«It was not easy to say no to the petrochemical project in Golfo Aranci»; this was done by Giovanni Filigheddu, from Arzachena (born in 1912, died in 1986), a regional councilor and assessor (for tourism) in the 1950s and 1960s, group leader of the Christian Democrats, president of SFIRS. This was stated by the former president of the Region, Angelo Rojch, during the conference-presentation of the book on the Gallura politician, written by Mario Roych, held in Arzachena on October 18, moderated by Gian Piero Farena. A well-attended conference, with several interventions and testimonies, which brought out the political, human and Christian stature of Giovanni Filigheddu: «an honest person, with precise ideal references, robust, very operational, particularly tied to his territory of origin, in some respects a lone knight» as his biographer Roych defined him.
Returning to the petrochemical settlement project in Golfo Aranci (it was between the 50s and the early 60s), the former president of the Region continued: «in Sardinia, at that time, politics was oriented towards the settlement of large petrochemical groups, and it was not easy to give up, in Golfo Aranci, the possibility of creating jobs; and yet Filigheddu opposed that choice because he understood, in advance, when perhaps no one else was thinking about it, that the future for Gallura was in tourism; and this when in Cagliari, Sassari and also in Nuoro, they saw in petrochemical investments the way to development. With what intelligence and prophetic vision Giovanni Filigheddu - stated Angelo Rojch - said no to that choice!».
The conference was attended by Senator Giuseppe (Beppe) Pisanu, former member of parliament and former Minister of the Interior, with a long militancy in the Christian Democrats and in the Morotea current (founded by Aldo Moro) like Giovanni Filigheddu. "The two issues that according to him had to be resolved before all the others - Pisanu recalled - were water and transport", problems for which he was strongly committed to their solution: "Water to be treasured, to take the Sardinian people from the atavistic thirst in which they lay, water to irrigate the fields, to promote intensive agriculture and with it the agro-industrial enterprise. The second issue - Pisanu continued - was transport, to increase internal transport, shorten the distances of Sardinia from the rest of Italy and insert it into the international context". The unraveling of these two knots, continued Senator Pisanu – was, for Giovanni Filigheddu, the premise for the full valorization of local resources, and among these resources he put our natural, historical and cultural heritage in first place, which he considered as a precious and delicate raw material for the development of the tourism industry». This vision «fully explains his commitment to work and full employment, the Liscia dam, the Olbia airport of transport, the ferries, the Costa Smeralda and tourism». And there was «iron coherence», Pisanu specified, between Giovanni Filigheddu regional councilor and Giovanni Filigheddu president of the Sfirs. In the Sfirs in fact «he continued to carry forward the battles he had led as a regional councilor».
For his part, the former president and regional councilor Pietrino Soddu, in a message sent, underlined how «within the idea of organic and harmonious development of the territory, Giovanni Filigheddu was a convinced supporter of tourism development with an inevitable attention to the potential guaranteed by the Costa Smeralda Consortium but with a modern approach that looked to the public interest».
A special thanks was addressed by the former president of the Region, Angelo Rojch, to the author of the book, Mario Roych, for having given Giovanni Filigheddu, «the right political and human centrality in regional politics, because his figure remained in the shadows and I say, unfairly!».