A few days before the ballot on June 23rd and 24th, the two mayoral candidates Alessandro Portesani (centre-right), in dark blue jacket and Andrew Virgil (centre left), more at ease in a white shirt, faced each other once again in Piazza del Duomo, in front of a large audience who came despite the heat and sultriness of the evening and which on several occasions exploded into real fans.
A comparison between programs, more or less ‘poisonous’ remarks, hot topics and aspects to be clarified, also giving voice to citizens’ requests. And the first names of the members of the council in the event of Portesani’s victory also emerge from the evening, while Virgilio limits himself to talking about the ‘method’ that will be put into play in the choice of the deputy mayor and the councillors, without however anticipating anything.
Answering journalists’ questions John Palisto And Lucio dall’Angelo, Paolo Gualandris And James Guglielmonethe two candidates addressed the issues of security, infrastructure, culture, environment, young and old but also questions on the composition of the council.
REAL AND PERCEIVED SECURITY
Staff shortages, reorganization of existing figures, fixed presence in Piazza Roma and new technologies (including the taser), but also perceived safety and trust. For Portesani the recipe includes new hires (15 units) and the freeing up of resources used in office activities, while the restoration of the Piazza Roma garrison will be a fixed point, as will the use of instruments for reading incoming license plates in the city and the use of the taser following staff training. A line similar to that of his opponent Virgilio, who puts on the table the hiring of new personnel to also be channeled into crime prevention activities, also with the use of new technologies. You agree on the importance of education, less so on citizens’ perception of safety.
INFRASTRUCTURES
It is indisputable that roads and junctions require interventions, as does the need to break down architectural barriers, but while Portesani promises to review the cycle path routes, create 4 new corona car parks with shuttles to the center and to put in place new access routes to the center within the first 3 years of his mandate, Virgilio bets on light mobility, on new, more agile means of transport, claims the recent creation of around 1000 free parking spaces in the station and then calls the Lombardy Region into question on the economic side.
VICE MAYOR AND COUNCILORS
Virgilio makes no revelations and does not go too far on possible names, referring only to the method for composing the team for a season which he defines as ‘new’, with new skills and professionalism. Instead, the centre-right candidate Portesani goes into detail, presenting the 4 names: Chiara Cappelletti, Jane Alquati, Anna Maramotti Politi And Alessandro Rossiwithout identifying their roles.
YOUNG AND ELDERLY
The YOUTH theme arises from the evaluation of how to retain young people in the city, in particular university students estimated at between 3 and 4 thousand in the coming years, both on weekends and after studies.
Portesani wants to ‘create opportunities’ at 360 degrees: work, career, connections, sociality and also support for young families. Not far from Virgilio’s vision, which speaks of an ecosystem that integrates universities, technological centers and research, together with environments for socialization and relationships.
On the ELDERLY chapter, the centre-left candidate Virgilio aims to break generational parameters by creating integration between young and old in the different areas of daily life, then placing the emphasis on the excellence of Cremona Solidale. Portesani’s vision instead places the prevention of fragility at the center to ensure that the cases taken care of by social services are less serious and more personable in treatment.
GREEN AND DECORATION
From gardens to cemeteries, from ordinary to extraordinary maintenance, dissimilar visions which from Portesani’s side see an active response to the numerous reports, resorting to current spending, stealing the idea of the centre-left candidate Pizzetti, who suggested a rationalization of spending, while Virgilio , with two mandates of experience under his belt, spoke about priorities between ordinary and extraordinary, planning and resources to be deployed.
TWO QUESTIONS OF PURE POLITICS: A STATEMENT TO ‘STEAL’ VOTES FROM THE OPPONENT AND THE WEIGHT OF THE PARTIES IN THE COUNCIL
To convince the undecideds of the centre-right, Virgilio returns to the theme of territories and their valorisation, in a common battle that puts the Cremonese in first place, while Portesani winks at the centre-left by putting his finger on the wound of neglect in the last period and openly taking sides against the bio-methane plant.
Regarding the weight of the political forces in the council, Portesani with the names proposed has in fact distributed the votes between the 4 main forces in the field, while Virgilio, by not naming names, appeals to a logic of interlocution between the PD and the civic world.
CULTURE
Cremona beyond violins: what could be another driving force for promoting the city in the world and what new cultural and recreational events to propose in the coming years. To this question, Virgilio explained his vision of contamination of the different places of Cremonese culture, in a constant dialogue with young people and their culture to be valorised. Portesani instead places his bet on the world of violin making first and foremost, looking for opportunities and ways to make it even more alive, in a circuit of excellent violin making art, combining the large events with a series of smaller, but constant ones throughout the year, with a strong synergy with the Fair body. Virgilio for his part proposes to valorise the Po and dedicate an ad hoc festival to it.
ENVIRONMENT
A very hot topic, touched upon in two critical points: the Tamoil area and its redevelopment and the very current topic of the a2a biomethane plant which has just been canceled by the services conference.
On the first, Virgilio highlights the fact that the Tamoli area is in fact private. However, it could be interesting for a project aimed at renewable energy, an essential topic for the future. Portesani also sees the problem of the private sector, but he says he is ready to dialogue with the owners and with investors interested in the area and its recovery, in a long-term and long-term project.
The positions on biomethane are clearly different, an issue that divided and in some way characterized the electoral campaign: clear NO from Portesani to the project, even if re-presented by a2a, not in that place and not of that type, carried out by an industrial investor and not by farmers. Virgilio naturally defends the project of the outgoing council and speaks of an almost expected rejection, the result of some modifications and additions presented at a later time, but defending the goodness and necessity of projects on the subject of renewable energy.
Then the citizens asked questions on the topic of air quality and unused real estate assets, while finally Paolo Gualandris asked two ‘burning’ questions to the candidates: he asked Portesani to account for possible conflicts of interest based on his experience as a responsible for various cooperatives that collaborate with the municipality, a question to which the candidate explained that he had resigned from all positions and was now outside of any possible interference. To Virgilio, however, the question on continuity/discontinuity was never clearly clarified with the outgoing council, from which however the centre-left candidate declared to set himself new objectives starting from the goals achieved but guaranteeing a different style and personality.
THE APPEALS
Finally the appeals: Portesani asks the people of Cremona to vote for discontinuity and change, now that there is an alternative; Virgilio instead signals to his voters the weakness of the center-right in the city, promising an administration that he metaphorically sees as climbing the Torrazzo together with the citizens.
