It is an electoral campaign that took on unusual tones from the candidates on the “Green and Left” list, in support of Alessio D’Amato, who decided to plant marijuana right in front of the headquarters of the Region of Lazio. The seedlings “are for sale legally in Italy, they have no active principle”, assures Claudio Marotta, Roman coordinator of the “Sinistra Civica Ecologist” and one of the candidates for the regional elections who appeared this Wednesday before the Council of Lazio, armed with mini garden tools and red brothers. And also Maurita Virtu, historical activist of the “Spin Time” social center, which has occupied a private building in Rome for ten years, and candidate on the ticket with Marotta, who in the last few hours defended her responding to criticism of the vice president of the Senate, Maurizio Gasparri, who contested his presence in the centre-left coalition. “We are proud to have Maurita on the list,” commented Marotta, who also comes from the varied world of Roman movements. And during a debate, he added that “the most interesting innovations often develop on the borderline between legal and illegal.”
Undoubtedly, the “botanical” idea of the red-green candidates is curious, one of those destined to cause discussion, not least because it leaves no room for misunderstandings. «The legalization and regularization (of marijuana, ed.) are effective tools in the fight against drug trafficking – explains Marotta – but we must also recognize the reality. There are generations of people who use cannabis for recreational purposes. Legalizing means responding to an already widespread transformation of customs». It is the evolution at the social center of the historic radical battles, which centered more on therapeutic use, while a few months ago the national leaders of the alliance «Verdes e Esquerda», Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli, proposed «a law that legalizes the cultivation of cannabis for personal use, to give a concrete answer to those who need it». And it does not matter that the Region does not have competence in this regard.
“For us, this is a battle of values,” says Marotta. Shared or not with the candidate for governor, it matters little to his candidates. “Ours is an autonomous list that will also fight party battles, without having to ask for authorization.” And we can bet that if he succeeds in an endeavor that seems impossible, D’Amato will have to deal with that “Spin Time model” that, for Marotta, Virtu and others, represents the future of housing policies in Lazio . They illegally occupy buildings, public or private, and settle there for decades, aiming, sooner or later, for regularization. So does Spin Time, which recently proposed buying the building from the City of Rome to save itself from the eviction ordered by the City of Rome last year. And with the openings that came from the council of the mayor dem Roberto Gualtieri, it could even succeed.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
