On Tuesday evening there was a public meeting with the two prospective mayors. The meeting, as is normal here, began at 9.15p.m. and did not finish until midnight. The first part of the meeting was taken up with a confrontation between the current mayor, Federico, and the previous mayor, Landini, who is running for election again. Over the last few weeks there has been a series of acrimonious letters between the two along the lines of: Federico – we inherited debts and have managed to control spending and continue to develop services; Landini – current administration has done nothing creative but only continued projects already started when he was in power. All this arguing was repeated at the meeting and would have been better left in the past.
The second part of the meeting was a discussion between Landini and the other mayoral candidate Sabrina. Unfortunately, the chairperson didn’t keep control of the meeting and allow a balanced discussion. The first question was about the fate of the school’s in San Giorgio and the decision by Landini to support the idea of building a new school between San Giorgio and Piagge. Sabrina’s view was that the school was of vital importance and all options were up for discussion. At this point the current mayor, who is running as part of Sabrina’s team was called on to make a point. He pointed out that decisions had to be made on possible costs and not on the idea that “without a school in the village it ceases to be a village”. A member of the audience then pointed out that we were hear to hear Sabrina’s ideas and not the current mayor. At this point Landini let it be known that he could defend his decisions and ideas and did not need anyone else’s help. It was becoming rather petty, noisy and late. I left at 11.00 with the distinct view that both candidates have a different starting point for the role of mayor. Sabrina starts at the local level and looks to see what can be done within reasonable costs level e.g. the bus to take people with no car to the local markets. Landini starts from the regional level and views the mayors role as being visible at regional level and ensuring San Giorgio gets its share of any money available. Things such as buses to the market are useful but not central. Perhaps the new mayor needs both qualities but from the meeting we are no wiser.