“I’ll exchange six thousand euros for a minister’s furniture”. And again “I’ll win the Tour sooner than get reimbursements”. The flood victims who welcomed the Tour de France to Faenza on Sunday must have been “angry” and who, on their bikes, were the protagonists of a peaceful ride through the streets of the city, to keep attention high on their situation more than a year after the disaster in May 2023. But, as we read on the signs displayed at their arrival point in Piazzale Sercognani, they certainly haven’t lost their irony and sense of humor.
The initiative, renamed “The labors of the flood victims of Faenza in the Alps and Pyrenees of bureaucracy”, was promoted by the committees of Borgo and Ponte Romano. Their proposal to take a bike ride an hour before the passage of the Grande Boucle caravan was partially accepted. The group, in fact, dressed in yellow jerseys featuring the logo of the “Angry Flood Victims”, met up much earlier, with an appointment at 8 in via Golinelli and crossed the areas of the city that were most affected, doubly, by the flood. The group then met at the finish line in Piazzale Sercognani. There, a three-meter by three-meter banner was hung, also ‘branded’ “Angry Flood Victims”.
“The objective of giving visibility to the committees, to the citizens’ requests with the aim of keeping attention high on our situation – comments Marcello Arfelli, representative of the Borgo committee – was almost completely achieved. We are happy that the event took place in a serene atmosphere, without any provocation. We just wanted to carry out a peaceful protest and we succeeded. When we met for the ride in the morning, there were already about ninety people in Piazzale Sercognani the yellow shirt of the flood victims”.
A beautiful sight, which also attracted the cameras of national television programs. “We had a crew from the ‘Carta Bianca’ show hosted by Bianca Berlinguer who accompanied us all the way up to the finish line. What a shame, however, for the national and international networks that follow the Tour de France: they continued on and gave us they deliberately ignored it. It made us smile a little, because our banner was very visible from different positions”, continues Arfelli.
The soundtrack of the ride was the inevitable ‘Romagna Mia’, sung both half an hour before and during the passage of the runners. “We sang it with the accompaniment of a friend of ours who was affected by the flood, who is a great and well-known accordionist – adds Arfelli -. It was a great emotion, as was the meeting with the representatives of other committees. We have established important relationships and we want to continue to keep the attention high also with new initiatives. We already have an evening planned, next July 16, in which the film ‘Romagna Tropicale’ will be screened at the summer arena of the Cinema Teatro Europa, in Faenza. In the coming days we will give further details, but in the meantime we are also trying to involve scientists, to have a critical point of view and start serious reflections on environmental issues”, concludes Arfelli.
