Ravenna goes to the polls. Democratic candidate Barattoni and the city where the Democratic Party is not afraid of the word “regasification plant”

Ravenna. The dolphin, as they call him in Ravenna, answers to the name of Alessandro Barattoni . Dolphin, that is, of the former Democratic mayor and president of the Emilia-Romagna Region Michele De Pascale, the man who, seen from Rome, was not afraid to pronounce the word “regasification plant”. From the series: the Democratic Party, in Ravenna, can be reformist without fear of losing votes and allies along the way . And in fact, returning to the dolphin, everyone in the center-left supports the 43-year-old Barattoni, already provincial secretary of the party after years at the helm of the Democratic Party group in the city council, strong in “his aptitude for logistics”, as a Ravenna Democrat says who underlines the candidate’s studies in accounting, his degree in Economics and European Union Politics and his current job (parallel to his political commitment) in real estate management for Federcoop Romagna, but also “the decision, publicly defended, to want to keep for himself, if elected, the delegation to the Port”. Which is to say: we proceed along the De Pascale line, and possibly, Barattoni said without hesitating, for two terms.

And so, after eight months of electoral campaigning also one-on-one with the electorate, according to the so-called “coffee method”, says a parliamentarian from Emilia – a method that consists of meeting every day with a representative of a category, association, institution or a simple citizen for a handshake and ten minutes of “bar chat but not in a bar” – the candidate is preparing for the vote tomorrow and Monday after yesterday’s final evening, in the presence of secretary Elly Schlein, not exactly De Pascalian in line, originally, but ready to applaud Barattoni, especially given the very broad field that supports him: no one is missing, in fact, despite the differences of opinion, especially with the Five Stars, on the subject of development and infrastructure. There are also the former third-party members of Italia Viva and Azione (in a civic list), for Barattoni such as M5s and Avs (even if the Green Angelo Bonelli defined, no later than six days ago, the regasification plant as a “mistake”).

The fact is that, after the crowd bath in the city's public gardens yesterday, Barattoni is awaiting the vote favored by the forecasts, both for his experience in the field and for the long wave of his predecessor who now leads the region and, last but not least, because of the fragmentation on the right, where the division is actually in three parts: Fratelli d'Italia supports the insurer Nicola Grandi, outgoing councilor, also supported by Forza Italia, while the Lega is nominating Alvaro Lancisi, a veteran city councilor (over eighty years old) that not everyone in the local Carroccio wanted to nominate. Then there is the center-right civic list "La Pigna" with Veronica Verlicchi. But what is the program of Barattoni, a lifelong resident of Ravenna, always married to his former schoolmate Sara, father of Pietro and citizen of the city center for only twelve years, since he decided to buy the house where his grandmother, very young, worked as a maid, sometimes taking her grandson Alessandro to play there? “For me, Ravenna,” the candidate writes on his website, “is like that house: a city founded on work and relationships. We Ravenna residents are used to collaborating, like the fingers of a hand, to get the best out of ourselves and our work. This is why associations and working together are part of us, and respect and social cohesion are natural consequences of our roots. Like the fingers of a hand, distinct but united, we are a synthesis of many elements that coexist. Our economy and our society are a set of different areas. I am thinking of agri-food, chemistry, tourism, culture, the port, energy and the environment.” Having run at a difficult time for the city (“never before,” says Barattoni, “also in light of the tragic flood that brought us to our knees, are we aware that we live in a fragile territory, as well as in a fragile time”), the Democratic provincial secretary promises to let the facts and projects speak for themselves: “We already have many of them, started and defined by the PNRR”.

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