«Vit-to-ria, Vit-to-ria». They shout, laugh, hug each other. There is a big celebration in front of the Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia, waving of flags, the most varied, and chants: «Take us to the sea, Vittoria take us to the sea». Then, from the balcony, the broad smile of the woman appears first mayor of Perugia: Vittoria Ferdinandi. For everyone «Dada». And it’s a stadium roar.
«They threw an amount of hate at me that would have killed a bison. But they didn’t know that all of you were behind it”, down to applause. «They painted me for what I am not. It wasn’t easy not to fall into those chasms of hatred. But we have shown that politics can be joy and hope”, more applause. «We don’t blow on fears, but on dreams. We are the ones who want to mend things”, he exults.
Thirty-seven years old, single, two degrees, one in political philosophy and the other in psychology, knighted by President Mattarella for the restaurant where he puts young people with mental problems to work, Ferdinandi, won in Perugia, beating his centre-right and civic opponent, Margherita Scoccia.
Everyone is celebrating, after ten years of center-rightfrom the Pd to Azione, from +Europa, to M5S to Avs to Rifondazione to Link. But beware of confining it to a political interpretation. It is no coincidence that he first thanks “the guys who did an extraordinary job”, his mother, Perugia. But wasn’t the most difficult thing to do to reunite the wide field? She shakes her head and assures: «Ours is not a large field. I am a free woman. They are not the result of choices made by national leaders and parties. Here there are men and women who have come together to give an alternative to this city. The biggest mending was between the citizens and the administration. And in a city that had abolished the districts we will immediately start the houses of participation. With a consultation made up of health workers we will no longer abdicate the role that the mayor has as the primary health authority.”
The centre-right, the pro-life Pillon in the lead, had accused her of wanting to open up to gender theory. She assures: «No one will take her to this city. I am part of a scientific order. That theory doesn’t exist. THEor I put an item from the UN Agenda on the program: the culture of diversity, which is wealth.” Margherita Scoccia calls her to compliment her. Will you also sew with your right hand? “I hope that when she emerges from the panic of losing positions of power she will demonstrate responsibility.”
Meanwhile in the square his supporters have gone from Dalla (The city is moving) to Ricchi e povera (It will be because I love you) to Carrà (Pedro) in Maracaibo. Galvanized by his words: «From tomorrow this Palace will no longer be owned by power but open to all. This will be the center of politics for the next not 5 but 10 years. We performed a miracle”. Among the supporters also “his boys”, who we call fragile. «They supported me with courage like lions. Their determined struggle over their wounds was the greatest lesson for me. And they are the only ones who made me cry today. In fits and starts.”
