Elections are won – or lost – before going to the vote, not after the counting. The ballot boxes are terrible, they represent a sort of border between what we would like and what we manage to obtain, they have their own balance and a movement which however is fueled by the citizens who put their ballots inside. But the result is not simply victory or defeat – in the worst case scenario a draw could still go well – but it represents a sort of certificate that cancels that boundary because the work and choices made before are those that reward the work done.
The city of Cremona, in addition to other realities in Italy, has decided with a ballot to whom to entrust the city government, it is a fundamental step, democracy lives on those ballot boxes, it is nourished thanks to those colored cards where not only symbols are printed, but also choices, ideas, names of people or intentions. Reading the statistics, values which can tell a lot or little depending on the perspective used but which nevertheless lift the veil a little on the work done previously, it is clear that abstentionism is now well over the fateful 50% of those entitled to the vote. On average, therefore also in Cremona, more than half of the people did not feel the need or desire to go and vote for the city government, a very respectable choice, God forbid, like every choice that arises from a democratic path, a choice that – instead – it should make those who make up the network of names, ideas and choices on that ballot reflect very carefully. Abstentionism is a well-known issue, however it is an extremely underestimated issue and one that risks rearing its head in a much more profound way with the passage of time, like tooth decay that is ignored and not treated in time.
Not going to vote usually coincides with a total absence of empathy towards the very concept of municipal elections, as in a sort of evergreen song the phrases “they are of no use anyway” or “anyway they are all the same and none of them suit me” are the main reasons why people don’t sit inside the voting booth. This choice is also part of a democratic path, without forgetting that the change, real or presumed, that everyone aspires to comes precisely from the vote, the rest is up to those who have made the choice to work for the community. The tailor-made suit can be created by the best tailor in the world, it is up to us to know how to wear it and accept the fact that, perhaps in small details, it is not what we thought, at which point with needles and scissors we try to rebalance the suit so that it is as suitable as possible to our needs.
Absenteeism is synonymous with indifference towards what happens in a city, indifference leads, in the long term, only to a growing bad mood, a sort of unbearable irritation which does not ease with the passage of time but which tends to worsen until to total intolerance. The decline in the flow of people towards the polls is not only a problem of voting but also of a future perspective. Not voting and then blaming the problems – or the lack of solutions – that surround the life of a city is not the way to help to compare and try to improve what accompanies us every day. If the political offer seems unconstructive, this can be understood from the electoral campaigns, but they are not only those that create the possibility of addressing sometimes complex issues, discussion and dialogue should be developed every day for those five years which then end with the call to the polls. Elections are won – or lost – before the votes are counted because from the very day of publication of the data the winners and losers should start thinking about how to prepare for the next five years, because the greatest victory of a politician, especially in case of growing absenteeism, is to get people to vote again and to make them understand what a fundamental role voters and their motivations have in a democratic process. Six months are of little use before the fateful date of more or less agreeable meetings and monologues, it is much more useful to listen and understand immediately in order to plan the future and return to participation in political life that does not stop once the winner has been determined .
