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Interview with Alessandro Battilocchio
(Mayor of Tolfa)

If I am not mistaken you are the youngest Mayor in Italy. For how long have you been occupying this post? Where you involved in the Tolfa council administration before being elected as mayor?

I was elected on May 13th 2001 at the age of 23: I won the elections defeating one important politician, who now is anyway seating in the national parliament. I was elected "Assessore" (executive councillor) at the age of 19: for four years I had the task to manage the important sectors of culture, tourism and youth policies. Let's say that politics has been so far the most important passion of my life and I’m enjoying very much serving my town and my community.

You are also well involved in politics and you make part of a well known political party. What are your future ambitions?

I'm very much involved in my party activities and, since last Congress, I am part of the national level. I'm a personal friend of the Craxi family and I've been for several years representative of Italian youth in the European meetings. For the future... I don't know exactly my target at the moment is to be a good Mayor. Then I trust on God!

Within the last twelve months you have been in Ghajnsielem three times... What do you think about our locality and its people?

Well...you'd better get used to my face...I'm coming back very soon! Talking seriously, something special started with Ghajnsielem and every time I come back is a magic emotion. The beauty of your town impressed us all. The funny thing is that until 12 months ago, I didn't even know an island named Gozo was existing (I thought it was still Ogigia!), now I feel like home when I go to get a drink over “Bono's” at the football club or when I walk around Mgarr Harbour!

Besides the cultural activities, do you have any particular project in mind so that the relationship between the two localities can get closer?

I think we might develop a project related to tourism: EU has got many ways to finance such projects and this sector is particularly important for both communities, whose history is really fascinating and ancient. Schools must stay in touch because students and teachers have so many things to exchange: with Paul Tabone we are planning such activity. Besides that, I would like some of our associations to get closer: in these days, I know Franciscan Youths of Tolfa and Ghajnsielem are contacting each other and that's wonderful. But I think that in few years many bilateral activities and cooperation actions will be set up in all sectors because i see the wish to strengthen the links among us at every level.

Last August, a delegation from our village made the first cultural exchange between the two communities. They were very impressed with the hospitality of the Tolfa families. There was a sense of close friendship and many felt that we had known each other for years. What is your opinion about this?

As I told you, it's something really peculiar and a bit....magic. Everything worked perfectly but you were a very nice group to manage and to accomplish. I saw the sadness of all the people in the weeks after your departure and the wish to meet you all again. We shared heart warming emotions that will be for ever inside us. The tears of the last day in the Tolfa Piazza are a clear sign of the depth of the strong friendship feeling among us… We started, I’m sure, our "never ending story".

Malta will be joining the EU later next year. Will Tolfa and Ghajnsielem have any kind of benefit or funds from the European community?

You have the luck to have a wonderful and prepared person as Mayor, my dearest friend Francis: your presence in the European Union opens a lot of opportunities and possibilities and the city council, let by the Mayor, must make sure to enter into the procedures for the European funds. Right now we are applying for a new project of the Piazza and we are very faithful to get all the money. Tolfa is one of the towns that got the most money in the country from the European Union in the last 8 years, proportionally to population. Ghajnsielem must try its best to do the same and you have all the conditions to do it. Of course, twinning activities get money if they are included in good projects: this year we both got the funds, because our program was admitted and passed.

The signing of the twinning will take next year in Ghajnsielem. This will be a commemorative day for both communities. What is the general view of the Tolfa residents for this special event?

It's incredible the enthusiasm and the joy of Tolfa people to see the "twins" again and all are already looking forward to that special week. I'm sure you will organize properly this very special event. But what people want the most, is your company and your friendship because, as I told you in Tolfa, we now are "two bodies, one soul". The signing will be the official part of our link; but we both already know, that all this is "just the beginning"!

This website on behalf of the Ghajnsielem community would like to congratulate Alessandro Battilocchio with his new post in Civita Vecchia and wishes him all the luck for his bright future.

Alessandro Battilocchio was interviewed by Ghajnsielem.com
Date: Wednesday 29th October 2003