Bologna, September 7, 2026 – “We believe it is very important that femicides and hate speech institutions, especially at the local level, provide joint responses at the national level. For this reason, together with my colleague Sara Funaro, mayor of Florence, we have decided to promote a joint initiative and to convene the coordination of metropolitan mayors of Anci in the coming weeks.”
This is the announcement by Mayor Matteo Lepore, who responds to the appeal launched yesterday by the father of Lorena Isceri, the woman brutally killed by her ex-partner in Barberino del Mugello (Florence), on the overpass of the A1: a devastated father who asked politics to be united, to work in schools, to strengthen anti-violence centers and the tools to prevent violence.
Mayor Lepore: “We must unite our communities”
“Far too little is being done – continues the mayor of Bologna – and instead we must unite our communities and raise awareness in Parliament. We focus heavily on schools, we are doing this with local resources, we believe that on affective education and everything related to awareness of gender relations it is very important to work.”
Lepore then recalled the commitment of Bologna and Florence in supporting anti-violence centers and programs for men who have committed violence: the purpose of the coordination is to make these examples available to all other cities and to receive others in return. “There needs to be legislation that is attentive to people’s lives and above all attentive to the words, the gestures of those who think that lives are not all equally valuable, because ultimately this is the great divide our time is experiencing. For some, there are people who deserve to live and others who do not, this is seen in the way politics is discussed, in the life of institutions, in the world of sports and also in culture.”
“We must listen to Franco’s words and make his request a political responsibility”
Bologna and Florence “are linked by a collaboration agreement and like other cities support anti-violence centers, initiatives in schools, programs of education on affectivity and awareness in relationships, recovery homes for men who have committed violence – it is also reiterated in a press release – We want to make these experiences available to the country and build new initiatives together with our colleagues. Because in the face of a femicide it is no longer enough to count the victims, be outraged and then return to normality. This year 34 women have already been killed. Behind every number there is a person, a family, a community. And so we must listen to Franco’s words and make his request a political responsibility: unity, prevention, education and concrete tools to stop violence.”
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