Lvictory for the centre-right was in the air. And there was, even if only to a limited extent. At the age of 81 (he will turn 81 on August 25th), Adriana Poli Bortone she is the new mayor of Lecce. For the centre-right candidate it is a return to Palazzo Carafa because she was the first citizen of the Salento capital from 25 May 1998 to 29 May 2007. After having failed to win in the first round by just 24 votes, that was the number she needed to obtain the 50% + 1, she defeated the outgoing mayor with the 10 lists that support her Carlo Salvemini (9 lists) of the centre-left. The final result is clear: Poli Bortone beats Salvemini 50.69% to 49.31% and with a 646 vote advantage goes on to administer the city-cradle of Lecce baroque and its 94,434 inhabitants. The voter turnout was 60.76% (68.43% in the first round).
Poli Bortone’s political career is long-standing and always in the centre-right: she was a deputy and senator of the Republic and minister of agricultural, food and forestry resources in the first government Berlusconi. Those who know her speak of a tenacious and determined woman. And to show what he is made of, Poli Bortone this morning, with the polls open, presented a complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office against the president of the Puglia Region Michele Emiliano, denouncing an alleged violation of electoral silence by the governor on the Saturday before the vote for the runoff. The statements that Emiliano made to a local TV on 22 June, the day in which he brought together all the hospital heads of the city of Lecce in a city hotel, ended up in the sights of the new mayor of Lecce, “candidly admitting to the reporter’s microphone that he had come in Lecce to support the candidacy of Carlo Salvemini”, accuses the mayor. But there is also the tender side of Poli Bortone who said she awaited the election result barricaded at home.
“I played burraco with my friends, I closed the doors until they called me and told me I could come down.” “What will I do tomorrow? I will start – she told reporters – to put some flowers in the city. It was beautiful, wonderful, being together and having the city so joyful around us.” “What do I say to Salvemini? And what should I tell him? I don’t say anything at all, I’m always sorry for those who lose, but all competitions are like this, there are those who win and there are those who lose: this time he lost.” (Handle)
