Andrea Furegato mayor of Lodi at the age of 25, the bet won by the Democratic Party: who he is and what his victory means

A successful bet. With these three words we can summarize the result in the administrative elections in Lodi, where Andrea Furegato, candidate of the center-left, snatches the city from the Northern League’s Sara Casanova, the first outgoing citizen. The new mayor is not a new face in Lodi’s politics, despite his young age (just 25 years old): in 2017 he was elected to the City Council resulting in the most voted elected councilor, but his militancy starts from the years of high school, with commitment to student representation and militancy within the Young Democrats and the Democratic Party.
The results of the ballot boxes in Lodi, however, were also watched with particular interest in Rome. The secretary of the Pd Enrico Letta closed the electoral campaign in the Lombard town, calling it a game “that has national relevance”, because “Winning Lodi means winning the next policies,” he said. In fact, the winning candidate represents the so-called broad field, supported here by the Pd and M5s. “The game started uphill, with an outgoing mayor and a center-right coalition that in any case often collects a deep-rooted political consensus – says the newly elected mayor – but we have fielded a proposal for a broad center-left, which has worked a lot on issues of interest for the city and for this reason we have gathered a wide consensus. We will work in the interest of the whole city ». The count is still open, but the results speak of a 56.7% of the votes in the center-left coalition, while the one with Lega, Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia still stands at 38.98%.
According to Furegato, a black belt in Judo, there was therefore no particular “move” to take away the leadership of the city from the opponents: “I don’t believe in the great moves in the electoral campaign, in the great communication choices – he specifies – instead I believe in a city project made by listening to the citizens, because I believe in politics that you have to wear out the soles of your shoes. Ours was a campaign carried out among the people and this rewarded us and for us it is first of all an assumption of responsibility ».
In any case, the experiment of the PD-M5s alliance seems to have worked, also in view of the 2023 regional ones. And if Furegato explains that “We are not just an experiment but a coalition of people who have gathered around a proposal for the city” , is the Lombard secretary of the Democratic Party, Vinicio Peluffo, to make the thrust: «The challenge won shows that we were right. This victory is the way to go for the next regional ones. The eviction notice to Fontana has already been sent. Lombardy no longer wants this League ». Among the pillars of the new administration Furegato speaks of a city attentive to environmental sustainability, but above all “an inclusive and supportive city attentive to providing services to all”.