Fabrizio Somma, he is the new president of the People's University of Trieste that is heading towards a new declared season after the February elections that ousted the leadership and the group of Silvio Delbello. Somma, already vice president, within the Upt by designation of the Region, is the 18th at the top since 1899 when the institution was born under the leadership of the liberal-national Felice Venezian. His vice was elected the number one winner (by number of votes) of these painful and also contested elections, Manuele Braico, also (since 2013) president of the Istrian Communities.

Yesterday the new Board of Directors that emerged from the ballot box met for the first time at the headquarters in Piazza Ponterosso. The doors were closed for quite some time. […] Eight “yes” votes for the designated Somma, one councilor abstained. Unanimously, instead, for the vice president Braico. The Board of Directors was also appointed, of which Somma becomes a member by right, the representative of the Farnesina Francesco Saverio De Luigi, Luisella Tenente for the Regional School Office, and representing the members once again Manuele Braico, and finally Massimiliano Rovati, the latter until now spokesperson of the “new voices”, who want to open the People's University to the city, strengthen (despite the lack of resources) relations with the Italian minority in Slovenia and Croatia, and as Somma said when he was just elected «also establish a structured relationship of collaboration with the People's University of Trento». De Luigi wanted to underline (once the doors had opened) […] that now with the guidance of the new president a new capacity for self-financing is also expected on the part of the institute […].

This second Somma will also be the year to celebrate "the 50 years of collaboration with the Italian Union and the 115 of the People's University", while organizing new courses and working to combat school dropouts. […] Braico himself had announced as a program a great boost to cultural activity, to better promote Istrian culture in Italy, and so the new five-year period begins, "splittered" only for a few days by the appeal filed by Delbello's losing list. The new team is also formed by Renzo Grigolon and Micaela Silva (elected), Diana De Rosa, Denis Zigante, Renzo Codarin.

Gabriella Ziani, «The Little One», 14/03/14

The Adriatic Observer