Siena, Anna Ferretti: “If the centre-left holds the primaries, I will participate: I want to get involved for the city”
Anna Ferrettiformer councilor and Caritas contact person has dissolved the reservations by letting it be known, through a long post on Facebook, to be willing to participate in any primaries of the centre-left for the choice of the candidate for mayor for the 2023 administrative elections.
“If I think of Siena – is the premise of the post – the image that I have and that represents it to me is the Pellegrinaio of Santa Maria della Scala. In those paintings I find enclosed the profound values that built it and made it great: hospitality, care, science, taking charge of people, combined with development, growth, movement, construction of tomorrow. It is the image that in my opinion was missing in the beautiful service that RAI broadcast on Sunday 8 January in the program “Paesi che vai”. I’m not a television author, but the Pellegrinaio was missing. In a certain sense, the true soul of the city has been missing. Siena has many, many treasures, enclosed in a few spaces, but it also has a future ahead of it to build that did not appear in those images”.
The dissolution of the reserve: “That’s why, after so much thinking, I overcame my doubts and perplexities and said to myself: what can I do to build this future? Is it possible, does it make sense, at my age to dare the availability of my energies, my experiences to put myself on the line, together with whoever wants to accompany and support me, to work concretely, for 5 years, for the Sienese community? And I said “YES”. I also want to participate, not alone but hopefully accompanied by many people, in the construction of a perspective for my, our city – she announces – If the center left decides to hold the primaries, as several have asked, if I have the requisites , I will also participate, willingly and with passion. It is right to start from a shared path, it is right to start from comparison, because it is in comparison, in dialogue, in living the rules of democracy, that progress is made”.
Ferretti talks about Siena’s prospects and its future: “Nobody has the solution in their pocket for the serious problems that the city, the region, Italy and Europe have. We live a war up close, we see its effects every day, we have lived through two years of lockdown with Covid, the volunteering experience that I live makes me touch the suffering and difficulties of many citizens every day. But I also saw a lot of solidarity, a desire to work together, to hold hands to walk alongside. These are all values that should not be lost, but enhanced by the incisive action of the municipal administration in all sectors. Siena can excel and grow in many sectors because important foundations have been built over time: two Universities, Higher Musical Education Centers with international importance, the University Hospital, the newly established Biotecnopolo Foundation, funding from the PNRR, the energy communities to be launched to protect the environment and develop a sustainable economy over time. These are just some of the themes from which to start building an open and supportive Siena. An attractive city, projected towards the future, a city where the themes of work, housing, social equity, transparency, participation, hospitality, protection of rights, attention to youth and gender equality, networking with the third sector and other city bodies, collaboration with the surrounding administrations and with the Region must be daily work.
To all those who will compete with me in the centre-left primary campaign and then, as I hope, in the local elections, I appeal: we should not consider ourselves “opponents”. It’s a really “ugly” term, especially in this moment with the drama of a war close to us. We are not at war: we just have different ways of seeing problems and solutions, different scales of priorities; however, we all have a common goal: we want to make our city and above all its quality of life better. When the polls are closed, whoever has been elected to lead the city will not have to leave behind “rubble” and “poisons” or sterile conflicts because we will all be called to collaborate responsibly to pool ideas, proposals, resources which only in this way can become a heritage of the whole community”.