Not right-wing but a civic citizen, not a politician but a manager, the antipodes of Vannacci. Schmidt, center-right candidate for mayor of Florence, tries in every way to distance himself from the image (and names) of his coalition to wink at the center.
“I have commented on what was not going well in Florence since I arrived in the city, and this will certainly not change. As far as my decision to run is concerned, it’s not that I now want to enter politics and become a politician, I propose myself as a manager, I want to bring my managerial and administrative skills for the good of the city”. Eike Schmidt, candidate for mayor of Florence supported by the centre-right coalition, said this on Toscana TV, speaking of his intention to return to Naples, as director of the Capodimonte museum, in the event that he lost the elections.
For Schmidt “it is important to distinguish: it is not that I am trying to enter the political world in some way but I want to offer my skills and those of the team for the good of the city. For this reason in the civic list we have people who in the world of work, management and publishing have done well for their company, but also for the community, for the city. This is important, bringing a managerial and administrative proposal for the city and not getting lost in politics.” Then speaking about the possibility of organizing the closing event of the electoral campaign in Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Schmidt said that “we got off to a good start, I would have no problem filling Piazza della Signoria, but I know that only two times, to Matteo Renzi for the administrative elections and in 2016 for the referendum. We study a series of hypotheses, including that of going to the various parts of the city that are considered peripheral”.
We have not spoken about the possibility that General Roberto Vannacci is the leading candidate for the administrative elections in Florence for the League, this issue at the moment concerns more the newspapers than real politics. If this topic were proposed it is clear that the positions we have read in the newspapers are in strong contrast with the positions of the coalition, of the civic list and my personal ones too. You could say that in some ways we are poles apart.” Then speaking about the candidacy of Antonio Natali, former director of the Uffizi, in the next European elections with the Green and Left Alliance, Schmidt said that “our political positions could not be more different and I don’t feel like going into the details of this position of far left in which he decided to run. Natali also ran in the last administrative elections and was not elected. Now let’s see if this time he can succeed with an even more radical position.”
“As far as safety is concerned, my idea is to have a councilor for safety and decorum together. These are two aspects that are often not combined but decoration helps a lot to inspire respect from people. Where there is an orderly and decent urban planning situation it is much more difficult for crime to gain a foothold in these areas”. Still on safety, for Schmidt, the neighborhood watch “is certainly one of the systems that has worked elsewhere, we need specialized agents for the area and not just for themes. We need a presence close to the citizens in all the 14 traditional districts of Florence and this means that we need a higher number of agents who are in the area and not in the central municipal offices”. Then speaking about the problem of safety at the Cascine park, Schmidt said that “the fence in itself would not help, it could be one of various measures, among other things very expensive, but if there are no safeguards it does not help. It’s a hypothesis, but it’s not the first thing to do. The first thing to do is lighting, video surveillance, the use of software and supervision to catch people in the act.”
