“Dearest Laura, best wishes and congratulations on the result achieved by you and your team. I tell you right away that I would not want to be in your shoes these days in which you choose the team that will govern the city of Avellino. Up to now, electoral strategies have prevailed, the fictitious 'centre-periphery' opposition, the waving of flags, the promises of one candidate or another, the fireworks as for winning the championship (we are a stadium people!), but now the common good must prevail and not the empire of one party".
He writes it on bishop di Avellino, Monsignor Arturo Aiello, in a letter to the new mayor of Avellino, Laura Nargi, winner of the runoff on June 23 and 24. “When you take the oath as first citizen of Avellino – writes Monsignor Aiello – you will not do so as the mayor of a group, but as the director and guardian of a good that concerns everyone, winners and losers. Now is the time for the city, for its truest and most forgotten needs, first of all for the people, all of them, without any exclusions and, if there is to be a predilection it must be directed towards the pockets of poverty of Quattrograne, Valle, Rione-Ferrovia.
I am not writing to you as a Bishop, but as a citizen who fears that 'equal parts cannot be given to unequals', as Don Lorenzo Milani wrote". Addressing the new mayor Nargi, the bishop of Avellino, writes again: "To choose the city and give it a stable government, your team must be as inclusive as possible, skipping the winners-losers divide, and choosing competent collaborators even from lists that have not reached the victory podium. I do not intend to cancel the task of the opposition, which must be intelligent and, when necessary, collaborative, but, in the game of parts, to think beyond the fences and the ancient and corroded party logic.
The city - continues Monsignor Aiello - needs stability and long-term projects that can only be achieved by a team that unites the different souls. I know it is difficult, but it is the high task to which you are called, in this solemn moment, to avoid uncertain balances and short-term interventions that prove right the historical adage that wants the last victory to be the premises of the future war. Your Bishop, who does not want to confuse competences that are and remain different, accompanies you in these decisive days for the future of our city, prays for you and blesses you. Laura, now is the city's time. Who knows, perhaps that impromptu waltz at a party is the key to our future", concludes the bishop of Avellino, referring to the dance between Laura Nargi and Antonio Gengaro, her challenger in the run-off, a few hours before the vote during a party.
Article published on 3 July 2024 - 19:36
