53	ALMOST A MAYOR

In the early 1990s, in 1993, shortly after Gianpiero’s death, politics, direct, strong commitment to politics came back to me, but in a much more direct and institutional way than when I was young.

The Alliance for Turin was born, the local and regional elections were approaching, and people were starting to talk about civil society.

They wanted me to run for mayor against Diego Novelli, the incumbent. He was running again as an extreme leftist, since the Democratic Party of the Left had washed its hands of him. God knows why. One more idiocy in my view. I had a lot of sympathy for him. When he was mayor I sent him a postcard. I had gone to San Diego in California, and I wrote him “from San Diego to San Diego.” In Turin he was called “San Diego” because he reminded you of a Salesian brother. They held it against him that he had always refused to have a subway built in Turin, because he was afraid it would turn into a source of income for the Mafia; and in my view he wasn’t wrong.

Today we’re very friendly. At the time he was furious with us, obviously. The Alliance for Turin included Nicola Tranfaglia, Gian Enrico Rusconi, Saverio Vertone, and my childhood friend Franco Debenedetti—a large slice of the nonextremist academic left.

Actually, my first impulse was that Franco should run for mayor himself, but in a city of industrial workers it didn’t seem like a great idea to choose Italy’s fourth-ranking capitalist. Gianni Rondolino was with Novelli, and he brayed against me. On the other side of the balance, I had become friends with Ferdinando Adornato, God forgive me. We did a demonstration together, and I also remember a long discussion with Paolo Guzzanti, who supported us at the time.

I would have been elected, because our candidate, Valentino Castellani, did win.

I was a contributor to La Stampa (a fundamental requisite), I had the aura of a university professor, a gay one to boot, and I was well known. In sum, I had a lot of angles covered. But I had many doubts, and in the end I said no.

But I was still one of the sponsors, and one of those who backed me was Cesare Romiti.

Our problem was to keep out the crooked ex-Christian Democrats and ex-Socialists who were trying to worm their way in. Once, when there was a meeting to decide the list of candidates, they stationed me (don’t know why) in front of the notary’s door with the task of keeping the interlopers out. It was great fun.

The only thing that displeased me was to have adversaries on the left.

The current mayor, Sergio Chiamparino, was an ally. He had already abandoned Novelli.

Chiamparino, he’s another one. He published a booklet in which he refers to “intellectuals who spout a lot of empty talk like my friend Gianni Vattimo.” Thanks a lot. A few evenings ago I took part in a debate with him. He kept saying stuff like, “I’m an administrator serving the city, I have to make sure the 67 bus runs on time.” I told him, “Sergio, okay, you’re only a mayor, but every once in a while you might spend some time on politics too.”

In any case the Democratic Party of the Left was with us in 1993, with the Alliance. And it was a good experience.

At that time I was a much more of a reformist than I am today. Certainly less disappointed and less angry.

I worked for Castellani’s campaign. I showed up for a whole lot of political meetings.