Lombardy Regionals, first direct comparison between candidates. Majorino: “Commuter trains unacceptable”. Fontana: “Shame on you”

Spiked answers, confrontation on hot topics and some low blows. For the first time, the candidates for the next regional elections confronted each other directly in front of the TV cameras of the Lombardy TgR: the governor Attilio Fontanathe former vice president of the Lombardy Region Letizia Morattithe centre-left candidate in the coalition with the 5 stars Pierfrancesco Majorino and the outsider Mara Ghidorzi of the People’s Union.

Debate on Health, Moratti claims the vaccine plan, Majorino asks to protect the public interest

Majorino immediately went on the attack on the issue of health: “It is an unacceptable thing to say to the Lombards” if you want to be treated, pay “. It is an intolerable justice, because there are excellences but the public interest. It is true that 161,000 people come to seek treatment, but why do we have to ask people to pay?”. And Moratti has also taken the same path, invoking a reform that “will have to strengthen territorial health care and break down waiting lists, which had not been taken into consideration before me. There is still a lot of work to do. The reform implies a method, knowing what healthcare offer to make in relation to the needs”. Moratti as a former Welfare councilor then claimed that she was called “in a moment of extreme criticality and I led the Lombardy Region to become the first for vaccinations”. On this point Fontana retorted by recalling “the great vaccination campaign carried out thanks to Guido Bertolaso”. Ghidorzi, on the other hand, asked “that health care become public again”.

Comparison on Transport in Lombardy, Majorino shoots zero on Trenord, Fontana replies: “You should be ashamed”

But the real clash took place on the issue of transport and in particular that of commuters. “Commuter trains in the Lombardy Region are not acceptable – said Majorino – We need a stronger policy for public transport. You cannot ask to leave your car at home if we don’t offer alternatives. Furthermore, we need to intervene on major issues infrastructure. There are territories like Cremona and Mantua that are not well connected”. Touched on a sensitive key, Fontana retorted arguing that on transport “if we haven’t intervened on the railway it is because Rfi, a company that refers to Ferrovia dello Stato, has not intervened. You should be ashamed (he said to Majorino ed) because its governments have not had one square meter of rail transport done”. For Moratti “Trenord is inefficient, a service not worthy of the Lombardy Region. We have the proposal to ban the service. It is necessary to invest in infrastructures so that all of Lombardy can grow, it is a problem that concerns the quality of life. Lombardy must have more speed and connectivity”. While Ghidorzi puts it on an environmental level: “For us, the use of private vehicles should be discouraged, acting on an integrated plan for public transport. The rail network needs to be improved.”

Regionali Lombardia, the replacement of the ruling class among the topics of the debate between the four candidates

One of the recurring themes, underlined in particular by the challengers, is also that of the turnover of the ruling class in the Region: “Lombardy is stuck with a government that has been the same for almost thirty years – said Moratti It is not true that all is well just as it is not true that everything goes wrong. You simply need to keep the things that are going well and improve those that are not going well, and there are several. So my proposal is also that of enhancing a relationship between the territory which at this moment they feel disconnected from the Region”. While for Majorino: “Lombardy must be governed much better, it must be much more up to the needs, interests and even the desires of the Lombard citizens. In recent years as an institution it has shown itself to be clearly inadequate”. And then again: “We need to change people, because if we leave all those who have directed things in this way there, we are only continuing on insufficient ground with respect to the needs of the region”.

Regional elections, the issue of security. Fontana: “With Piantedosi we think about more army in Milan”

“The city of Milan has reached unacceptable levels of insecurity, even if a certain political party tends to minimize it – Fontana later told the Ansa news agency after the debate – I have already spoken with Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, both to ask strengthening of the presence of the forces of order in the area, and to re-evaluate, if necessary, a more widespread presence of the army”. As for safety in public housing, however, “I think it is necessary to insist with the forces of order and with the local police” that there is “collaboration to increase the evictions of illegitimate occupations” but also “to guarantee a more constant presence within these structures. Already in the last year we have simplified the assignment procedures that were once carried out directly by the Municipalities”, added Fontana, underlining that “the procedural improvement meant that in the first half of 2022 there was an increase in assignments equal to 100% of the applications”.

Lombardy Regionals, Letizia Moratti: “Fontana doesn’t do like Don Abbondio. Majorino crushed on Elly Schlein”

by Andrea Montanari

January 18, 2023