«The thing that struck me most about your post-vote statements were these: “as my first act I will go to visit a 102-year-old gentleman, I promised him”. On January 24th, on the occasion of my birthday, I told you: you will come to visit me with the tricolor sash. This prediction of mine came true. You are a great woman who embodies the values of life and you will be a great mayor.” A bouquet of red and white flowers on the table and a tearful letter signed by Pietro, one of the two elderly people over a hundred years old who have been waiting for months for the visit of the first female citizen of Florence.
This marks the end of Sara Funaro’s first day as mayor, after the celebrations for her victory in the run-off which lasted until late at night with the sounds of the San Giovanni fires in the background. «I still feel a little muffled as if I hadn’t achieved anything, I obviously still have yesterday’s enthusiasm, but they are still very nice sensations»Funaro explains that after resting in the afternoon she met the two elderly people, Vittorio (101 years old) and Pietro (102), and in the evening she went to the Puccini theater for the national premiere of the show The novel of the Bible by Aldo Cazzullo and Moni Ovadia .
“I have disposed of some of the thousand messages received but they continue to arrive. If it continues like this I will have to work on it all night,” he jokes. Funaro who between today and tomorrow will be officially proclaimed mayor with the handover to the outgoing mayor Dario Nardella. The new mayor’s head is already turned to the next few weeks, when the new city council will take office and she will have to solve the puzzle of her new council, between confirmations (few) and new faces, political profiles and skills.
«Schmidt and I spoke, he called me and complimented me, I told him that we will see each other in the Council where I hope there will be constructive opposition on his part, and I hope that we can start thinking for the good of our city. This must be the common goal. In this electoral campaign the dialectic was a bit on another level and little on the vision of the city.”
Meanwhile, together with those of various city trade associations, they also arrive congratulations from the National Order of Psychologists, of which Funaro is a member as well as the new mayor of Perugia, Vittoria Ferdinandi: «Without wanting to go into political and party dynamics, we note this important and significant presence of psychologists in institutions, testimony to the public commitment of the profession and its greater visibility and social responsability. Best wishes for good work to Sara and Vittoria.”
The other aspect is the steps forward for women’s leadership. «What used to be the glass ceiling on gender policies, especially within politics in top roles, I think is collapsing and there is a predisposition among citizens but also in politics to recognize a female leadership role», underlines Funaro according to whom «there has been over the years and there still needs to be a significant effort but we have reached a point where there has already been a change. We saw it in our party with the choice of secretary Elly Schlein.”
