Interview with Ina Dhimgjini, candidate for mayor of Livorno

The next 26 May, together with the European elections, will be held the Italian administrative elections. We have taken steps to find candidates of Albanian origin that you can consult here

We have already presented the first four candidates, Admir Toto, Uljana Gazidede, Arli Dervishi, Jozef Gjura.

Today we present the candidate for mayor of Livorno, Ina Dhimgjini, born in Durres, Albania.

My name is Ina Dhimgjini, I have 32 years, I was born in Durres in Albania and I came to Italy for only 6 years. I live in Livorno and I studied in Pisa, at the Faculty of Law in Pisa.

I became a lawyer in the 2014 and Ph.D. in European Law of civil, commercial and labor contracts in the 2016, a doctorate obtained at the Cà Foscari University of Venice.

I have a master's degree in Legal Affairs, I worked with the chairs of commercial law in Pisa and private European law in Venice where I was a lecturer. I studied at Oxford and Madrid and wrote about 13 scientific publications.

I am applying as Mayor in the Municipality of Livorno with the Civic list Livorno to measure. List not linked to parties, but autonomous and independent.

Interview with Ina Dhimgjini

Candidate Mayor in the Municipality of Livorno

1. What is your proposal within the program of the Livorno Measurement list?

My proposal within the list is to offer a project for my beloved City of Livorno and work in synergy with the whole territory to improve it. What we propose are not promises, but good administration and pragmatism.

2. If you win, what do you think you propose to be innovative for all citizens?

I will undoubtedly begin to work on the important front of work and the economic development of the territory: important aspects such as the Port, the hospital and health, but also businesses must be put back into motion.

3. Why do you think they will have to vote for you?

For seriousness, ability and desire to contribute concretely to the improvement of a city that suffers a lot.

4. Being in possession of a dual citizenship, belonging to multiple cultures and speaking multiple languages is a point of advantage or disadvantage for you and why?

Undoubtedly it is a point of advantage. Knowing more and more different traditions and cultures allows you to have a priceless wealth of experience and to be able to bring various experiences wherever you wish.

5. You are of Albanian origin. What is Albania for you?

Albania is the country in which I was born and in which my person began to form. It is the country that has also allowed me to be what I am today.

6. What does it mean to have a foreign name in your everyday life?

It means that I often have to spell. But in the end it also becomes a fun exercise because you can even tell your own story, for those interested in knowing it.

It also means, as happened in my case, that many by dint of repeating it have learned to write perfectly, without having had the need to do the spelling anymore.

7. Are you Italian enough for those who will vote for you?

I believe that it is essential for the voter to ask himself if what is proposed is valid.

If the projects and the people are valid, neither political, religious, sex, religion or other matters are important.

8. Do you care about polls? What do they say about your list?

Still it is very early to say. Soon we will be able to know better what the guidelines may be.

9. What does it mean to be integrated in your opinion and what are the proposals to be made to improve immigration policies?

Above all, it means respecting the rules and traditions of the country where you live and participating in them. When you live long in a place at the end the place where you live is yours. And it is yours not so much physically, but it is yours because the people you meet and with whom you grow are also yours. As happened in my case.

To improve the policies that concern immigration, we must first start from the fact that the migration phenomenon is structured and that in order to guarantee human rights to those who arrive, we need to be able to think upstream about the tools that work and which are well solid within the territory.

To avoid that those who find themselves emigrating are even worse. Not only that, in order to reduce the prejudice as much as possible, the integration goes through the respect of the rules but also by favoring the same rights for those who are citizens and those who are not.

10. Do you notice any difference between your parents and you in the way you live in Italy?

Undoubtedly having come as a child (I was only 6 years) the training part is different but the principles (many) have remained solid and firm. Those values that since the very beginning are the same, wherever I go or find me.

11. Is there an organized Albanian community where you are a candidate? (like some association, a school, etc.). How many Albanians are there in your constituency?

There is a community of Albanians in the Province of Livorno are about 3.320.

12. Don't you think they only chose you to draw on the votes of your community?

The candidacy took place behind a process of maturation and without the push or the support of parties. The civic list involves concrete people who have independently found the courage and commitment to work for a better city.

13. What do you have to say to the other candidates of Albanian origin who compete in other lists?

I wish everyone wants to contribute to the improvement of their City to be able to do so with the utmost commitment.

14. Do you want to add something or say more that you think is important?

On my civic list there is also a candidate councilor at the Livorno City Council called Arben Demiri.