The weekly Panorama had interviewed him a few days before the recent municipal elections Simone Venturini, candidate for mayor of the centre-right who then won the elections beating the candidate of the centre-left and the “wide field” Andrea Martella.
This is what the man who became the youngest mayor of the Serenissima (38 years old, former councilor, polite Catholic) told the Panorama reporter before his success at the seat.
Is the dispute felt?
«It certainly has a national significance. On the one hand, you can see the vastness of the wide field. On the other, our compact coalition.”
Was Zaia, the former Venetian governor, also among the possible suitors? «Our names have been around for months. Luca is a person with great potential: he could do a lot for this country. So it was decided for a civic candidacy.”
The challenger who grew up between the friars and the mainland
Your candidacy?
«A person who knows the administration well and can carry forward the good things that have been done».
Are you talking about her?
«From budget consolidation to the reorganization of the municipal machinery. We pulled Venice out of the shallows.”
Were you born and raised in working-class Marghera?
«However, I have been living in Venice for almost four and a half years».
From the woods and the coast?
«It helps me understand a multifaceted and complex city well: water, land, islands».
Were you a councilor for eleven years?
«I joined the city council for the first time in 2010, when I was twenty-two years old».
At the time, after Cacciari, was Orsoni mayor?
«Municipality almost bankrupt. There was also no money for the salaries of the employees. The subsidiaries risked collapse. The Casino was not standing. A city at the end of its journey.”
After forty years of red councils and five parties?
“Lived with the idea that public money, in the end, belonged to no one.”
A somewhat cheerful management?
«Twentieth century».
In the meantime, did you assiduously frequent the scouts and the parish? «
I grew up among Franciscan friars. In those years I also met the patriarch of Venice, Angelo Scola. I was part of a youth group created by him. He met with us regularly. He invited us to get involved.”
Didn’t he escape?
«The cardinal had a lot of influence. I also owe my commitment to politics to his encouragement. He was the one who gave me the final encouragement.”
Did he join the UDC?
«The only party I joined in the past».
The crux of the conflict with the Democratic Party apparatus
Is your opponent Senator Andrea Martella, former head of Zingaretti’s political secretariat and historic party official?
«PCI, Pds, DS and now PD. Very good at always choosing the right current.”
Have you been a parliamentarian for a quarter of a century?
«Born in Portogruarothen he moved to Romenow resides in Mestre».
Don’t know Venice?
“His presence certainly didn’t leave its mark.”
Do a dozen lists support it?
“From Communist refoundation to the former Christian Democrats. He announces consultations and observers on everything, but he is already held hostage by the most extremist party.”
The turbo environmentalists?
«Those who consider even the smallest maintenance an attack on the lagoon. But the port employs twenty thousand people: the canals must be dredged, otherwise the depth will decrease. Untouchability means slow agony.”
Did they even object to the Mose?
«Now they are all with Martella, but they are careful about criticism. They would chase them with brooms. The MOSE works and is saving Venice.”
Tourism management and safety alert
Do they want to eliminate the entrance ticket?
«After seventy years, for the first time, we have tried to address the issue of daily tourism. They, ideologically, announce that they will go back. So I asked Martella: “And then what will you do?”».
Answer?
«The usual: “A table”. But other imaginative tools, from limited numbers to locking gates, are not compatible with the law.”
Venice has 250 thousand inhabitants: but only a fifth live in the historic centre?
«The excess of visitors, at some moments, is evident. We must insist, strengthening the access fee.”
Isn’t that the only disagreement? «On the one hand, their program includes a no to everything: port, infrastructure, investments, parking. On the other hand, it offers no concrete answers. There are only statements of principles: more safety, more residents, more neighborhood shops.”
They fiercely criticize the former mayor. «Venturini is his dolphin», do they add?
«The results are undeniable: restored budget, doubled police forces, public works worth billions. And there are construction sites everywhere: including that of the new stadium where the Venicejust promoted to Serie A».
Has a large mosque in Mestre been discussed for years?
«It’s not our goal. They, however, suggest the opposite.”
In the Democratic Party alone, between the city council and the municipality, are six fervent Muslims running?
«Posters in Bengali, hanging everywhere, urge people to vote for the party in the name of Allah. They campaign, ensuring that answers will come to their community.”
The one thousand five hundred seat cultural center?
“They promise that, if they are elected, it will be built quickly and will be as impressive as the imaginative project presented.”
How much the judicial poisons and controversies have weighed on the Biennale
Do the latest polls give Martella the lead?
«They leave whatever time they find. The next day another one came out that said we were victorious.”
After two mandates of Brugnaro, is the game still open?
“They have ridden a legal case that has greatly damaged the image of the administration.”
Is he accused of complicity in corruption for the failed sale of his land to a Singaporean tycoon? «A very long and murky investigation, with accusations yet to be proven. The left, in the absence of better arguments, uses this weapon in attempts to overthrow the opponent. But we live in a civilized country: there should still be that principle of innocence that they always try to overturn.”
We debate the most famous cultural institutions of the city. After weeks of controversy over the Russian pavilion, has the Biennale been inaugurated?
«They have built an excessive case. The president’s initial intentions were extremely intelligent: to use the Biennale also as a place for dialogue.”
Are you with Buttafuoco, then?
«An artistic reasoning has been transformed into a political theme. The short circuit with the government hasn’t done us any good.”
Are you referring to Giuli?
“I hope that once the cameras are turned off and the vernissages are over, I can come to restore serenity.”
Did the minister also defend the dismissal of Venezi, who was appointed conductor at La Fenice?
«In Rome they should have listened more to the municipal administration, avoiding forcing».
Does this large water harm you?
“We certainly don’t like it.”
An unexpected help to the contenders?
“The approach of the elections does not help to calm the atmosphere.”
Meanwhile, does Martella want to enlist Gabrielli, former police chief, as a security consultant?
“TO Milanwhere he was called with the same role, it seems to me that they don’t regret it.”
Apparently not?
«We like Milan for its development and attractiveness, but it is the least safe city in Italy. I don’t see any reason to borrow this model here.”
Does the dem challenge her: «I have frequented very important government places, which I don’t even know if you have ever entered»?
“They called him Modesto.”
Did he take it?
«A sentence like that just makes you smile. He never took preferences. It stayed afloat for twenty-five years.”
He adds: «I have a circle of relationships that allows me to say how Venice can be defended in Rome»?
“In this long period, no one has ever noticed his great influence and his enormous power.”
Is the field off the lagoon called “the good season”?
«They hope to give a signal to the government. They did everything to put them together. It is a coalition created solely to try to win.”
Are these dress rehearsals for the next policies?
«The life of Venetians is worth more than an electoral experiment. It is a coalition that has no common idea on anything and will split the day after the elections.”
Does it remind you a little of the old Olive Tree?
“Worse. At least Prodi he wasn’t a communist.”
