Triumph for Vincenzo Francesco Romeo: the dental technician, born in 1955, is the new mayor of Vibo Valentia. The final data reads: Romeo 6788 votes (equal to 53.60%), Roberto Cosentino (the center-right challenger) 5877 votes (equal to 46.40%).
And it’s a party for the center-left. Enzo Romeo, candidate of the “large head” is the new mayor of Vibo Valentia. After the scrutiny of most of the ballots, the representative of the center-left plus the M5S is ahead. Cosentino himself called Romeo to congratulate him. The outgoing administration was led by the mayor Maria Limardo of Forza Italia. Happy Romeo: «I will work for you, for the city, to implement my program. The wide field worked in Vibo, thanks to all the forces that supported meIt is a victory that we built together with many people who wanted change. I think that the results are the result of enormous work that we have done together with all the citizens who have chosen to stand with Enzo Romeo. We say to the people of Vibo that we are at your disposal, we are here to serve the city and the citizens in the best possible way”. The first problem to be solved is the lack of water. “It will be the priority of priorities – said Romeo – because we will have to try to create services that give people the possibility of having water. We prepare with the tankers like every year.” Then a dedication: “I dedicate this victory to all those people who believed in me and in this coalition, starting with the management group that followed me in this battle of mine, in this adventure of mine , and I also dedicate it to all of Vibo so that from this moment the citizens have no doubts: Enzo Romeo is everyone’s mayor”.
The defeated Cosentino admits the knockout: «We didn’t make it. The analyzes are easy: five years ago the centre and centre-right won together, this year they presented themselves separately and lost. And then time made the difference. Enzo Romeo’s project was born a year and a half ago, I tried to make up the time but I couldn’t.”
The trend was clear from the start of the count. In all the polling stations in the city centre, or almost, Romeo immediately had a good lead. There was no history in the historically left-wing sections but even where the centre-right triumphed, the progressive coalition kept pace. A far from positive signal for Cosentino. We awaited the arrival of the data from the hamlets, where the counting is going more and more slowly. But even from Vibo Marina, the city within the city, almost ten thousand inhabitants, there is no good news for the centre-right
. And then at the headquarters of the Electoral Committee of the new mayor the choruses begin. Shouts of joy after fifteen years of “silence”. In the space of a few minutes the enthusiasm has skyrocketed. Dozens of cars lined up shuttling between via Dante Alighieri and viale Kennedy. In a few minutes the city traffic has literally come to a standstill.
The history of a provincial capital with strong right-wing roots has suddenly changed, after five years in which the outgoing mayor had imagined reaching apotheosis. Militants and supporters chant “Bella ciao”. The leaders of the Democratic Party are in raptures. Also the regional secretary Nicola Irto, As soon as he arrived, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
Jasmine Cristallo: “Unity and sharing are the real alternative to the right”
“The victory of Enzo Romeo and his coalition in Vibo Valentia confirms the presence, also in Calabria, of a plural, credible and authoritative center-left”. This is what Jasmine Cristallo of the national leadership of the Democratic Party claims in a note. “I have firmly supported, immediately and without hesitation, the candidacy of the new Mayor – adds Jasmine Cristallo – and I am extremely grateful to the secretary Elly Schlein who has been to Vibo Valentia several times, in this electoral campaign, for having supported the effort of all the forces of the coalition”.
“I embrace the entire PD Vibonese and, as in the most difficult hour, I will guarantee support and closeness to the administrative challenge that lies ahead of its path, in the strong awareness that the path undertaken, in the sign of unity and sharing, is the only one that can allow an alternative to the right, everywhere.”