After a long, tiring and strange scrutiny due to the high number of null and missing ballots, Lecce goes to the run-off.
Adriana Poli Bortone with 49.95% and Carlo Salvemini with 46.73%. For a handful of votes, 23 ballots, in short one seven, Poli Bortone does not become a tenant of Palazzo Carafa or delle Paolotte, home of the Palazzo di città. A place she knows very well, having held the position of mayor twice consecutively.
Carlo Salvemini does not give up and follows closely to remain at the helm of Lecce. The outgoing Mayor was a very young city councilor on several occasions, in 2017 elected mayor, whose majority in the council was made up of 17 elected representatives from the centre-right against 14 from the centre-left including the civic lists and one seat in the M5s. A typically English expression is used for this anomaly: lame duck. He returned to vote in 2019 and was re-elected with 51% of the votes, trailing the centre-right candidate by 20 points.
Bari and Lecce in the run-off, on 23 and 24 June. Vito Leccese against Fabio Romito and Carlo Salvemini will have to deal with Adriana Poli Bortone. Vito Leccese will have the red support of Michele Laforgia, who came in third place in the electoral ranking, therefore excluded from the ballot. He deserves the credit for having waged an electoral battle with a strong political character, no less than the other two: Leccese and Romito.
Whoever wins will have to take care of the future of their city, whose management of public affairs will have to be up to the needs of real people. At the centre, therefore, is the citizen, whose daily life must be as little as possible subject to the wear and tear of the Cities, always afflicted by old and new contradictions. Which is why the policy for the city will have to be expressed through «Regeneration, Reuse, Redevelopment and Reconversion».
The four R’s are necessary for our two cities which have had, in past decades, a disorderly boom, without spaces, parking, public services. With the few financial resources, they have done everything possible and impossible to give the citizen a normal and non-hostile life, as he is most often forced to face.
As mentioned, for a handful of votes, Adriana Poli Bortone was not elected mayor of Lecce and had to vote again. Unexpectedly, there was an interlude in the vote recount, due to too many messes at the polling stations. In general, the public bodies responsible for voting are not able to make elections transparent. Amateurs in turmoil. The Ministry of the Interior cannot fail to realize this democratic deficit.
Carlo Salvemini, outgoing mayor, the predictions gave him a certain victory and Adriana Poli Bortone a loser. Democratic elections are full of surprises, beauty. The electoral campaign was civil and only in the last few days before the polls opened did the atmosphere become electrified, but it couldn’t have been otherwise.
As mentioned, Carlo Salvemini was considered a good mayor, but he had not taken into account the long-lived Poli Bortone who, despite starting at a disadvantage, had a long obstacle course and for 23 votes – in the Neapolitan cabal 23 brings luck for the one or for her we will know after the count – she did not reach the finish line victorious.
Now a new electoral campaign where only Salvemini and Poli Bortone are at stake. An almost equal duel played with the elected representatives of the individual sides. However, the candidates on the lists will necessarily have to enter the race, given that whoever wins will have the majority prize on their side. Those best positioned behind the elected representatives could succeed in being elected to the city council.
Adriana Poli Bortone fought judo with Carlo Salvemini, taking advantage of his strength: the stronger he was, the stronger she was. Now you start again from the beginning, stabilizing the vote acquired and recovering the votes from the abstentions block and those votes of the other two mayoral candidates. Minimum percentages, but, as they say, everything counts to win. And hoping to God that the people of Lecce do not make any confusion in voting on June 23rd and 24th as in the previous election of June 8th and 9th.
