PESCARA. The re-elected mayor stood up and applauded in front of a full city council chamber Carlo Masci he is moved: he holds the microphone with both hands like a child does at a school play and doesn’t speak. The mayor remains silent until his friend the deputy Nazario Pagano, regional head of Forza Italia, gives him a shot in the arm: “Come on Carlo, come on.” The president of the Abruzzo region smiles Marcus Marsilio, sitting to the right of Masci. Masci’s second mandate begins under the sign of an emotion that becomes visible to the point of making one’s eyes watery. «This is the victory of the city that said yes to the works we have already started, a modern Pescara with a Garibaldi spirit. The city of yes, of doing and of courage: the people of Pescara”, says the mayor who won the first round with 50.95% against 34.24% Carlo Costantini of the centre-left, «they have decided and we will continue along this line to make Pescara even more beautiful, more welcoming and bigger».
During the election campaign, Masci’s challengers spoke of Pescara as a dirty, smelly and not at all welcoming city: “When I heard these things I felt sorry as a citizen,” says Masci, the Blue Flag mayor for 4 years. «And then», he continues, «it hurt me when they said that I am overbearing and arrogant: I listen and decide only for the good of the city».
Masci, a permanent presence in politics since 1994, scored his second victory in a row in the first round: in 2019 he won with 51.33% against Marinella Sclocco, this time he beats Costantini with a gap of 16%. «Winning the first time can happen», says the mayor, «winning like this, the second time, means that we did well. The people of Pescara have made a clear choice towards an increasingly international city and we are there and will always be there.”
Masci would have liked to inaugurate at least three works before the elections but did not have time: Piazza Sacro Cuore, Corso Umberto and the waterfront in the Madonnina area. «I won’t take off my tennis shoes until I’ve checked the last construction site», promises Masci, «Pescara deserves this commitment. Never taken a day off in five years.”
And if the people of Pescara decided on the basis of the projects, Masci now has the green light for the central park in the resulting area with a silo car park and the Abruzzo Region building, library and auditorium; to the trolley car along the park road; to the two buildings with 56 apartments in place of the Horseshoe demolished in Rancitelli. «I can’t wait to get on the first trolleybus», echoes Marsilio, «to inaugurate the accommodation at the former Horseshoe, to see the park and the sole headquarters of the Region in the resulting area. They said no to all this, we will move forward: we will work to give Pescara all the visibility it deserves.” And Marsilio underlines: «It was very important that Masci could continue his work. Risking finding ourselves, in the next few years, with the Region investing in a road and the city of Pescara boycotting or resisting by focusing on something else, would have risked causing a stalemate and even a loss of funding and opportunities.”
And Masci thanks him with his voice breaking with emotion: «Thanks to all those who have been with me, for 5 years, in the city council and in the council: together we have protected and relaunched Pescara. Thanks to the candidates: it was not a simple electoral campaign because there were also personal accusations; thanks to the parties, thanks to Lorenzo Sighs, the architect of victory; thanks to my lifelong friends who were there even when it seemed like everything was falling apart; thanks to my children who brought added value, that is, that humanity that politics sometimes lacks.” The mayor is moved: «Life is not always easy», he says. From the outside it may seem that it is, but it is not. «So I want to be a help to everyone», promises Masci who meets his gaze Michele Russo, the strategist of the electoral campaign, and says: «Thirty years ago it was Russo himself who told me “look, Mayor Carlo Pace has chosen you as councilor”. I was a young lawyer.” Now, however, Masci will be the last mayor of Pescara before the merger with Montesilvano and Spoltore scheduled for 2027. Provided that, in two and a half years, the union will take place.
