Note from the municipal councilor of Arezzo, Michele Menchetti (5 Star Movement).
“The counting operations for the 2024 European elections concluded a few days ago and the data that emerges, as also reported by the press on the front page, is that the mayor stopped at 700 votes in the city so he is not going to Strasbourg: it is second to last in his party with 1600 total preferences. There will inevitably be repercussions on the council.
The current mayor of the capital municipality has not been recognized by his fellow citizens as worthy of representing Arezzo in Europe. Out of over 98 thousand inhabitants, of which just over 75 thousand were entitled to vote, only 700 chose to do so. A bit small for a sitting mayor. Long gone are the days of the summer of 2015 when he was elected for the first time. The distance from the real city is sidereal compared to the October 2020 session which reconfirmed the center-right as leader of the city.
Everyone can read the data as is most convenient for them. There will certainly be those who will interpret this political debacle of the mayor as a choice of the people of Arezzo who prefer to keep their mayor in the city until the end of the electoral mandate, as in a sort of retaliation, I say. As if to say: did you want the bicycle? Now pedal. And here in the city there are tons of things to do.
The roads “riddled” with potholes
The public greenery abandoned to itself
Municipal properties not valued at all (former Bank of Italy docet but the list would be long)
The languishing construction sites and above all the roundabout in Via Fiorentina, not to mention the former diocesan building which was intended for the new headquarters of the municipal police
The neglected municipal staff, whose exodus to other bodies is an indisputable fact
The lack of turnover among retirees and new hires in the ranks of municipal employees
The massive use of fixed-term managers pursuant to article 110 TUEL, instead of seeking permanent managers with adequate public competitions
The lack of adequate cultural and tourist programming for a city like Arezzo
The absence of a summer cultural season for those who remain in the city and for those arriving from outside
The distance of the suburbs and hamlets from the interests of the administration
…and much more…
The mayor of Arezzo must take advantage of the outcome of this disappointing electoral test. You learn from mistakes. In his place, I would try to understand what didn’t work, why the people of Arezzo – who had had so much faith in him, preferring him to the other candidates for mayor – today instead punished him so severely.
Perhaps, and I say this as a minority municipal councilor, the fact that the mayor has often been abroad engaged in other activities, certainly worthy I don’t dispute, but in any case not assiduous in welcoming the people of Arezzo, may have weighed on this terrible electoral result , in taking charge of their problems, in responding to their needs. I think of the news stories of Piazza della Badia, of the bad nightlife, of the crimes committed in the Porcinai gardens, of the lack of maintenance of public housing, of the problems of the ERP tenants, of the organization of the Giostra del Saracino whose choice of whether or not to place a grandstand to deliver the golden spear to the place of the terrace of a private house was delegated to the Prefect, etc.
All issues that demonstrate the detachment between the mayor and the people of Arezzo. How long has it been since the mayor met people who asked him on a date? How long has it been since the mayor walked the streets of Arezzo without using the municipality’s blue car? How long has it been since the mayor went to the Saturday market to do his shopping? How long has it been since he met the cultural associations, entrepreneurs, artisans and professionals of this city? Why does the vice mayor often intervene in his place?
If citizens ask to speak to the mayor they obviously don’t need the deputy, it seems clear to me; if they needed her deputy they would ask her. Well, on all this I think that the mayor has failed in his political mission. The mayor has lost contact with the people and the people of Arezzo reminded him of this.”
