The new mayors
The mayor: “Work, social issues, culture and recovery of urban greenery are our priorities”
Vittoria Ferdinandi is the first female mayor in the history of Perugia. A victory that comes from what she calls “a new process of resocialization of politics”, in which participation returns to be at the center of the city debate. The new mayor wins after having crossed the 52 neighborhoods of a city of 160 thousand inhabitants, eleventh in Italy by extension. A success achieved thanks to an extraordinary capacity for “emotional connection” established with the citizens of Perugia. This also seems to be the result of a policy that has been able to promote a very broad coalition that is based on a new idea of the city. The open, inclusive and plural one that Ferdinandi has always promoted and practiced through her civil and professional commitment. Two degrees, one in political psychology and one in clinical psychology. In 2021, Ferdinandi was named Cavaliere al Merito della Repubblica Italiana by President Sergio Mattarella “for her contribution in promoting practices of autonomy and social inclusion for psychiatric patients”, carried out within the “Numero Zero” restaurant she manages. “During this extraordinary journey, I had the confirmation that Perugia still has a proud, fierce and indomitable soul”, says the new mayor who admits “our task was to awaken it and, I believe we really succeeded”.
This result, for Ferdinandi, represents a tangible sign that the city wants to return to being alive, lively and ambitious. “Through listening – he explains – participation and care we were able to revive the political debate, calling upon thousands of people to give their contribution of ideas and projects. We wrote a program together with the city. This made the difference, well aware that Perugia has the primary need to mend the relationship between the center and the suburbs”.
Perugia, in short, believed in a gentle revolution and “from today we must follow up on the commitments made, starting precisely from participation that we hope will become a tool for governing the city”, specifies the mayor of Perugia explaining the desire to “revive, in spirit and not in bureaucratic structure, the 13 old districts. We will call them Houses of participation, where people will once again have a place to discuss, propose ideas and represent their requests to the municipal administration”.
Another priority will be the implementation of the regional law on participatory administration. “The co-programming and co-design system – he underlines – will become the backbone of a new idea of government. “Let’s think of a city that recovers green spaces, pays attention to natural resources. Let’s imagine a city that knows how to best interpret the role of capital of the ‘Green Heart of Italy’”. In this regard, “it is necessary to redefine a relationship between city and landscape in an urban framework with zero land consumption”.
Ferdinandi also has clear ideas on the issues of work, social issues and culture: “they will return to being central” and regarding the relationship with other Umbrian municipalities, with the province of Perugia and with the Region: “we expect to establish a relationship of close collaboration. We believe it is right that the capital city returns to making its voice heard on important issues such as infrastructure, health and waste.
“I believe that, in this sense, the relationship with regional and national Anci is fundamental. There are issues, such as immigration and asylum seekers, that must see Italian municipalities as more protagonists so that the Government can provide adequate responses to such deeply felt and complex problems”.
