After the political interlude, she returned to her profession as a lawyer. What do you remember with greatest pleasure from your experience as Mayor of Locarno and what are your greatest regrets?
“It is a question that has often been asked to me in recent years, and on which I have had the opportunity to reflect carefully. I have identified three objectives or fields of action that have given particular value to my experience as Mayor.
The first: the assiduous, painstaking work, in particular with the municipal team with a female majority elected in 2004, which made it possible to restore the city's finances. Here, this aspect of the financial recovery: it allowed us to bring the city back into black figures, even with important operating surpluses, and therefore allowed us to reacquire the necessary political margins for action, and to carry on the planning that it then had. its culmination with the construction of the Palacinema. When the accounts at home are in order, you can move with more ease!
The second moment is undoubtedly attributable to the pedestrianization of Piazza Grande in 2007, to ensure that the city center becomes the beautiful living room of the city, a place for meetings and events (not a parking lot).
The third moment is linked to the great struggles for the construction of the Palacinema, managing to involve numerous public and private partners, which guaranteed the necessary financial sustainability of the project. In addition to offering "a home to the Leopard", as has often been said, it was a question of giving a development perspective to the cultural event which for us Ticino and for all of Switzerland is the most precious jewel, and to create the foundations for a Center cantonal of film and audiovisual skills. I have no regrets other than a nostalgic note, of that greeting at the beginning of the year to the population, which always represented a moment of sincere closeness: it was a more than symbolic embrace with the population ».
In any case, she remains very attached to her city, taking care of the Palacinema and the Festival with different roles. How did city activities related to the world of cinema overcome the pandemic and what prospects are there for the future?
"As I said, with the creation of the Palacinema we wanted to start a creative laboratory with the presence of the actors in the audiovisual field, with activities throughout the year, not only during the eleven extraordinary days of the Locarno Film Festival. . That of the Palacinema was and is a building site well rooted in the Locarno context and at the same time facing beyond the local borders, and with an impact for the next generations, as I have often had the opportunity to underline, and this structure represents by definition a development project aimed precisely at the future. In this sense, I certainly relativize the impact of the pandemic. The recent prestigious creation by USI and Locarno Film Festival of the "Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts" chair is significant, with the appointment of the American professor Kevin B. Lee, who will start his activity on the next 1 January 2022. I am convinced that this academic activity, which significantly completes the educational content given since the beginning of the project with the presence of the International Conservatory of Audiovisual Sciences (CISA), will contribute to innovating the local cultural and academic environment and international".
This year marks 50 years since the recognition of the right to vote for Swiss women. At what point are we on the level of women's emancipation and what remains to be done?
«Of course, an important anniversary, this 50th, and not just for women. And we are only at an intermediate stage, given that it is a question of re-verifying and practicing gender equality on a daily basis that requires the assumption of responsibility on the part of both women and men. After all, let us ask ourselves: is there any aspect of personal or social life that does not need improvement, that does not require improvement or deepening? We think of the ecological issues, which will become more and more pressing, of the emerging health issues, as we have well seen, the distribution of wealth, the tones of the political and social debate, just to name a few major issues. In short, gender equality is just one of the countless issues we are confronted with. After all, more than wondering what still remains to be done, it is important to ask ourselves what we want to leave to the next generations. The commitment to offer an ideal model is undoubtedly important. Not surprisingly, I like to remember it, in 2006 the model that characterized my years in the Town Hall with the presence of four women, from four different parties, united by the desire to improve the quality of life, was awarded an award for politics. of one's citizenship ".
In particular, does the world of lawyers in Ticino still remain a stronghold of male power or has it opened up to genuine gender equality?
“As I said before, there is no aspect of life and there is no profession that does not require further training. It is true for men, and it is true for women. If we want the new generations to acquire greater balance in this area, it is necessary that the full development of all pupils, both male and female, be supported in the school classes. Aiming to develop excellence, that is the talents present in individual students, and taking care of the collaborative spirit from the earliest years can only make the society in which we live better. On the other hand, in my studio I apply the same criteria of active collaboration and enhancement of individual skills ».
You specialize in health law and medical liability: do you believe that citizens' rights have been adequately protected during the recent pandemic or have you identified important gaps?
"In fact, no medical malpractice cases related to the pandemic have yet been received in the studio, and to tell the truth even the classic cases of violation of the medical art in the acute crisis period had slowed down since the pandemic wave had an impact so pervasive and all-encompassing as to overshadow the other cases. After all, we are still so much "inside history" that a sufficiently reasonable analysis is not yet possible. The exceptionality of the situation is also given by the fact that basic areas of existence are involved, in fact, in addition to the issue of health, individual and public, this virus has put the already delicate economic situation in crisis, as well as the sphere of individual freedoms. It is this intertwining that makes the situation confusing, explosive and not easy to understand, as well as being solved. The data show us that the vaccine has in effect the function of mitigating the devastating reactions of the virus on those who have proved particularly sensitive, as well as avoiding the collapse of hospital structures. Let's see how research develops in this direction. Personally I believe that the now self-evident indication to neutralize the propagation of the virus, and therefore not to become infected (or infect), remains the only certainty to rely on and that in hindsight it would solve all the complexity that we are breathing and that is upstream. literally intoxicating ».
For the future, what would you like to see achieved in Locarno and Ticino, and exclude the possibility of your return to active politics?
"Locarno has had a glorious past having, among other things, welcomed in the 20s - we are now close to the centenary -, an event of not only local or national but even continental and global significance: the Peace Pact, the whose function was to concretely apply the spirit of negotiation, to which historians gave the name of "esprit de Locarno". It was therefore the site of a significant event for the constitution of a united Europe. The fact that Locarno has this international spirit in its DNA is well evidenced by the Film Festival. I foresee that in the future there will be more and more international events and I hope that Locarno will be increasingly recognized as an ideal land to bring culture and peace. Making politics also means launching some ideas… ».
