partially exempting women from tax contributions, home services, a discussion table with professional associations and businesses”.
In addition to Bergamo, there are another 163 Municipalities to vote with four realities over 15 thousand inhabitants: Albinus, Dalmine, Romanus of Lombardy and Seriate. In addition to dozens of medium-sized, small (120 under five thousand inhabitants) or very small municipalities: the most ‘micro’ of the towns that will be called to the polls is Cassigliowith 111 residents.
Several municipalities arrive at the vote without a mayor: in Ambivere, Pagazzano and Comun Nuovo the mayor resigned and was replaced by the prefectural commissioner. Then there are Lenna, Scanzorosciate and Onore, whose mayors were elected to the Regional Council and in recent months the Municipality has been governed by their deputies. In In 35 towns the mayor will no longer be able to run again because at the end of the second mandate, but based on the new rules that link re-elections and number of inhabitants, 14 mayors are aiming for the third mandate and 17 even for the fourth.
