“Everyone is telling me that I achieved some kind of record, but I think this result is due to the fact that people understood what our civic list is.” With 1247 votes obtained, Paola Casara is the candidate who has collected the highest number of preferences, achieving a prestigious result for the ‘La Civica – Forlì Cambia’ list. The councilor of the first Zattini council with responsibilities for schools, businesses and young people, and head of the civic list, is preparing to have an important role also in Zattini’s second mandate.
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“It is enormously satisfying, especially for the list – says Casara -, but it was also a great personal victory, because in the last year I have really given a lot to achieve this goal. We played as a team from the first to the last moment and it was decisive.”
Thinking now that the elections are over, what were the strategies that allowed you to have such a high number of votes?
“Together with Zattini we built a process that could involve moderates to have a transversal vote without relying on parties, wanting to be inclusive. We have all put our souls into this list to involve people, listening to them and making them participate from the first to the last moment for the good of our city. Forlì understood our work and demonstrated it with the vote. In fact, the numbers prove it.”
Which data gratifies you the most?
“73% of the people who voted for our list expressed a preference and this is a very important signal that should make us proud of what we have done. Furthermore, young people were voted for who we wanted to introduce to politics, making it clear that this world belongs to everyone, giving them too the opportunity to participate in the life of their city”.
How does your list come out of these elections?
“We have grown by taking an important step forward. Now our list is no longer a laboratory, but has become an example of how we can work for the common good and the city.”
The announcement he made together with Zattini on the appointment of Professor Vicini as health advisor sparked some controversy. In your opinion, did he have an impact on the vote?
“Professor Vicini is precisely an example of the philosophy of our list. He is a person who had undertaken a different political path, but who recognized himself in us and began to be part of it. Like him there were also associations, worlds that I know well and with which I have interacted in recent months, who have always supported us, also including their people in the list. Another important aspect is that everything we have built is the result of work that lasted a year and carried forward day after day.”
What do you see in your future? Do you hope to be confirmed as councilor or to be president of the city council?
“In these five years I have given my contribution for the good of Forlì, but more than my role, I would like the next council to be close to the people and inclusive to involve them, and I am sure it will be. I am sure that the skills will be rewarded and that a new five-year period will begin in the name of continuity with the previous one”.
Have you ever thought that you wouldn’t be able to win the elections?
“I have never been sure about the outcome of the elections, but I have always had positive perceptions considering that I have always interacted with many people. However, I admit that on Sunday after the European Championships I had some more doubts. I was surprised by the outcome, but during the night I thought that in a city people are rewarded for how they administer and that the citizens would have liked to have continuity with the previous council. The facts proved that I was not wrong.”
On Monday you spent many hours at your list’s headquarters to experience the electoral counting firsthand: what sensations did you feel?
“I experienced the long wait first at the polling station and then at the civic list office and it was wonderful to see the enthusiasm of so many people who rejoiced with us every time something positive happened for our list. Experiencing these emotions made me proud of the work we have done to bring people together and I believe that this victory is a victory for everyone, which we have built month after month, from when we left to when the outcome of the elections arrived which saw Zattini win. This time too our headquarters has proven to be a meeting point for people as it always has been.”
