At 81, the new centre-right mayor wins the run-off with the former mayor Carlo Salvemini, achieving the miracle of reviving the Apulian centre-right, dented by twenty years of Emilianism
She explained from the stage that “Lecce is a feeling”: with the oratory art of the politicians of the First Republic, she, who grew up in the brood of the Flame since the end of the sixties, enchanted Piazza Sant’Oronzo by recalling the sentimental connection that has always been linked to the Salento community. Born in 1943, Adriana Poli Bortone returns to wear the tricolor sash for the third time, winning a heated ballot with the outgoing centre-left mayor Carlo Salveminibut most of all realizing the miracle of reviving the Apulian centre-rightdented by twenty years of Emilianism.
She explained from the stage that “Lecce is a feeling”: with the oratory art of the politicians of the First Republic, she, who grew up in the brood of the Flame since the end of the sixties, enchanted Piazza Sant’Oronzo by recalling the sentimental connection that has always been linked to the Salento community. Born in 1943, Adriana Poli Bortone returns to wear the tricolor sash for the third time, winning a heated ballot with the outgoing centre-left mayor Carlo Salveminibut most of all realizing the miracle of reviving the Apulian centre-rightdented by twenty years of Emilianism.
Proud of her political cursus honorum, “la Adriana” or “Grandma Adriana” as she ironically called herself, he campaigned without sparing himself, between a frenzied presence in the area with mini rallies (in some cases even opposed by progressive parish priests) and a social dimension that seduced the segment of the youth electorate that some hypothesized might not be very involved in his project. He defeated “the joyful war machine” of the Lecce centre-left, which will now fall into the labyrinth of “debate” and self-criticism: by subverting predictions and polls, he defeated the armies of the dem (led by the deputy Claudio Stefanazzi, very loyal to the Emir, and by the president of the regional council Loredana Capone), and the civic front of Alessandro Delli Noci, a child prodigy raised on the university right and now a strongman of the regional council. Historical courses and recurrences: in 1998 he began his adventure as first citizen by beating Carlo Salvemini’s father, Stefano, a member of the PDS and also an outgoing mayor…
Adriana – who has become a meme as well as the protagonist of a myriad of video clips inspired by Rocky-Sylvester Stallone’s famous cry – has chosen purple and yellow as the colors of her electoral campaign, the same shade as the elegant dress she wore in 1994, when she signed Minister of Agriculture of Silvio Berlusconi’s first government, with Giuliano Ferrara executive delegate for relations with parliament, in front of the President of the Republic Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. To obtain the candidacy for mayor she did not bother but weaved the ancient plot of diplomacy, pacifying the always warlike relations between the various proconsuls of the right-wing of the Baroque city: she succeeded in the masterpiece of harmonizing the demands of the League of senator Roberto Marti with the requests of Erio Congedo, a Melonian deputy, and with the request for space from the Forzisti and the civic member Paolo Pagliaro. She found Maurizio Gasparri’s blue shore in Rome, and waited for the minister Raffaele Fitto to also be convinced of the validity of her proposal. “What does lu Raffaele say?”, was the refrain until the green light from the politician from Maglie, who was an essential and discreet presence in the Salento dispute, like the sober Alfredo Mantovano, who released a video of his in support of the senator .
The electoral campaign consecrated her nieces, Fanny (never a right-wing sympathizer) and Carola as influencers and supporters who, with viral video clips, demolished the progressive rhetoric that described “Adriana as a dangerous extremist”. And to ensure you don’t miss anythingshe also performed in a DJ set with the notes of fun, like a new Debora De Luca from Salentowith a nonchalance that made his rival Salvemini appear like a gray Politburo exponent.
Now Poli Bortone, celebrated on Facebook by the Giorgio Almirante Foundation, returns to be a national political entity, sings the identity song “Arcu te pratu” in the square and also receives the applause of Sheikh Emiliano: “The defeat of Lecce? Adriana is always Adriana…”.
