On the rainy morning of May 5th, in the extremely professional recording studios of Radio Bocconi, I had the opportunity to have a small conversation with the three candidates running for the CNSU in next week elections. In this brief live interview, which Tra i Leoni realized in collaboration with Radio Bocconi, we have explored the backgrounds and the stories of these three candidates, getting to know them better just before the electoral days, on the 14th and 15th of this month.
Alessandro D’Avino was born in Napoli and then moved to Milano, where he studied in the prestigious Milanese high school Volta. He later enrolled in the Bocconi course of law, CLMG, in 2021, thus making this its fourth year. The decision to join our university was quite a difficult one, for him: his parents pressured him to study engineering or medicine, but he stubbornly chose to study law and economics, which perfectly merged in the course he ended up choosing.
If you have walked around campus in the last month you can certainly recognize the red hairs of Alessandro, as he is often portrayed on the posters of Blab alongside their CDA candidate Giulia Gambardella. He joined this students’ representation association some years ago and rose the ranks up until the CNSU candidacy, with the nationwide list Unilab Network. He was chosen internally with a primary election, something which, I could here also in his own voice, makes him extremely proud and honored. The whole list backed him and Giulia, creating a compact team which certainly helped in securing last month’s victory.
As we did in the last interview for the Board of Directors’ candidates, we asked Alessandro to describe himself with three words and to pick a song which could tell us something about this election. He told me that this is a question he is now very used to answering, as it is part every job interviewer’s set. Alessandro decided to go with the same words that Giulia used in her own interview, as they also fit him perfectly. Determined, as he will do anything to complete the steps he has laid out; outgoing, because he loves being around people; tough, both in the positive and negative sense of the term. Alessandro picked a song that perfectly describes the story of Blab in the last two years: Viva la Vida, by Coldplay, tells the story of a king that lost his crown, just like Blab lost the majority in the 2023 election. While the warm room is filled by music, the candidate takes a moment of silence, taking off the headphones and stretching his legs.
After the break we arrive to some technical questions, trying to explain to our listeners and our readers what the CNSU is and what role it plays in the governance of Italian universities. The The National Council of University Students is composed by 28 students elected from all the Italian universities, and Alessandro believes that is extremely important for our university to have one among them, as the interest of private universities are not always taken into consideration. Whoever the students choose to
represent them in next week’s elections will carry the responsibility of bringing Bocconi’s voice to the Ministry of Education, down in the chaotic Rome.
Now everyone is thinking about the nationwide election coming up next week, but last month was totally dedicated to the internal competition between Astra and Blab, which peaked of course during the two electoral days, April 14th and 15th. Alessandro was ecstatic when the results came out: those that were present at the announcement event, which the Bocconi Media Team realized jointly in Piazza Sraffa, will remember him hugging Giulia Gambardella and raising her from the ground, as the whole Blab crowd erupted into joy. Two years ago, D’Avino declared that they were not enough, and in this time frame he and Blab worked day and night to regain ground and support. Evidently, a majority of the 61% of students that voted in this year’s election appreciated their effort and result.
The difference between the list’s votes was, in the end, minimal. Blab collected 51.3% of the votes for the CDA, making the next election extremely uncertain and unpredictable. Will Astra turn the result around, swinging the necessary votes to gain the lead once more or will Alessandro D’Avino confirm last month’s victory for Blab? Or maybe we will see a last-minute surprise with our third and most unexpected candidate, Giovanni Bracci from the list Student Office Bocconi? Keep in mind that even a small number of votes moving from Blab to the new entry in university politics could be decisive in this tight race. In this unpredictable three-way race, all the candidates involved are working hard in these days before the election to catch your vote,
When it comes to his main opponent, Astra’s Uccio, Alessandro told me that they had the chance to work together, when he was still in Blab many years ago. D’Avino described his opinion of Carmine Nardelli as controversial, but one thing that he recognizes in his adversary is the passion that he puts in everything he does. The commitment and presence that he puts in the electoral campaign, and in student representation in general, really stands out.
On May 16th the election season here in Bocconi will be finally over, and consequences of the campaign, with all its promises and events, will unravel in front of those that will remain. Our university will not be the same after these two intense months of electoral competition, especially after the unprecedented level of participation and activism that we saw. Alessandro clearly said that Blab, even victorious, can and will do much better: he and Giulia will work closely with all their members to implement their ideas and programs. He sees a much stronger Blab than the one he joined, also thanks to having found a fierce competitor in the children of the stars.
As with his opponent’s one, Alessandro D’Avino interview closed on a positive and hopeful note. As he left the room, Giovanni Bracci entered in his place, ready to continue
with the interview program that Tra i Leoni and Radio Bocconi had prepared. Do not miss his interview and Carmine Nardelli’s one, always on Tra i Leoni website.
