AVERSA Francesco Matacena, accountant, mayoral candidate for a center civic coalition with 49.33% of the votes faces Antonio Farinaro in the run-off on Sunday and Monday with 25.87%.
What is your vision for Aversa in the next five years? How do you intend to achieve it?
As we said in these days of the electoral campaign, we intend to create a virtuous city in various phases: first of all, through extraordinary maintenance interventions, we must restore decorum to the city, make the city safer, more sustainable and attractive. To then implement all the necessary actions to achieve the ambitious objective of nominating Aversa, on the occasion of the Millennium of its foundation, as Italian Capital of Culture.
What are the three main priorities of your electoral program?
Urban decorum, safety and concrete interventions to support vulnerable people.
How do you intend to address the social and petty crime emergencies that have hit Aversa in recent years?
Immediately, we intend to sign an “Aversa Security Pact” with the prefecture, police headquarters and law enforcement agencies. We will strengthen local control systems by strengthening video surveillance systems.
What concrete measures do you propose to improve safety on the streets?
Intervene immediately to restore the conditions of the roads, eliminating potholes and fixing the bumpy paving in the historic center; launch a constant and massive information and awareness campaign on road safety in the city, in nightlife venues, but above all in schools, in collaboration with associations of road victims; restore vertical and horizontal signs to allow everyone, pedestrians, motorists and cyclists to turn safely, and install speed deterrents.
What strategies will you adopt for a safe nightlife?
Nightlife is a resource for the city, but it needs to be regulated with the utmost urgency. A permanent discussion table will be established between the administration, traders’ associations and residents. We must respect everyone. First of all, we must respect the rules and the city, but all the entrepreneurs who have invested and create healthy opportunities for the area must also be protected. Certain sanctions for those who do not respect the rules.
What plans do you have to improve education and opportunities for young people in Aversa?
We will collaborate with schools to educate young people about active citizenship, legality, respect for rules and the environment. We will activate the right levers to allow young people employment opportunities by enhancing local tourism and the artisanal crafts typical of our city.
What initiatives will you take to strengthen social services?
It is a sector that requires immediate and concrete interventions, with very high professionalism. It is one of the main priorities: to be close to families who experience a condition of fragility and find adequate and timely solutions.
What are your plans for the sustainable urban development of the city?
It is necessary to provide the city with a clear planning tool (Puc), with certain rules, which abandons the logic of profit to access that of sustainable development, without destroying natural resources, aligning economic development with environmental protection. Certain rules to protect and safeguard the historic center, but also revision of the current rules to relaunch the heart of the first Norman county of Italy.
What measures will you implement to ensure transparency in the municipal administration and fight corruption after the latest judicial investigation in the municipality?
Among the actions to be undertaken, the need to give new impetus to the administrative machine emerges as a priority. A rotation of staff must be carried out, depending on specific professional skills. The administration will have to guarantee administrative transparency, encouraging the dissemination of information.
How do you intend to involve citizens in the decision-making process?
Citizens will be involved through an innovative tool represented by the “participatory” budget. We will also introduce procedures that will allow citizens to promptly verify what has been achieved compared to what was estimated.
How will you tackle the problem of traffic and roads in the city? Aversa is practically congested at certain times.
It is necessary to immediately adopt a new urban traffic plan (PUT). We must also encourage the use of sustainable mobility means, such as electric buses, bike sharing services, electric scooters.
What initiatives will you propose to enhance the cultural and historical heritage of Aversa?
It is our intention to adopt a tourist plan for the city, which enhances all the assets of high historical-artistic-cultural value so that Aversa can be included in the main tourist itineraries.
Why should the citizens of Aversa vote for it?
The program of our coalition has already been widely appreciated by the people of Aversa. The vote in the first round has already determined the election of the majority of municipal councilors in our favour. The victory of our opponent would only lead to a return to the polls.
What is the final message you want to convey to voters ahead of the runoff?
After three administrations that ended their mandate before the natural expiration, Aversa finally has the opportunity to elect a mayor with a strong majority who will guarantee five years of good governance for the social, economic and cultural growth of our beloved territory. Five years of good governance for the social, economic and cultural growth of our territory.
Antonio Farinaro, lawyer, candidate for mayor for a centre-right coalition with 25.87% of the votes faces Francesco Matacena in the run-off on Sunday and Monday with 49.33%.
What is your vision for Aversa in the next five years? How do you intend to achieve it?
In recent weeks we have brought our idea of a city that can only start from ordinary administration to the homes of the Aversani. We don’t have a dream book to illustrate but clear and concrete points: we need to start again from the ordinary that has been missing in recent years. This is what the city asks of us. And so, in the presence of the people of Aversa we are presenting clear and realistic ideas, projects and programmes. Starting from a certainty: no one will be betrayed by confusing crowds and opaque consociativisms. The entire coalition thinks in a choral way, not with its “I”, but with “We”.
What are the three main priorities of your electoral program?
There are many items on the agenda: environmental remediation, urban reorganization, infrastructure, hygiene and urban lighting, order, safety, regulation of nightlife, roads and road signs, trade and production activities, social and cohesion policies, transport, cultural initiatives, sports and much more.
How do you intend to address the social and petty crime emergencies that have hit Aversa in recent years?
Security policy cannot be built on emergency and improvisation. We are convinced that the fight for order and security must represent a common commitment of all political, social, productive, trade union, cultural and religious forces. This collective commitment, evidently, does not and cannot have a political colour, much less constitute a sinister and unacceptable instrument of speculation, be it social or political, or, even worse, a miserable means of propaganda or media visibility. Faced with the offer of strong civic collaboration, however, the State must do its part.
What concrete measures do you propose to improve safety on the city’s streets?
In terms of safety, in recent years we have recorded a decisive and dangerous decline, with the proliferation of criminal phenomena ranging from car thefts to those to the detriment of commercial establishments, from fights to attacks which are multiplying in the nightlife, to parking attendants squatters sometimes employed by organized crime. The next administration, with respect to all this, will have to make a change in the scope of its competences: implementing and improving the video surveillance service, establishing and proposing moments of discussion with the police.
What strategies will you adopt for a safe nightlife?
It is necessary to establish certain rules in terms of the closure of commercial establishments and the use of public address systems, and finally, providing widespread controls on the regular exercise of commercial activities. It is necessary to combine the needs of attractive and quality trade with the right to safety and night rest of citizens, in particular those affected by the nightlife phenomenon and unbearable forms of noise pollution. Zero tolerance.
What plans do you have to improve education and opportunities for young people in Aversa?
Young people, who are the only ones who have chosen me as a guide and as a candidate for mayor, are at the center of my project. Another idea is that of establishing the Youth Forum. And it will be them, the kids, who will say what they want to do and how to do it.
What initiatives will you take to strengthen social services?
Aversa, the leading municipality in the socio-health sector, must resume the leadership role. The 328 services must be reorganized, guaranteeing the provision of efficient services to the weakest groups. The planning of social and socio-health interventions must mainly take into due consideration: children, disabled people, elderly people, women and the family.
What are your plans for the sustainable urban development of the city?
Until a few years ago, Aversa was the point of reference for the entire Agro Aversa area and the second city in the province. Then, unfortunately, we became a colony of Mondragone or other towns. But this is not what we want. Aversa must return to being the reference center for the entire Agro starting from the services offered. It seems superfluous to reiterate the importance of the approval of the Puc, of which traces have now sadly been lost. It is essential to guarantee serious control of land consumption.
What measures will you implement to ensure transparency in the municipal administration and fight corruption after the latest judicial investigation in the municipality?
Legality is an essential value and must not only be preached, but practiced with real and concrete actions. For this reason I accepted the proposal of some members of the coalition to be able to create a department that deals with Transparency, Legality and assets confiscated from organized crime.
How do you intend to involve citizens in the decision-making process?
Let’s start with a concrete example: Piazza Savignano. Enzo Palmieri, the prior of the Congrega di San Giuseppe, with his brothers is implementing an action to be taken as an example and exported to other parts of the city. For some time the members of the congregation and the residents of the neighborhood have made that open space a little jewel: they take care of the greenery, carry out maintenance and have made that square even more beautiful. We need to start from this.”
How will you tackle the problem of traffic and roads in the city?
The city needs a new and modern traffic plan to ensure, in light of urban planning and building transformations, mobility that minimizes inconvenience and avoids constant traffic jams and the consequent noise and environmental pollution.
What initiatives will you propose to enhance the cultural and historical heritage of Aversa?
Reopening the “Caianiello” culture auditorium, the house of associations, is a priority.
Why should the citizens of Aversa vote for it?
We brought our idea of the City into homes, on the streets and among the people. We are coherence.
What is the final message you want to convey to voters in view of the ballot?
We invite all voters to think carefully about who they deserve to be represented.”
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