“The Region is not from the Democratic Party”

A footballer, a doctor, some teachers, civic councilors, flood victims. No leaders, the order is strictly alphabetical. There is a lot of civil society in the list of Elena Ugolini, center-right candidate for the regional elections on 17 and 18 November, who also proudly highlights the presence of a 19-year-old student, Lucrezia Zenoni, “the youngest candidate in Bologna”.

Present at the Sydney hotel, among the 11 candidates, were the outgoing regional councilor of ‘Rete civica’ Marco Mastacchi and the lawyer Martino Pioggia, president of the Lower Idice Valley Flood Victims Committee. Also on the list with ‘Elena Ugolini president’ are Nicoletta Gallignani, coordinator in various Bolognese institutes for prevention projects relating to the mental health of adolescents, Laura Mingozzi, teacher from Castelguelfo, Roberto Pieralli, emergency doctor, and Marco Nannetti, entrepreneur and former on the list in Pianoro in support of Luca Vecchiettini.

Also in the running (but they were not present yesterday) are the former Guazzalochia player Daniele Corticelli, the former rossoblù footballer Carlo Nervo, the lawyer Annalisa Todaro and the former PD councilor and deputy mayor of Castel San Pietro who has decided to change sides, Cristina Baldazzi.

The objective for everyone: the turnaround. To get the change moving again, “because here there are those who believe (the Democratic Party, ed.) that the Region is its property”, the ‘veteran’ Mastacchi charges the troops, also thanks to his administrative experience as former mayor of Monzuno . The ‘star’ of the list, the young Zenoni, 19 years old, with a classical high school diploma at Galvani in Bologna, where she was an institute representative, now enrolled in Mechanical Engineering, raises a smile: “My CV is short for age reasons, but with the In my candidacy I would like to give an opportunity to young people who have distanced themselves from politics.”

Rain, in ‘flood victims’ quota, puts the recent bad weather disasters at the center. And he admits: “I decided to run while I was shoveling mud… My running is not a personal choice, but is dictated by events.” Nannetti explains the rationale for the list: “We are not professional politicians. Disruption must be at the top of the agenda”, he insists. Then, in a passage of his speech, he quotes Berlinguer (with subsequent applause). Like de Pascale, Ugolini also fields a candidate who comes from the world of healthcare: Pieralli, emergency doctor at 118 in Bologna. “We need to stop just asking for money for the national health service, this is not the only solution. It matters how the resources are managed”, he says, stinging the outgoing regional council.

“We have people who come from civil society, who represent different worlds, professionals, some from school, some from business. It seems very nice to make ourselves available so that politics returns to the service of the people”, says Ugolini. Then he adds: “Our goal is to build a Region that looks to the future”, he says, launching “an extraordinary plan to help young people”.

On the sidelines, there is a reference to the flood and the school closures of the last two days, decided by the mayor Matteo Lepore: “I understand prevention, but the whole emergency cannot be dumped on families”, says the centre-right candidate . And on the management of the flood and the tram construction sites, the mayor teases: “We need to understand what the priorities are. There is a lot of disorganization.”