“I’ll take this one on the right here” says Sara Funaro, Democratic candidate for the chicest seat in Palazzo Vecchio, in front of the two elevators of La Nazione. “So I’m the one on the left, everything backwards” slyly jokes Eike Schmidt, civic candidate of the centre-right, with Teutonic aplomb and a Manzonian-like sarcastic tongue ‘rinsed’ in the Arno.
A casual sliding doors – just before the last pre-ballot confrontation between the two mayoral candidates, organized in the Attilio Monti Hall – but symptomatic of the confusion of a sticky and bi-salty Florentine June that in two days will put sealing wax on the name of the new mayor. The two of them made it to the second round.
She is Sara Funaro of the Democratic Party (with Verdi Sinistra, Azione and +Europa) who – paying the price of a Florence fatigued by the TAV and tram construction sites, dented by crime, with bricks drugged by overtourism and by a ‘Tafazzian’ fragmentation ‘ on the left (IV, the 5 Stars and, in addition to the radical left, also the newly formed democratic Florence of the defenestrated councilor Cecilia Del Re ran) – reached only 43% of the votes. Ten points behind is Eike Schmidt, supported by the compact center-right and after the first round by a lively ‘RiBella Firenze’ civic list.
The forecast is in favor for Funaro for a probable regrouping on the left but the game is not over also because we vote tomorrow and on the 24th, the day of the patron saint San Giovanni and abstentionism is variable.
In comparison, pressed by questions from deputy director Luigi Caroppo, chief reporter Erika Pontini and a pool of political reporters, the two (re)touched on the hottest topics of the moment: security, airport, infrastructure, home emergency above all. To combat petty crime, Funaro returns to call for “200 new agents from Rome” but also proposes to “work for cultural and social structures” while Schmidt wants a “fixed presence in the Cascine together with cultural and sporting offers”.
Both are in favor of the new Peretola runway but with slightly different approaches: “It must be done because there are many citizens who have planes passing over their heads every day and I am convinced that, in addition to tourism, the airport also has a function for craftsmanship and manufacturing” says Funaro. For competitor Peretola “it must mainly be a ‘business airport'”. Housing is a burning issue. In the city, rents are skyrocketing, so much so that students and workers are giving up on moving to the banks of the Arno. For the Dem candidate, the solution is “regulation of short-term rentals”. Schmidt, on the other hand, calls for “more living space” that can be found “in the many abandoned places of the city”.
Then the former director of the Uffizi, an animal lover, pulls a surprise proposal out of his hat, certainly appreciated by many Florentines who, according to the registry, own over thirty thousand dogs: “I would like to create a municipal veterinary hospital, especially for animals that they have no master.” Funaro is also sensitive to the issue: “In the city we have 52 dog parks and if I am mayor I will continue to build them.”
In Florence there have been arguments since the dawn of time over roads and construction sites. The ‘zone 30’ is the latest innovation that has once again recreated the Guelph and Ghibelline factions. Funaro supports it (“It should be carried out by looking at area by area where it is necessary to intervene but not throughout the city”) but admits that traffic jams are a big problem and assures: “If I win I will have a consultant for management and coordination of construction sites and traffic management”.
Schmidt finally returns to the ‘Green Shield’ button, a measure which provides for a ban on older diesel engines in the city from 2025. “I am very much against it” he says.
