In the beginning it was the comedians. One of them, Beppe Grillo, is even at the head of the 5 Star Movement which in the first round of the administrative elections in Rome received full votes and which hopes to conquer the Capitol in the run-off with Virginia Raggi. Another, Roberto Benigni, has taken the field in recent days to anticipate his yes to the October referendum. And then actors, singers, showmen all having their say: it has always been like this at every election.
Yesterday was the turn of a football and sport icon: on the day of the renewal of his last contract by the player, the captain of Roma, Francesco Totti, made no secret of being in favor of the 2014 Olympics in the capital. Open up heaven. To Roberto Giachetti, aspiring mayor for the centre-left, Roma supporter and supporter of the Olympics in Rome, it didn't seem true: he didn't expect such an assist from Totti and he collected it with joy. La Raggi, his antagonist for the Campidoglio under the banners of M5S and Lazio sympathizer, defended himself: “Totti is an international champion and it is obvious that if he speaks, it makes the news but, when I go around Rome, I they ask what I want to do about the potholes and the buses”.
Then Totti himself took care of cooling the tensions, clarifying that he is certainly for the Olympics like any true sportsman but that he does not want to be exploited because he does not support any political alignment.
It may make you smile or sad that, in the face of the disaster in Rome and its immense problems bequeathed by the councils of Alemanno and Marino, the words of a footballer, albeit of race, are enough to shake up the electoral campaign. But moralisms leave the time they find. Perhaps it would be better to reason and discuss. In Rome, the pothole emergency and the transport emergency certainly come before many other problems, but are the Olympics just a diversion, yet another occasion for waste and corruption or can they be a source of work and development? In Italy, are major events only and always a danger or can they be an opportunity for growth?
Does the success of the Turin Winter Olympics and, more recently, the Expo tell us anything? Let's think about it. A mayor is not chosen just by closing one's eyes. And big challenges don't exclude good maintenance.
