“I have every right to enter, I am a city councilor, a representative of the citizens. Citizens who contacted me from Civiglio to ask for help.”
The silhouette from behind flanked on the sides by two officers of the local police of Como that you can observe in the photo is that of the group leader of Forza Italia in the city council in Como, former mayoral candidate of the centre-right, Giordano Molteni. Molteni will then gain a few meters of the Coat of Arms Hall but without victory, the mayor will ask him to leave. And so will the advisor.
Why is Molteni furious (and with him the councilors of all the oppositions)? Let’s take a few steps back, like Molteni.
As announced, the residents of Civiglio showed up at the Palazzo this evening, on the occasion of the convening of the town meeting. The city district, it is known, was hit by a landslide, the fourth in the last 25 years, which closed the main road access, effectively cutting off direct contact with the city. Today it is possible to reach Como only from Ponzate, passing the infamous bottleneck and doubling the route normally used, or with secondary and not particularly easy roads that lead higher up, i.e. to Brunate. A disaster, in short.
32 days have passed since the landslide (we told about it here) and the residents angry at the, they say, “total absence of responses” at 7pm today gathered first in the old courtyard and then in the council chamber. Over thirty were present.
“I have lived in Civiglio for 30 years – he told us Antonio Sartorello, spokesperson for the group – I saw the landslide of ’99, the one of 2001, the one of 2014 and then this one. More or less all in the same area.” What has the Municipality told you to date? “Nothing, he doesn’t respond, we sent a certified email with over 240 signatures, we asked to meet the mayor and the technicians to understand the state of things, what to do and what will be done. We hope at least for an alternating reopening before and during the restoration works. We need more connections, public transport is not enough. But nothing, no communication, no one who told us anything.”
With Sartorello a well-known face from the neighborhood, the parish priest Don Alberto Fasola: “When there are disasters elsewhere – says the priest – the news shows the images of the mayors present on site. I say show up, send a councilor. Nobody expects solutions tomorrow but you tell us how much it takes and we put our hearts at rest. You know? I also work at Cardinal Ferrari, I take the scooter to go there. If before it was eight kilometers between uphill and downhill, now it’s 16″. And then many elderly people are afraid of alternative routes and don’t take the car.” Is mass also affected? “Eh, well half the country is cut off. If they have to extend to Brunate then they stop for mass there.”
As we speak the Council seems to be starting. But there is a problem with the audiovisual system and in the meantime the Dem councilor Stefano Legnani points out to the president, Fulvio Anzaldo, a procedural flaw. A flaw, in fact, so much so that it will invalidate the session.
The certified email sent to the councilors to summon them to the chamber did not have the formal summons attached. Nothing happened, the meeting is cancelled. Thus from the opposition the leader of the Pd group Patrizia Lissi he points out that at this point the opportunity is perfect to listen to the residents of Civiglio. Which the mayor Alessandro Rapinese he decides to do so by inviting the group to the Stemmi Room but he is clear: “No advisors and no journalists”. Now, regarding journalists, although it is objectively an anomaly, at least in our memory especially given the public context, we can ignore it for the sake of tonight’s events to be told. But the ouster of the councilors was at least an institutional distortion.
So with absolute kindness and equally dutiful firmness the local police prevent entry, a Corps official however wants to be totally sure of the indication and checks directly with the mayor: nothing, you cannot enter and the doors remain closed. So we return to the beginning of the story: the anger of councilor Molteni who will remain until the end, with councilor Elena Negretti (League) and the councilor Lorenzo Cantaluppi (FdI) to await the outcome of the summit. “I was mayor and administrator of a small municipality (Lipomo, Ed) and I have never allowed or seen such a thing”, Molteni will add thundering.
The other minority councilors did not hide their indignation by also talking about reporting to the prefect.
Then official notes will also arrive. You can find them at the bottom of the article.
But how did the armored meeting go? We asked spokesperson Sartorello. Satisfied? It seems like a “no”. Here you are:
And immediately afterwards we met the mayor (video below): “We haven’t lost a hundredth of a second. We have had two geological reports in one month – he underlined – which means that we have not wasted time. To date we cannot complain anything about the private individual (owner of the land involved in the landslide, Ed) who collaborated with the administration in the most effective manner. We are not sleeping, we are following the matter closely.”
Today it is not possible to have an idea about the restoration times, it will take a long time, this is certain: “We need planning, we need a solution – specifies the mayor – then we will need a technical and financial plan, we will need to arrive at the financing quotas and manage with the private sector the fact that today he has to do everything, this is the norm. The law is clear, if the Municipality spends money when it doesn’t have to, it is called fiscal damage. I cannot use citizens’ money to pay for something that a private individual has to pay.”
But to put it simply, we ask, not before? Autumn, September? “The truth – explains Rapinese – is that it depends on what they use, they are telling me that there are different types of intervention”.
Also time to talk about the missed PEC that caused the Council to collapse: “It’s the first time in 18/20 years of the Council that it fails due to an error by the messengers, it happens. It came out correct from the Counsel’s Office. The natural persons, and it happens to everyone, who were supposed to notify have forgotten the attachment. I must say that the minority could have told us, since they noticed it.” Well, even the majority: “Yes, the majority too but tonight they pointed it out”.
Finally, the “closed doors” issue. On the topic journalists alsowho cares’Let’s say to make a long story short, but why the exclusion of councilors? The meeting was public in a public place and they are representatives of the citizens: “I didn’t even let the majority councilors in, nor any politicians. I said: do you have a letter for the mayor? The mayor responds. My intent was to talk to the citizens. I’m talking to her now, the councilors can meet me whenever they want. I’m here tomorrow morning, I’m here all day, I won’t shy away.”
HERE IS THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH THE MAYOR
THE OPPOSITIONS
After the evening, a harsh joint note arrived from the Pd and Svolta Civica:
A fool for the Rapinese administration. This evening the city council was canceled due to an error in its convocation. Evidently, not having convened the Council for many weeks, he no longer even knows how to do it.
The mayor then held a closed meeting with the citizens of Civiglio in the municipal house and rudely excluded the municipal councilors and journalists, forgetting that the municipality is everyone’s home. He therefore pretends not to know that the municipality is the place of participation and transparency and demonstrates that he does not know what democracy is.
And then by Giordano Molteni:
I find it very serious that the mayor did not involve the city parliament in his meeting with the committee of inhabitants of the hamlet of Civiglio. Since the council was skipped due to a procedural error, it was impossible not to listen to people worried about the outcome of the landslide. Rapinese preferred to confer with citizens behind closed doors, not allowing city councilors to participate. This is indeed a serious procedural error as well as a lack of fair play.
I still showed up in the Stemmi room to meet the citizens together with the mayor and the mayor asked me to leave. In addition to the damage, the mockery. In fact, it is absurd that in a meeting with citizens the mayor addresses the city councilors by defining them as ‘political’ and therefore inviting them not to participate. A very serious fact that explains the state we are in better than many words. I forcefully reiterated this concept to my fellow councilors who remained in the room, inviting them to take note of a situation that was no longer tolerable.
