Women's Day, the Sardinian Council's homage to Ninetta Bartoli and Margherita Sanna

Two Sardinian women who have made history celebrated in the Regional Council on the occasion of the International Day dedicated to the female gender and which this year has as its theme "Women in local authorities: a common value".

The room of the Autonomy and Local Bodies commission was thus named after Ninetta Bartoli and Margherita Sanna, the first townspeople elected in Borutta (Sassari) and Orune (Nuoro) in 1946. Two courageous administrators were elected from two small municipalities on the island, the first women to hold the role of mayor in Italy. Two strong women, who have "broken the mold" by running their own politics, with courage and determination.

Their portraits are present in the "Sala delle Donne", inaugurated in 2016 at Palazzo Montecitorio by Laura Boldrini, then President of the Chamber of Deputies.

A gap of a few days divides the election of the two Sardinians: on 11 March 1946 Ninetta Bartoli became mayor, and on 7 April of the same year Margherita Sanna. Both united by militancy in the Christian Democrats.

Bartoli became secretary of the DC of Borutta in '45, a year later elected mayor with 90% of the votes. Sanna began her political activity in Catholic Action but her passion for teaching led her, in 1939, to join the National Fascist Party. However, she was not convinced of the political choices that Mussolini was pursuing. She was in fact reported "as belonging to the Nuoro opposition group", but she continued her educational action on behalf of the parish. In January 1943 she was arrested and imprisoned in the Buoncammino prison in Cagliari for two months.

It was the Prime Minister Michele Pais who discovered the plaque dedicated to the two Sardinian women, attended by the vice president of the Region Alessandra Zedda, the mayor of Borutta Silvano Arru and the deputy mayor of Orune Giovanna Porcu.

"Today - said Zedda - there are two words that we do not like at all, pandemic and war, my hope is that they can be canceled from the world scenario and that women can resume that normality towards equality that we have been hoping for for too long" .

"We wanted to dedicate the classroom of the first commission to two women who symbolize the participation of political life in Sardinia - the words of Pais - who represent that gender equality that has not yet been achieved".

(Unioneonline / vl)