The ordinance issued yesterday by the Municipality of Ravenna which prohibits the use and explosion of fireworks, rockets, firecrackers, firecrackers, raudi, Roman candles and similar pyrotechnic devices in the entire municipal territory on New Year’s Eve is causing a great debate in the city. A ban that will be active from 6pm on December 31st to 8am on January 1st. In fact, Ravenna politics is divided in the evaluation of this ordinance, issued for the first time in the city.
“As an Administration – said the mayor of Ravenna, Alessandro Barattoni – we decided to prepare an ordinance that intends to prohibit the use of fireworks and similar pyrotechnic devices to protect not only people and animals, but also to preserve the monuments and guarantee their decorum. I appeal to the responsibility of every single citizen to ensure that these rules are applied with a view to greater protection of our community”.
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Similar ordinances, it must be said, have also been applied this year in other municipalities in the Ravenna area, including Cervia and the municipalities of the Union of Romagna Faentina. For Ravenna, however, this is something new. In fact, until last year, no specific measures had been applied. Last year, deputy mayor Eugenio Fusignani had in fact said that “this decision is based on two main reasons: on the one hand, there are regulations that make these ordinances illegitimate; on the other, an ordinance only makes sense if it is really applicable”. But this year the new council has instead decided on a change of pace.
Criticisms of the ordinance
The Municipality’s ordinance has attracted harsh criticism from various parties. Remembering the words of Deputy Mayor Fusignani at the end of 2024, the group leader of Fratelli d’Italia, Nicola Grandi states: “This is not a simple evolution of thought, it is a total denial – continues Grandi – And then the question inevitably becomes a question of credibility. The rules were also there in 2024. The safety problems, accidents, disturbance to animals were also there in 2024. Urban decorum was not born yesterday. So: why back then it was said that an ordinance was useless and today the opposite is claimed?”.
“The merit of the provision is not in question – declares the FdI councilor – Here the problem is not the ordinance itself, but the idea that the rules can change radically from one year to the next without explanations, without memory, without coherence, as if the words spoken yesterday had no weight. This way of administering does not educate respect: it weakens it”.
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Giovanni Morgese of the Christian Democracy also expresses his doubts about “a measure that completely overturns that position (from last year, ed.), without providing any explanation as to why what was useless yesterday is indispensable today”. The DC representative believes that “institutional coherence and political clarity are fundamental values for maintaining citizens’ trust in institutions. An Administration that changes its line without explanation weakens the credibility of local governance and civic participation”.
The Ravenna al Centro civic list is also critical, according to which, however, it is more the timing of the ordinance, issued “a few hours before New Year’s Eve”. The list specifies: “We are firmly against the culture of the bang, we would have expected this measure to be taken months earlier, discouraging in the bud any possibility of sales and therefore purchases for young people and not only”.
“In our opinion, the provision, as it is applied today, is pure pro-environmentalist propaganda which does not create a culture for respect for both animals and people. Prescribing a ban for a period of just 12 hours does not eliminate the bang phenomenon but limits it to too short a period of time – concludes Ravenna at the Center – We would like to underline to the mayor the importance of establishing an extraordinary surveillance service that ensures scrupulous compliance with municipal ordinances both for New Year’s Eve and for other periods of the year”.
In favor of the ordinance
The novelty of the ordinance is instead well received by the Ravenna in Comune civic list which shares “the decision of the Municipal Administration – and adds – The Municipal Administration of Ravenna and Mayor Barattoni have done well not to persevere in the mistakes of their predecessors. Following those bad examples would not have been an indication of coherence but only of inattention towards the well-being of those who live in the Municipality, be they human or animal. Ravenna in Comune has been asking for it, up to now in vain, since its constitution: ten years in the making We hope it is a sign for a new attitude at least towards the environment to face the new year”.
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