There is controversy in Genoa over the exclusion of the mayor Silvia Salis from the stage on the occasion of the ribbon cutting at the inauguration of the 66th International Boat Show in which Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni participated. "If they wanted to take away attention from me, they didn't succeed", commented the first citizen, while the prime minister said she was 'surprised and sorry' for the episode, blaming it on "an organizational error". But the opposition attacks: "An offense to the city".
In addition to the governor Marco Bucci, who welcomed the prime minister on the Blue Terrace and with whom Meloni had a brief conversation, and the mayor Silvia Salis, minister Urso, deputy minister Rixi, the national president of Confindustria Orsini and the president of Confindustria nautica Formenti were present at the ceremony.
Meloni, accompanied by Minister Urso, Governor Bucci and President Formenti, entered the blue terrace and briefly greeted the civil authorities present, including Salis herself who made the first speech by inviting the public present to applaud the Ericsson workers, stationed in front of the gates of the Show.
At the time of the ribbon cutting to kick off the boat show, Salis, however, was not formally invited to go up on stage to join the Prime Minister, Bucci and Formenti.
"I don't want to start a controversy. I would just like to remind you that we are on loan to the institutions, the institutions are not 'ours'. We serve them, they don't serve us. We represent the institutions for which we were voted. But I must say that if the objective, as is rumored, was to take away attention from me, I don't think it was achieved", commented the mayor. "I represent the city of Genoa - he said -, so I have no intention of causing controversy. It was a shame, obviously not to be on stage. But what I want to convey to you is the sense of service towards our role. They are not personal tasks, they should not be personalized in any way".
On the meeting under the stage with Meloni he then observed: "I would have been pleased if this was perhaps a broad visit, also linked to the themes of the city, I would have been pleased perhaps to exchange a few words with her on the themes and urgencies of a crucial city like Genoa, with a port so important for the Mediterranean and therefore for the whole country".
"We had actually already met at the Paris Olympics when I was deputy vice-president of CONI in 2024. She is our prime minister, I respect her", he added. On this occasion, however, there was no time to exchange words as Salis underlined "because she arrived while I was already sitting and left while I was still sitting".
Sources at Palazzo Chigi let it be known that Giorgia Meloni "was surprised and disappointed" when she noted, during the ceremony, "that Silvia Salis was not present on stage". During the ceremony, Meloni in fact asked Formenti the reason for Salis' absence, learning at that moment that it had been an error in the organization of the Show. Sources from the Municipality of Genoa then reported that Meloni telephoned Salis to express his regret for what had happened. Salis said she was sorry for the institutional disgrace suffered by the city, she underlined that the responsibilities for the incident remain to be clarified, the reason why the president of the Liguria Region Bucci was present and she thanked the Prime Minister for the phone call.
The failure to invite Mayor Salis was "99 percent a ceremonial decision that I know nothing about. Of course when I was mayor I always went there", commented Bucci. "Not even my presence was expected - he continued - so much so that when they called me I was surprised".
"Maybe it was an error in the schedule. I'm sorry that this thing happened, but it wasn't intentional. I don't know, I don't deal with these things. It wasn't meant to be an institutional disgrace. What I can say is that the Genoa Boat Show is the home of the mayor Salis with whom we collaborate very well", said Formenti. "We are with Mayor Salis for what she has done for us and for the Boat Show - he concluded - and which I am sure she will continue to do also because we are talking about it and we have good future plans".
The center-left attacks, however. "For the first time in the history of the Genoa Boat Show, no representative of the Municipality of Genoa, in the case in question the mayor Salis, was invited to the stage of the inauguration. We are at a level of arrogance that leads to the heights of ridicule. It would be laughable if facts like this were not yet another sign of institutional degradation, a degradation that starts from the removal of the fact that the lack of all due respect for a public office is equivalent to an offense towards all citizens who democratically represents", writes the former Minister of Labor and member of the Democratic Party Andrea Orlando on social media.
"Not inviting the mayor of Genoa on stage for the ribbon cutting of the boat show is a choice that frankly leaves us disconcerted. There was Giorgia Meloni, there was Marco Bucci who, when he was mayor, always participated. Both he and Giorgia Meloni clearly noticed Salis's absence, yet they said nothing. This qualifies their institutional ignorance. But the question at this point is: who and why left Salis out? This is not a question of personal question. The mayor represents the city that hosts the Show, an event that bears the name of Genoa in the world and which lives also thanks to the work, energy and identity of its citizens. Excluding the first citizen from the official inauguration means, in fact, putting Genoa and the role of its community in the background. the M5s regional coordinator for Liguria, Stefano Giordano and the municipal group leader Marco Mes.
Salis: 'We want the boat show to become the largest in the world'
"The Boat Show is the brand that identifies Genoa in the world and of which we are all proud. The Boat Show and Genoa are an indissoluble combination". The mayor of Genoa Silvia Salis said this from the stage of the inauguration ceremony of the 66th Genoa Boat Show.
"Genoa, in recent years, is rebuilding its relationship with the sea. It will do so with the new port master plan and from an infrastructural point of view, with the Waterfront which hosts this event and which, year after year, despite the many difficulties, offers spaces that are increasingly up to par - continued Salis -. The numbers of this edition show constant growth and an extraordinary attractive force: over a thousand boats on display, 215 absolute novelties, 4% more spaces in the water and a total surface area exceeding 200,000 square metres".
The mayor then explained the reasons linked to the new dates. "The strategic choice to reposition the Show in the calendar goes exactly in this direction. Guaranteeing a location that gives greater scope compared to the competition of Monaco and Cannes allows us to enhance our specific identity, to bring large boats back to Genoa and to attract an increasingly wider audience".
"There was a time when the Genoese experienced the Show with detachment, but this time has changed: the time of grumbling is over and this disconnect has been overcome. The Show is aesthetics, innovation, luxury, great design and excellence - Salis continued -. But we also want it to be the Show of everyone and the whole city. The Show of those who love the sea but don't own a yacht, the Show of the family who strolls along the docks, of those who can't wait that he arrives on Sunday to go fishing on his fishing boat". Concluding his speech, after expressing solidarity with the Ericsson workers, he expressed a wish: "Genoa centuries ago was a great commercial power, from here there were broken starts that changed the world. We want it to stay here, we want it to increasingly become the largest in the world".
