"There's room for a new center-left in Milan; we need to rebuild a connection with that part of the city that's currently lost," says Majorino.
The leader of the Democratic Party group in the Lombardy Region
"And with a high level of direct citizen participation. We need to rebuild a connection with that part of the city that is now, not coincidentally, lost."
Pierfrancesco Majorino, leader of the Democratic Party's Lombardy Region group, and member of the National Secretariat of the Democratic Party.
Politically speaking, is there a “ Milan case ”? I think we need to be cool and observe the judicial process, from which I'm certain Mayor Beppe Sala will emerge completely clean, with detachment, with full confidence in the judiciary, and by observing what these past months have told us. Milan has attracted capital, resources, and interests. This has significantly influenced its development; in some ways, it has been part of its hallmark. Jobs and opportunities have grown, as have imbalances. The results are full of paradoxes. Milan attracts new residents and tourists, and at the same time expels them. It is growing in absolute population terms (in this case, even just looking at municipal boundaries), and tens of thousands of people leave Milan every year because the cost of living, relative to their wages, is truly too high. A city that thrives on redevelopment projects in neighborhoods riddled with previous urban and social scars, yet, as real estate values in those very neighborhoods have risen, it has also experienced rising inequality. We have, incredibly overlooked by many, five subways and a rail link that has yet to fully exploit its potential, but we're struggling to find drivers for surface buses due to salaries and schedules. And I could go on.
Milan's real, big problem is that, in its urban planning vision, it is increasingly a city for the rich, with the majority of the urban population unable to cope with rising rents or home purchases. For segments of the population, it has certainly happened. And the fact that this is a dynamic present in many highly attractive cities around the world should not allow anyone to ignore reality. At the risk of becoming boring, however, I would like to reiterate some concepts that cannot be brushed aside.
Milan has seen an increase in "productivity" and "employment," and thanks to this, it has a much higher " social spending" than many other Italian cities. It takes on significant initiatives, even just in social services, the education system and childcare, or the promotion of cultural offerings. And, importantly, all of this happens thanks to some key players and certainly not others. Those who do their part, without turning a blind eye, for example in the field of welfare, are the City Council, the nine Municipalities, the third sector, organized civil society, Caritas, and so on. Those who continue to stand idle are the government (unfortunately, often not just Giorgia Meloni's) and the Lombardy Region, which owns the largest number of empty public housing units in Italy (23,000, of which only 10,000 are in Milan). This scandal, though completely suppressed, should lead to the regional government being placed under special administration for its inaction, or for having passed an urban regeneration law in 2019 that fueled urban growth. Again, I'm not being defensive, but I think things need to be put back in the right balance. That said, of course, we must not stand still. We must "change," as the Democratic Party is reiterating in every possible way, and as the mayor himself has declared must happen. Ultimately, I believe the heart of everything is the same: the city and its growth must not be "slowed down" or blocked. Its transformation can—I would even say must—be a great positive development. And precisely for this reason, politics must emphasize the primacy of the public interest. It must impose stringent conditions, for example, ensuring the construction of a quota of buildings that generate affordable apartments. In short, I absolutely don't believe the possible alternative is between a model in which "only" skyscrapers are built for the wealthy and one that keeps everything "on hold" because it's afraid of the effects of urban regeneration.
The point is exactly another…Which? Engage in regeneration and neighborhood transformation to achieve a higher overall quality of life and avoid land consumption, and do so while benefiting the middle class and the poorest segments of the population. These are segments of the population, as the Milan Chamber of Labor recently pointed out, that require more courageous urban transformation, land management, and housing policies than what has happened. Knowing that the city administration has not stood idle. I grew up in the neighborhood where, within the Porta Romana railway yard, the "Olympic Village" will be built, just meters from the Prada Foundation and the Enzo Jannacci shelter for the homeless. Now I truly challenge anyone to tell me that that neighborhood, which until a few years ago had desolate squares dominated by prostitution, hasn't made giant leaps forward. So, what I say is that the generalization of recent months is understandable given what emerges from investigations, but which often offers distorting perspectives. My small contribution is based on a principle: Milan must take bolder paths, and this concerns not only the municipal administration but also the so-called ruling classes on a much broader scale. I'm talking about very concrete issues: a new Territorial Governance Plan that imposes much more stringent restrictions on operators, a significant increase in urban development costs, and metropolitan-scale "planning." Not only that: the wage issue, for example. I believe, and have done so for some time now, that large institutions like the Municipality and the Region should be committed to the minimum wage. When you work for such organizations, perhaps because you're an employee of a cooperative, you can't earn six euros net. It's exploitation, not work. Or let's address the issue of healthcare spending, which is determined, with the active complicity of the regional government, by waiting lists. These issues, such as the need to effectively establish a metropolitan housing agency that can act as a guarantor for those wishing to rent their apartments, are, not coincidentally, an integral part of the proposals we, as the Democratic Party, are advancing at the national level. Because sooner or later, the critical issues facing Milan will affect several other Italian cities. Therefore, a law reorganizing the entire urban planning system and a new national housing policy would be crucial.
Inclusive, multiethnic Milan, a hub of social and cultural coexistence, is now a thing of the past. Has the " Milano da bere " returned? Let's not joke. Milan, rather, is witnessing the same constant struggle that has always plagued it. Here is a city that focuses on inclusion, connection, vitality in relationships with others, and multi-ethnicity, which welcomes 1,200 young people of foreign origin from all over the world and has one of the largest homeless support plans in Europe . And, along with this, we are once again witnessing an equal and opposing push. Nothing new, then. Milan is the city of April 25th and, tragically, also of the people of San Sepolcro. Milan is Mediolanum, a city in the middle, of enormous intersections and contradictions.
Hasn't the time come for a profound change in the ruling class? It doesn't seem to me that Milan has an old political ruling class, come on! If anything, the year and a half separating us from the local elections, as the Democratic Party councilors themselves have reiterated, should be used for innovation. There's more. I'm talking more about pre-politics, or perhaps a politics that those who remain closed in on their own terms don't always perceive as such. In fact, we need to rebuild a "connection" with that very, very large part of the city that supported and supports the center-left and which, not coincidentally, is now lost. I'm talking about thousands of women and men who want to be proud of a city that continues to do its part in two intertwined directions: growth and social and climate justice, and who want to be involved in the key political decisions regarding Milan's future . I believe the space for a new, broad center-left with a high level of direct citizen participation lies entirely here.
l'Unità
