The election campaign heats up in Florence. This morning there was a harsh attack by Mayor Dario Nardella on Eike Schmidt, outgoing director of the Uffizi Gallery and likely center-right mayoral candidate in the Tuscan capital. After taking a position, Fratelli d’Italia’s response was not long in coming, reacting with a note from the deputy and leader of the Fratelli d’Italia Culture committee group, Alessandro Amorese and Paolo Marcheschi, leader of the equivalent committee group in the Senate : “From the debt abyss of the Maggio Musicale, saved only thanks to the Meloni government, to the embarrassing international figure that it imposed on Florence, when it wanted to include the Franchi stadium in the Pnrr funds, through the systemic degradation in which many areas of the Tuscan capital. And today the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, with an absolute lack of institutional elegance, invites the former director of the Uffizi Gallery, Eike Schmidt, to apologize for not having fulfilled some promises. Nardella, with shameless courage, probably tries in this way to cover the eyes awkwardly in the face of what has been a continuous popular protest against him, the likes of which have never happened in the history of all the mayors of Florence.”
“All your pathetic and sterile attacks against those who managed the Uffizi brilliantly – say the FdI exponents in the note – with the reduction of queues thanks to an optimization system, and with more than 5 million visitors in 2023 alone and with revenues that exceeded 60 million euros, or 70% more than in 2022, it is a badge of merit. The results obtained by Schmidt are facts that nullify Nardella’s volatile words. We remind the outgoing mayor that where his policy and that of his party, shortsighted and leopard, have not been successful until now, and which he thinks he can continue to carry forward through the choice of his heir Sara Funaro, the choices of Florentinos, now truly tired of this Old Regime.” Does the left really have its hours counted in Florence? Nardella’s frontal attack seems to be heading in that direction…
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
