Nicola ‘Naomo’ Lodi, outgoing deputy mayor and group leader of the League, with over nine hundred preferences. How do you evaluate the party’s electoral result?
“The League is the only centre-right party to have withstood the national and European trend in the city. We received over five thousand list votes, equal to 7.7% of the votes, which allowed the re-election of Mayor Fabbri. It seems to me like important result, which rewards the line of concreteness that has characterized our administration and, in particular, the work carried out by me and by councilor Cristina Coletti”.
He failed to reach the goal of a thousand preferences, as he did in 2019.
“It’s another world. Five years ago I received 1,200 preferences with the party at over thirty percentage points. Today, I have received over nine hundred with the party at around 8%. It is, in proportion, a tripling of preferences. Then, many votes were deliberately directed to the mayor’s list”.
What kind of League emerges from the polls?
“A completely renewed party, which has placed competence and ability before improvisation. Listening and hard work have paid off. So much so that, in addition to me and Coletti, the outgoing councilor Kusiak joins and then we’ll see what happens when the mayor will have entrusted the delegations”.
How do you imagine yourself in the new council? The deputy mayor question is very open.
“I would like to be the man next to Fabbri not only until 2029, but for the next ten years, hoping for a third term. Alan is the only one who can be mayor of this city and, to complete the great projects we have , it will take at least another ten years. We have seen that the Fabbri-Lodi combination works very well, I don’t see any reason to change course.”
But the balance in politics changes…
“Yes, but not the people. These elections have once again shown us that voters reward those who work hard. Without taking anything away from others, I think I have achieved all the objectives that the mayor asked of me in 2019”.
Are there rumors of his possible ‘escape’ to the Region in the autumn? “Those who know me know that this hypothesis is totally baseless. I am tied to Ferrara, to the people of Ferrara, to the territory. I could never do something like this: I married the city, I will not betray it for a higher salary.”
What do you expect from the next five years?
“The word I believe in most is: continuity. The voters have expressed themselves in an incontrovertible manner. The direction that Ferrara has taken since 2019 is the right one, which the people of Ferrara want. Well, we will continue like this, leaving the trumpeters aside” .
Speaking of tone: it was an intense electoral campaign.
“Yes, I would say excessively. This morning (yesterday, ed.), by chance, I met the former mayoral candidate Aldo Modonesi and I apologized for the audio that was broadcast in the square during Anselmo’s final rally. He made me congratulations on the victory. That’s how it’s done.”
But on your part, when Tagliani and Modonesi governed, there was never a lack of rather harsh criticism.
“It’s true, we fought each other bitterly. But no one has ever dreamed of going to the prosecutor’s office or taking initiatives like we did in this election campaign.”
