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The programmatic lines approved by the Chamber with 32 votes in favour, 10 against and 2 abstentions

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Milan, October 21 2021 — The text of the speech by the mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala on the general government guidelines, delivered today during the first session of the city council.

Dear advisors,
last 3 and 4 October Milan confirmed its role as the country's political laboratory, the place where ideas, projects are tested and actions that open new horizons for the future of Italy and Europe are implemented.

Our city has chosen to accelerate the transformation path towards environmental and social sustainability started in the last mandate, in order to meet the most significant trends at a global level.

57,73% of the people of Milan, the highest percentage of votes achieved by a mayoral candidate elected directly by the citizens, supported a program, which I will illustrate to obtain your approval, aimed at projecting our city into an increasingly contemporary, generating a healthy, green and fair recovery after the Covid crisis.

It is right that politics underlines the phenomenon of abstentionism, but beyond underlining it is necessary to understand the reasons and analyze its origins (the Milanese vote, for example, demonstrated that abstentionism is not among those that I they argued, given that in 2021 the number of people who voted for me increased by almost 25% compared to 5 years ago).

Having said that, Milan has, once again, confirmed its attachment to its democratic and anti-fascist roots. They are the founding values ​​of the Republic, engraved in our Constitution, to which we all have the honor and duty to conform our actions, in political life and in the institutions.

Milan has decided, first of all, to interpret its future by speeding up digitalisation, increasing the protection of the environment, health and urban safety to generate economic growth, cohesion and inclusion after the very hard blow of the pandemic.

Europe's courageous response to the crisis has created an enormous opportunity for transformation for Milan, as well as for all the cities that have prepared for change in recent years, rejecting isolationist logic.

The NextGenerationEU program has allocated unprecedented resources to overcome the challenges of post-pandemic reconstruction and climate neutrality, investing in the dual transition: ecological and digital.

But we must remember that the management of the aid provided by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) will not be simple and requires competent administrators, interested in the common good, determined to counter mafia infiltration with the utmost firmness as well as ready to reject any attempt of corruption.

For many years now Milan has had a transparent and independent municipal administration, certain that the only way to growth is legality. This belief has obtained growing support from citizens and will allow Milan to be a model of correctness, respect for the rules, independence and competence in the management of PNRR funds.

European funding must push the recovery of our city, and will be a fundamental lever to make Milan healthier, greener and fairer, placing a concept of global ecology at the center of growth which goes from respect for everyone's health to the protection of environment, up to the offer of good work, capable of guaranteeing decent wages.

The city 15 minutes away, which concentrates services, reduces times, and guarantees greater safety thanks to the strengthening of the local police combined with digitalisation, is the most promising prospect for projecting the inclusive innovation plan outlined by the PGT Milan 2030 into a new season following the pandemic. A direction capable of enhancing the identities of our neighborhoods, thanks to an urban regeneration based on culture, university education, greenery and sociality.

Thanks to the city 15 minutes away, Milan will become a simpler city for our fellow citizens, with services and work increasingly closer to their homes. The valorisation of the neighborhoods will make Milan more alive and more resistant, safer and more controlled.

But not only. The 7 railway yards will be the places of the most important transformations in the coming years. Their recovery will bring together numerous neighborhoods of Milan that are now separated, will allow the Olympic Village to be hosted as well as the new headquarters of the Brera Academy and will contribute to the increase in greenery. The redevelopment of the airports will create new parks, which will occupy two thirds of the total area of ​​the airports.

A Milan of neighborhoods involves the valorisation of the delegations, skills and responsibilities of the 9 municipalities which, with more force than in the past, must play a directing role in the Milanese territory.

The sustainable development that inspires the vision of the city 15 minutes away and the related valorization of the neighborhoods will push the broadening of our city's gaze towards its metropolitan area, as foreseen by the PGT Milan 2030.

Public transport will increasingly cross urban borders with the completion of the M4, the extensions of the M1 to Baggio and the M5 towards Monza, the extension of the tram lines and the construction of the Circle railway line, also financed through the agreement for the regeneration of railway yards.

The environmental turning point is the beacon of development for the near future.

Ecologism, let's be clear, is not an affectation, as some would have you believe. It is a great job generation opportunity, the greatest opportunity available. Supranational institutions, businesses and financial systems think this way and have already chosen green. And this will lead to an increasingly connected city thanks to digital and sustainable mobility, the keys to keeping up with such a dynamic and hard-working community, reducing travel, carbon emissions and smog.

We need an integrated mobility system, capable of respecting the environment in every neighborhood and responding to the travel needs of the inhabitants, thanks to the strengthening of public services and sharing.

The Municipality will strengthen internal sustainable mobility with the electrification of buses by 2030, facilitating the use of public transport managed by ATM, and creating 30 km/h zones.

We need an adequate dialogue to meet the climate challenge with the Lombardy Region, in order to strengthen public transport used by commuters who work in Milan, and discourage the use of polluting cars, in the wake of what has been done so far with Area C and Area B.

Digitalisation must be strengthened.

In recent years, more and more practices, such as the One Stop Shop for productive activities or the One Stop Shop for construction, have been managed online. This process will be accelerated, in order to increase the dynamism of our production system and reduce its environmental impact.

An increasingly digital and increasingly connected Milan will favor the dissemination of work in the neighborhoods, accelerated in recent years by the creation of coworking spaces and the location of new near working locations.

The distribution of professional opportunities throughout the city supported by digitalisation will continue with even greater intensity. This trajectory will support SMEs and startups that focus on innovation, such as the proximity economy and commerce that is the soul of our neighborhoods, enhancing in particular the role of women and young people in creating development.

Milan 15 minutes away redistributes work in its neighborhoods as well as wealth towards the weakest classes, in order to increase inclusion, become more just, and guarantee equal gender opportunities.

The Covid crisis has shown us how essential it is to provide assistance services as close as possible to citizens. The strengthening of welfare implemented in the last mandate will be continued with even more determination, in synergy with the third sector of our city, an infinite source of generosity, solidarity and altruism.

The fairer Milan that we want to create must place the primary right of every person, health, at the center of its action. The most effective way to guarantee this incompressible right is to strengthen local medicine, one of the priorities of the PNRR.

We hope that the dialogue with the Lombardy Region on mobility can extend primarily to the topic of local health services and we guarantee our maximum collaboration. The Municipality and the municipalities are the institutions with the greatest knowledge of the territory. The sources to consult to identify locations and operating methods for community houses.

Another primary right that our program wants to ensure is access to housing, the precondition for widespread equity in every neighborhood.

Social housing, renovation and assignment of vacant public housing, support for long-term rent, incentives for energy efficiency are the fulcrum of a path which, together with a plan for the construction of public housing in the new neighborhoods as established by the PGT, it will guarantee everyone the right to live in neighborhoods rich in sociality, culture, opportunities for exchange and professional as well as entrepreneurial opportunities.

The dialogue with the Lombardy Region will be even more essential on the topic of homes, in order to redevelop the homes of that 10% of the Milanese population who lives in properties owned by MM or ALER.

A greener, more connected and fairer Milan is only possible by increasing safety for our fellow citizens. The first investment we will make to guarantee this fundamental right is the hiring of 500 local police officers, who will strengthen control of the territory.

The paths outlined in this program have one objective, to make Milan sustainable from a social and environmental point of view. This transformation, which follows the most significant trends at a global level, will increase the international attractiveness of the city, the best lever for attracting tourists, students and investments.

The cultural offer, the openness and dynamism of Milan revealed to the world thanks to the Expo, led to reaching 10 million tourists in 2019. Covid has interrupted this constant growth of foreign presences, but the transformation of our city in a model of sustainability and innovation will increase the global appeal of Milan.

The 2026 Olympics will bring our city back to the center of international attention. The program just illustrated in its main lines, if supported with conviction by all of you city councillors, of the majority and I hope often also of the opposition, will ensure that Milan arrives greener, more digital, more connected, fairer and more international to that appointment.

When the games open we will see an even more attractive city, a model of development, cohesion and sustainability, capable once again of surprising the world with its beauty and of driving Italy towards progress. The mission that Milan has repeatedly carried out in the highest moments of its history, from the Five Days, to April 25, up to the economic miracle of the Second World War.

The moment of national redemption and the regeneration of Italy requires Milan to play a leading role. We are here.