In Cremona it wasn’t enough Luciano Maverick Pizzettiwith the support of Italia Viva, to lead to victory Andrew Virgilin the challenge against Alessandro Portesani.
The top gun contributed to limiting the deficit of the temporary defeat of his favorite student, but he did not reach the numbers that were credited to him. He didn’t make the hoped-for difference. He didn’t finish the competition.
The 7 percent of the votes of the Pizzetti list is still significant. Manna rained from heaven for the cadet who, under his wing, aims for the rank of four-star general.
Next week, on 23 and 24 June, extra time will be played.
If Virgilio wins, Pizzetti will consolidate his reputation as a director of local politics. Of deus ex machina. He will become the kingmaker of the municipal administration of Cremona, a central function in the election of the president of the provincial council. Scheduled for September 29th, the appointment will take place with the perverse weighted vote imposed by the Delrio law. With a mechanism that relegates small municipalities to the basement. Which makes them tinsel with the prerogative of counting a dick. With Casalmaggiore, Castelleone and Pandino rewarded with a bite of bread. With Cremona and Crema, landsknechts who eat all the fat. With the election of the president decided at the table, taken for a ride institutionalized.
If Virgilio is defeated, Pizzetti’s reputation will be scratched, but not compromised. A scratch or little more. The electoral debacle of his protégé will become an accident for him. For once, he will be a successful loser. The pain of having embarked on the downward trajectory of his political career will gnaw at him. Or maybe not. But it is an irrelevant detail. Personal.
More complex situation for Virgil. If he is mayor, the doubt of Pizzetti as a director and dealer will hover in the minds of voters. Guest of stone, the ghost of the Master will accompany the student in every decision, be it right or wrong.
If defeated, Virgil will be the featherless sparrow who was prevented from gaining wings to take flight. He will be the nerd who never emerged from the shadow of the guru who forged him. He will be the excellent travet, precise and polite, not raised to the role of leader.
The ambiguity surrounding Virgil is the result of a confused electoral campaign. Focused on the top gun instead of the cadet, the propaganda drum has privileged the client-sponsor and not the product. The Pizzetti brand has outclassed the Virgilio brand.
Maverick shadowed his intern. He has assumed the role of centre-left superstar. He pushed the mayoral candidate into the supporting role’s chair. He demoted him. Pizzetti at your side is a lot of stuff. First in the class, he helps you understand the smoking circuit. He makes you copy your homework. He launches you into orbit.
But it’s cumbersome. Intrusive. Indigestible. And too much is bad.
The message: or Pizzetti or death, prevailed over: or Virgil or death. And in communication what the recipient understands is valid. Not the one broadcast by the broadcaster.
And this piece with Pizzetti as the protagonist and Virgilio a step behind demonstrates the pervasiveness of Maverick. his subliminal presence.
Virgilio, Pd faith, leader of the centre-left stopped at the center in his programme. Coincidentally, it was once said, a position to which Pizzetti aspires. That center that Maverick studies. That he fondles. What a courteous one. What a line.
Virgil seems more interested in entrepreneurs than in workers. More attracted by managers than by commuters, three-room apartment, mortgage, wife, part-time sales assistant, two children and a total of 1700 euros per month. More intrigued by the establishment than the people. More focused on multi-utility investments than on the common good. It may be the shortcut to achieving his goal, but something doesn’t add up. He doesn’t quail with a center-left policy. Incompatible with that of the left, left.
Then continuity, with the Galimberti council. It’s the past that pierces you. That pierces you. It is the original sin, which Virgil cannot erase. Which he is allowed to remove, but not bury in oblivion.
Alessandro Portesani, candidate of the centre-right, won the first round by just over one percentage point (43.2 percent against 41.9). A few hundred votes. He will have to maintain and increase them. Not an easy task. Not titanic. Not impossible. He ran a linear election campaign. Clear. Not aggressive, but not offensive.
It was presented simply: I am Portesani, vote for me. He avoided attitudes like the Marquis del Grillo. He did not claim to be the lord’s anointed. Not even the phenomenon. He exhibited no saints in heaven, nor local poppies. He climbed that Golgotha that is the electoral campaign, helped by a few Cyreneans and some pious women. Without support administrators.
He didn’t do any big bullshit. He did not embark on flights of fancy. He did his homework without any sublime peaks, but not even disastrous falls into hell.
Not Marvel superhero, more like the antiheroes of Robert Aldrichhe lacks the toughness of Sam Peckinpah. Politically not very knowledgeable, he is too accommodating, but no one is born learned. Indirectly, involuntarily, unknowingly he risked being hit by friendly fire from Marcello Ventura. In the midst of the electoral campaign, the provincial coordinator and regional councilor of Fratelli d’Italia shared Pizzetti’s position on the appointment of the board of directors of Padania Acque, even in commas. Position antithetical to that of Forza Italia and Lega. Same situation regarding the choice of central Po Valley leaders.
Maria Vittoria Ceraso, Ferruccio Giovetti, Paola Tacchini And Angelo Frigolithe other four mayoral candidates excluded from the ballot played their part with dignity and coherence.
In these days Virgilio and Portesani meet them and smooth them. They try to seduce them. They go unbalanced with promises. They solicit affinity, endoresment. The revealing gesture. The raised eyelash that Ancellotti proved to be a good thing.
On Wednesday Virgilio and Portesani will compete in a public confrontation in the Municipality square. It can be the moment of truth, or irrelevant molasses. The difference between the two alternatives is linked to the questions, the answers, the willingness of the interviewers to press the two candidates if they say blatant bullshit or deviate from the question posed.
The challenge will acquire value if it deals with the increase of some tumors in the city, of fine particles, of Cesium 137, of the epidemiological study, of biomethane, of the new hospital, of the Cremona-Mantua motorway, of trains, of the incinerator, of the with A2A. Some other issues that we prefer to overlook.
The issue of abstention remains. In the first round in the city, 58.73% of voters eligible to vote went to the polls, 8.46% less than five years ago. Will the first round voters all return to the polls? The unknown could be the variable that will determine the outcome. Which will be decided by the next mayor of Cremona.
June 23 and 24 is the opportunity to move from criticism in the streets to action. To abandon the hysteria and indifference of social media and take the responsibility of participating.
Delia, the protagonist of There’s still tomorrow, contributed to Italy’s revolution and achieved his own with a cross on a card. Why give up this opportunity?
If the choices made by public administrators cannot be changed, public administrators can, however, be changed. With the vote.
Without the help of Mavericks. Without forgetting the story of the king travicello. Fearless.
And then gas with Don’t Stop Me Now.
