Not even twelve hours after the last count, the Tuscany PD summons the press for a comment on the results of the European and local elections. With the Dem regional secretary, Emiliano Fossi, there were also the coordinator Andrea Giorgio and the head of local authorities of the Tuscan party, Stefano Bruzzesi. “This result is the fruit of a year and a half of hard work,” declared Fossi. And regarding the various ballots in Tuscany, he says: “We will win the match, starting with Florence, but we must not relax.”
“This result is the result of hard, very hard work, which is repaid, the fruit of half a year’s work.” These are the words of Emiliano Fossi, dem secretary for Tuscany in the headquarters of a celebrating Democratic Party, not without caution. Head held high, therefore, after an electoral campaign defined as “containment”, at least in the three provincial capitals – Florence, Prato and Livorno -, electoral granaries that the center right would have liked to conquer. But the Democratic Party reaches a first milestone thanks to two strengths, explains Fossi: “first of all a united party, like the one that emerged in Tuscany and which has never existed until today, that is, with a true unified spirit” and, the second factor “which is responsible for the great electoral gap, to a clear political line”. Data in hand, the battle on the minimum wage is retraced, with the proposal to include it, for works and services, in municipal procurement, the Charter of Florence after the tragedy of Via Mariti, the public health plan that the Democratic Party supported by sharing the choice of the Region, even if unpopular – the reference is naturally to the increase in the IRPEF rate – and then the migration policies “opening our ports and clearly saying ‘no’ to the CPRs which are real prisons where all the human rights”. The Democratic Party, continues Fossi, is also responsible for firmly denouncing the government’s shortcomings, “for example on the flood front and on cuts to municipal funds”. The Tuscan democrats “have built their diversity” on this and more. The political data, this 32% at regional and European level, also translates into applause “for a type of inclusive approach in coalition building”, underlines Fossi.
In Tuscany, it was recalled, out of 185 Municipalities (out of 273) voting, 132 go to a mayor supported by the Democratic Party, 35 to mayors of the centre-right or in any case not supported by the Dems, while there are 18 run-off elections. In the European elections, Fossi underlined , “I expected a good national result but not 24%. We are happy to do so well. In the administrative elections the results are positive but not obvious. The Democratic Party came from a phase of great difficulty which led us to see all contexts as contestable, even where we governed well. The achievements we have achieved are not due to a historical legacy but thanks to daily work.” “Schlein wanted strong and competitive lists – he added -, to stay on the issues and give a left-wing response to the anxieties and hopes of the territories. This is great news but it is also very tiring. Schlein campaigned real, far and wide, among the people. This is how we designate the profile of the new party that is in contexts among people, not doing catwalks.”
With the slogan phrase, “we need votes, not vetoes”, the Democratic Party is now projecting itself towards the next challenge, having brilliantly overcome the ones in Livorno and Prato, respectively with Luca Salvetti and Ilaria Bugetti. “A PD is therefore a protagonist in the cities, where alliances are built on the basis of programs and competitive candidates are chosen”. Sara Funaro’s Florence is therefore moving forward in the ballot by speaking directly to citizens and citizens, “Schmidt they say from via Forlanini – he is nothing but a Martian catapulted from Rome. The Florentines know what is at stake and the appeal is to that democratic Florence.” But not only. The Dems are aiming for a collective mobilization in the cities where the ballot is going to be held, and there are 17 municipalities. “If a force and people and exponents of parties who recognize themselves as centre-left really feel like that – concluded Fossi – they have only one choice: to support Sara Funaro with strength and conviction. We expect this.”
