Meloni instead of Medici – German wants to enter Florence city hall
Published: Tuesday, Jun 4th 2024, 09:11
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Of course, this is every campaigner's dream. As soon as Eike Schmidt arrives at Piazzale Michelangelo, the vantage point high above Florence, applause erupts. A joyful glance at the people up on the wall. Until the candidate for mayor realizes that the spontaneous applause is for someone else: the sun, which is once again setting behind the roofs of the Tuscan capital in a particularly spectacular way today. With such extraterrestrial competition, nobody takes any notice of him.
But Schmidt can by no means complain about a lack of attention. Practically everyone in Florence knows him. His eight years as director of the Uffizi Gallery - one of the most important museums in the world with five million visitors a year - earned him much praise. His bid for the city hall has now also made him internationally prominent. A German as mayor of perhaps Italy's most beautiful city, certainly one of the most visited? Even the "New York Times" made a big splash.
Italian woman, Italian passport
It is thanks to his wife that the art historian - born in Freiburg, studied in Heidelberg, completed his doctorate on the ivory sculptures of the Medici, one of the great ruling families of Florence, then spent a few years in the USA - is allowed to run for office at all. Schmidt is married to art historian Roberta Bartoli. He has also held an Italian passport since November. The 56-year-old has no party registration in either of his two countries. In the local elections in the city of 362,000 inhabitants at the weekend - parallel to the European elections - he is standing as a "man of the middle" with a citizens' list.
However, his candidacy is supported by the right-wing three-party coalition that has been in government in Rome for a year and a half - anything but a matter of course for a man from the cultural scene. The people with whom Schmidt has had a lot to do in recent years are particularly critical of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Her party Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy) has its origins in the post-fascist movement. Even today, high-ranking friends of Meloni make no secret of their admiration for dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). She herself avoids calling herself an "anti-fascist".
As a right-wing candidate in a left-wing city
Schmidt does not. "As a German, I am ashamed of the things the Germans have done in Italy and throughout Europe. That's why I'm an anti-fascist." He then adds that the Fratelli also "clearly renounced fascism a long time ago". Today, they are at best a "post-post-fascist party". The candidate is attempting a balancing act: Schmidt does not want to alienate right-wing voters, but Florence traditionally votes to the left. The last Christian Democrat mayor in the Palazzo Vecchio right next to the Uffizi, where the Medici once ruled, was half a century ago.
The fact that he has any chance at all is due to the fact that the left - as is so often the case in Italy - is also at odds with itself in Florence. Social Democrat incumbent Dario Nardella is no longer allowed to run after two terms in office, and two women are competing from the ranks of his Partito Democratico (PD) party. There are ten candidates in total. Schmidt's first goal now is to reach the run-off. He should succeed. In the last poll that was allowed to be published, he was at 33 percent, the official PD candidate Sara Funaro (48) around 40 percent.
Much praise for eight years at the Uffizi
According to a count by the Association of Towns and Municipalities, there are more than 80 mayors named Schmidt in Germany. But in Italy, he would actually be the first. However, Eike is much larger on the election posters - partly because many Italians have problems pronouncing his surname. You hear everything from Chmied to Smitt. Otherwise, he says, the first passport has neither advantages nor disadvantages. "It's a zero calculation: some people don't vote for me because I'm German. Others vote for me because I'm from abroad."
All the more reason for him to emphasize his record as Uffizi director. And it is impressive. Schmidt has given the formerly dusty home of the Michelangelos and Botticellis a completely new order. When he started, the museum didn't even have a website. As visitor numbers increased, so did the income: to 60 million euros with 30 million in fixed costs. There was a lot left over. Nevertheless, as usual, it was over after two terms in office. Since January, Schmidt has been in charge of the country's second largest national museum, the Capodimonte in Naples. He is on leave for the duration of the election campaign.
Rejection of cheap tourism
The promise is now to clean up the whole city, just like in the museum: better streets, an end to drug dealing, affordable social housing, new ideas to combat mass tourism. Florence is one of the cities in Italy that suffers particularly badly from the masses of visitors. "Cheap tourism has been promoted here for decades," he says. "That has to change." If the job as head of Palazzo Vecchio doesn't work out after all, he can return to Naples as museum director. However, he wants to keep the apartment in Florence with his wife. Either way.
©Keystone/SDA
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