I was asked to comment on the overwhelming victory of the Northern League mayor Alan Fabbri to Ferrara. And I hate the editorial staff of the blogs Done because of this.
After the necessary introduction we come to the comment. Meanwhile the “Legaist” becomes pleonastic: Fabbri won above all thanks 30% obtained from his personal list, which stripped the other parties of the right-wing alliance. The Northern League, which five years ago was worth 31% of the voters’ support, stopped at this round at 7.69%. Fabbri likes it. A bit like the grilled fish at accountant Filini. You may like him or not, but two out of five people from Ferrara really like Alan Fabbri (he was voted by 57% of the 67% of those entitled to vote).
Why does the reference to the famous grilled fish come to mind? Because in the city of Este for a few years now the live remake of the fourth chapter of the saga made famous by has been staged Paolo Villaggio, that is to say Fantozzi suffers again. In this case, after the recent elections, it is not the most famous accountant in Italy who is still suffering, but Ferrara… Here we exaggerate for the sake of irony. Otherwise, to snatch the title from another bastion of Italian comedy, we would only have to cry.
Ferrara suffers again, it was said. And, grilled fish aside, now everywhere there are – metaphorically – a few Lavinio beaches where you can spend your holidays together with the Franchino of the moment. On the other hand, we have seen many movie scenes in recent years. Squares occupied by lilac-colored chemical toilets, stands with beer and free burping in front of the 12th century Cathedral, concrete lighthouses illuminating the medieval walls. I end the list for brevity’s sake. Faced with all this… “Well, after all it has its own charm” would say the surveyor Calboni. “It’s wonderful, I love wild nature” Miss Silvani would rejoice in front of the open-air rubbish dump.
Film-like scenes to briefly say that whatever happens in the city led by Alan Fabbri, its citizens are happy. Where does the success of the mayor with the pigtail come from? Already about fifteen years ago he had hoisted the banner of Alberto da Giussano for the first time above the town hall of Bondeno, the first municipality in Emilia-Romagna conquered by the League. Bondeno, according to data from the Ferrara Chamber of Commerce, Statistical and economic information of the province of Ferrara2018 (page 73), saw in 2017 – after over five years of Fabbri care – a worrying depopulation accompanied by a death of businesses. The number of closed companies was +36% compared to the previous year, that of active companies -2%. The picture of female entrepreneurship is even more dramatic: +83.3% of closed companies, -9.1 of registered companies, -4.1 of active companies. Not really data encouraging. Yet thanks to these numbers Fabbri is remembered – I’m serious – as an excellent mayor. Why? I refrain from answering. It would be easier for me to explain what the prostate or the kibbutz is.
In Ferrara his first five years passed somewhat under the banner of “Naomo method”: kicking migrants in the ass (the shop has moved a few hundred meters, the lists of public accommodations were changed by the court because they were discriminatory), many festivals, pop concerts. And many many construction sites thanks to Pnrr funds (good at managing to attack them anyway). He, the mayor, was seen very little in the city council, even less in the socio-health conference (even in the Covid era). He willingly left institutional occasions to his deputy, Naomo Lodi. But he never failed to send a photo and a statement with a speech of his participation. In short, for the citizens he was more than present.
However, it would be a liar not to give credit to those who confirmed themselves even in the face of a renowned adversary like the lawyer Fabio Anselmo (who has the flaw of being a lawyer and not a politician). Fabbri receives sympathy, people find him empathetic and – as a political professional – he knows how to move. Having said this, it is not even possible to deny the work of conviction that social media generates in the population. His Facebook page has over 110 thousand contacts. An enormity for a city like Ferrara which has 130 thousand inhabitants, of which the vast majority are elderly and rarely, if only out of good habit, spend their lives on their cell phones.
Thanks to this media predominance, it happens that if someone criticizes him, be it a political adversary or an ordinary citizen, ends up slaughtered on his social media, paid with public money. And the Town Hall is now full of communicators, videographers and photographers. Looking at the press and propaganda officers hired by Fabbri and councilors is like imagining walking through the open space of the Washington Post. A system that obviously pays off. And, in an upside-down world, it is the one that pays the most. So much so that on Zuckerberg’s pages there is now a cult of personality.
Some examples for the benefit of Santommaso readers. In Ferrara the tourism has dropped dramatically. Istat data indicates 30% fewer foreign tourists and 13.5 fewer total foreign tourists compared to before the pandemic. And what does the tourism councilor do? He’s happy as hell: Ferrara has never gone so well. The great exhibitions of Diamond Palace they saw the number of visitors halved and those of the nearby Palazzo Roverella were overtaken Rovigo? For the Councilor for Culture, the splendor of the Este times has been surpassed. Do they increase the incinerator’s capacity to burn 30 thousand more tons of hazardous waste every year? Air quality will improve.
It turns out that the concerts are financed with money from subsidiaries (even the funeral home)? It’s a general hosanna. Is it noted that – deducing from Fabbri’s words – does the Municipality take on the risk of private enterprise? Taxpayers believe it is their duty.
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They tell you that the concert of Bruce Springsteen brought in a turnover of over 10 million but they don’t want to give the data to the press for verification? It goes without saying that a Modena Vasco Rossi’s concert in 2017 brought in revenue of 2 and a half million. And in Modena there were 220 thousand spectators. In Ferrara 34 thousand. The people of Ferrara believe it. Does the deputy mayor film a reporter who documents a fight in the neighborhood where security should now reign, calling her a “shit communist”, inviting her without any French words to run and carry out physiological functions? Those watching laugh and applaud (it really happened, I swear).
We discover through a journalistic investigation that the Municipality collected funds from citizens to be allocated to the Covid emergency to be donated to the hospital and that money never arrived? Fabbri says she didn’t know. He’s stuff to make Fedez pack his bags. The mayor is unmasked while he shouts at the challenger Fabio Anselmo “faza da cul” and defines Ilaria Cucchi as a “whore”? All he needs is a post on social media in which he says he is the victim of yet another exploitation and everything is resolved. In short, he likes to win easily…
In this world upside down all that remains is for the people of Ferrara to start biting mosquitoes. This, at least, would be a great success.
