Election campaign in Gazzada, for elections in Calabria

The village in Calabria is voting, and the candidate has also come to the north of Italy to meet fellow-citizens that have emigrated here. Rosario Pietro Palermo is standing as Mayor of Sangineto, a little village near Cosenza, that lies between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the mountains. Over a period of twenty years, from the 1950s to the 1970s, over 30% of its inhabitants left Sangineto for America, Germany, Lombardy and Piedmont. “There are 54 people who live in Gazzada Schianno, near Varese, who were born in Sangineto. Overall, about 300 people who live in these parts have connections with the village,” the candidate explained. “I also went far away; between the ages of 10 and 15, I lived in Montevideo, Uruguay, and I was always deeply moved when I heard the Italian national anthem. We have to maintain the emotional bond with our own land, and it is only right that those who live far away also take part. we’re going to hold ‘suggestion workshops’ here too, and there’ll be a committee.” The first meeting was at the historic “Circolo del Risorgimento” association in Gazzada, where there was a presentation of the candidate, who listened to his fellow villagers (who had come from Castronno, Albizzate and Varese), and an aperitif. “This is the first stop I’ve made, to talk to emigrants, to let them meet the council, and to get them to participate,” Palermo explains. “I was thrilled by the attendance.”

Palermo was accompanied also by a member of the outgoing council, who is standing with his party. After visiting the town hall on Friday, where they met the administrators, on Saturday, they will meet the elderly and the young who come to listen and to meet Palermo, who is a council official by profession. If he becomes the mayor, he promises to stay in contact. “We’re going to broadcast council meetings over the Internet, and emigrants will be able to intervene directly in the meetings.”