From exploit in the left-wing fortress to commissioner of the Morandi bridge, who is Bucci

He said he would take twenty-four hours to decide. It was enough for him to sleep on it. The mayor of Genoa Marco Bucci has said yes to the proposal of candidacy for the regional government in Liguria that came to him from the centre-right leaders and council president Giorgia Meloni. The official announcement came in a joint note from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Matteo Salvini, Antonio Tajani and Maurizio Lupi.

Marco Bucci, born in 1959, yachtsman, manager, stubborn and proudly Genoese, has been mayor since June 2017 after achieving the feat of wresting the 'red' city from its opponents. It seemed impossible, but he succeeded also thanks to the votes of the disappointed left. Five years later, he was reconfirmed, something that had never happened to a centre-right candidate in the city of 'camalli', of many workers and pensioners. With the by no means negligible satisfaction of seeing their own two lists with almost 24% of the vote and 11 councillors in Sala Rossa, against 4 from Fratelli d'Italia, 4 from President Giovanni Toti's list, 3 from the League, one from Forza Italia and one from Udc.

A graduate of the D'Oria classical high school and a graduate in Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Genoa, Bucci returned from the USA after several years at the helm of multinational companies such as Eastman Kodak Company, the Swiss Sgs and Carestream (a company whose division he managed to bring to Genoa). In 2015, he was called by President Toti and the then councillor Rixi to lead the subsidiary Liguria Digitale. The appointment lasted until he was a candidate for mayor. Salvini also liked him immediately and, as a semi-unknown, he beat former Pd councillor Gianni Crivello in a couple of months.

Married to Laura, owner of a historic Genoese pastry shop, father of Matteo and Francesca, he has been a boy-scout and is a practising Catholic. At the helm of the city he brought back the success of the Euroflora exhibition and ended up in the international media for having invited Queen Elizabeth to pay the arrears for the 'rent' of the cross of St George - the flag symbol of the city of Genoa - on the flag of England.

Six years have passed since the Morandi Bridge collapsed on the morning of 14 August 2018 at 11.36am. A date that Genoa will never forget: for those 43 victims, for the displaced, for two destroyed neighbourhoods, but also because it brought to the surface the problem of infrastructure maintenance. But also a story of rapid and effective reconstruction. On 28 August of that year, architect Renzo Piano delivered the model of the new viaduct to the Region, a 'gift' to the city. On 28 September, the so-called 'Decreto Genova' was published in the Official Gazette, giving the commissioner for reconstruction wide-ranging powers and allocating funds. On 4 October, Mayor Marco Bucci is appointed commissioner for the reconstruction of the Polcevera Viaduct. Until 3 August 2020, when in the afternoon President of the Republic Mattarella attends with Prime Minister Conte and various ministers the inauguration of the Genoa-San Giorgio viaduct, which will open to traffic the following day.