Alessandra Kustermann showed up with an all-woman staff, focused on her “counter-reform for the health system” (a combination of health service and welfare), and on the fact that she does not want the third runway at Malpensa. She is “a woman, a mother, a grandmother and a head physician”, who is standing, in the primary elections in Lombardy, for the centre-left coalition, and she was a guest on our live television programme.

Counter-reform for the health system

The candidate touched on many topics, but her programme seems to hinge particularly on the proposed reform of Italian Law No. 31, “which has moved all of the resources from local medicine to central, hospital medicine,” Kustermann explained. “Formigoni’s system has increased private health care from 20% to 40%. Private hospitals, which should create health for the people, have been accredited, such as the Santa Rita, where patients have undergone surgical operations without needing them. Instead, I want to build hospitals and institutions for the people of Lombardy, that operate locally, and that cover everything from welfare to healthcare. This is why I also intend to integrate welfare and the health services in a single council department, and focus on these hospitals and institutions, leaving room for the non-profit sector, too.”

Sharing out

“I have the advantage of not being supported by any political party secretary,” Kustermann explained. “Nevertheless, I don’t think that the head doctors decided in these years should be penalized, but we need to carry out a check every 5 years. Anyone that has brought value, even those of Communion and Liberation, deserves to remain in their place.”

A third runway

“I always come to the Ticino Park on my bicycle, because my house is in Cassinetta di Lugagnano, and I always use the Park’s wonderful cycle paths,” Kustermann explained. “This is why, today, I am strongly against the construction of a third runway. We have 20 million passengers, and we would need 80 million to make a new runway necessary. We have 11 airports within a radius of less than 500 kilometres. It doesn’t make sense to focus on other airports, if there’s Malpensa, but it’s essential to have a network between the airports and to establish railway connections.”

Commuters

“Formigoni said that he had chosen the best possible lead to manage the rail company, Trenord,” Kustermann said, “and we’ve seen what’s happened. Trenord has demonstrated its astonishing ineptitude in scheduling. At the same time, they decided to change the train timetable, put right the exchanges with a complex system, and, in the meantime, let trains run, without paying attention to the connections. Many workers use the railways and, over the last few days, have arrived at work, 3 hours late. Do you know what it means for an organised structure, if employees arrive 3 hours late? A class action should be taken against Trenord.”