A health luminary in the Veneto mayoral council

A world-famous heart surgeon takes over the most coveted delegation in a Veneto junta with Paduan traction that rewards mayors. This morning in Venice, Alberto Stefani presented his government team, starting with the most important councillorship: Health goes to the 'technician' Gino Gerosa, full professor of cardiac surgery at the University of Padua and director of the Cardiac Surgery Unit of the University of Padua Hospital. An internationally renowned luminary, author of innovative transplants that have marked many 'firsts' at Italian and global level. With him, in a junta of ten councillors (seven men and three women) and two delegated councillors, seven mayors and former mayors join him: a choice claimed by Stefani, himself a former first citizen, who in the first minutes of the celebration had promised to be 'mayor of the Veneto people'.

If the absolute majority goes to the 'party of mayors', Gerosa is the icing on a cake that gives Padua the biggest slice: in addition to the regional president and the councillor for health, the City of the Saint places former mayor Massimo Bitonci in the council, who takes on the delegation for Enterprise, leaving his post as undersecretary at Mimit. And from the same province come councillors Filippo Giacinti (FdI) for the budget and Elisa Venturini (Forza Italia) for the environment and civil protection. On Stefani's side they blunt: Padua, they recall, is the most populated province in the Veneto, and Gerosa, an honorary Paduan, is of Trentino (Rovereto) origin.

Representing the Marca Trevigiana, orphaned by Luca Zaia, is Paola Roma, who, with the delegations to Social Affairs and Housing, takes up an office whose creation had been promised by Stefani during the election campaign. With her and Bitonci, Marco Zecchinato completes the patrol of leghists, to whom goes the delegation for Urban Planning. Given that Stefani has given up a Carroccio councillor to make room for Gerosa, the League, as well as female representation, regains space thanks to the two councillor delegates Morena Martini (Youth Participation) and Elisa De Berti, former deputy of Zaia, who will take over Infrastructure and Programme Implementation. All this, Stefani points out, 'also in view of the institution of the figure of undersecretary,' which the statute does not provide for today.

The only survivor of the last junta is FdI councillor Valeria Mantovan, who took over from Elena Donazzan last year: she will have Education and Culture, while Labour goes, with Tourism, to party colleague Lucas Pavanetto, whom Stefani chose as vice-president. Completing the FdI squad are Dario Bond from Feltre (Agriculture and Mountains), the only one to defeat Zaia in his province, and Diego Ruzza (Transport and Mobility). "We have put quality at the centre, it is a choice I am pleased to claim," Stefani comments, promising to soon open the table for unbureaucratisation with the trade associations and recalling that he appointed the executive without arriving at the last available day.

Italy's youngest president, 33 years old, does not make anagrafe an exaggerated banner: the average age is 52, seven years older than the last Zaia junta. The 'veteran' is Gerosa, 68 years old but with clear ideas on the future: 'If we want to guarantee the universalist healthcare system we must be absolutely innovative, we must re-engineer the healthcare organisation and provide information and training for citizens as well' The only one missing from the group photo today was Bitonci, who was held up by an institutional commitment. He will no longer be undersecretary but, he said in a note, 'when the President calls, one cannot but respond positively'.