2024-03-21 00:00:00
ROME — Conquering Florence seems to have become one of life’s missions for the centre-right. The one capable of shifting the balance towards victory in the next administrative elections.
To achieve the objective, the two holders of the dossier – the minister Gennaro Sangiuliano e Giovanni Donzellinumber 2 of FdI – have identified a German for the throne of Palazzo Vecchio, even if he is a naturalized Italian: Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi for eight years, moved to head the Capodimonte Museum in mid-January. It’s just a shame that the art historian, according to the Consolidated Law on local authorities, may not be eligible. A risk already spotted in Via della Scrofa, enough to push the owner of Culture to put his hands forward: «Schmidt? Everyone has the right to run”, responded Sangiuliano a few days ago while away to the Tuscan capital, reeling off a series of precedents which however have little to do with the present case.
Interview with the director of the Uffizi Schmidt: “I’m anti-fascist, if someone doesn’t like it they won’t support me as a candidate for mayor of Florence” by Ernesto Ferrara and Fabio Galati 05 December 2023
The issue is legal, but also controversial: that is, it offers a hole into which the sponsors of the Teutonic manager are ready to slip to bend the current regulations to their plan. In fact, according to article 60 of the Tuel, anyone who carries out, among others, “general director or equivalent functions” in a state administration cannot compete for the office of mayor. Exactly what the man from Freiburg has been practicing on home soil for years now. Law in hand, to put an end to the cause of ineligibility, Schmidt would therefore have to resign, be removed from office or placed on unpaid leave “no later than the day set for the submission of candidatures”, or within one month from the date of the elections. But if the first two hypotheses are considered inadmissible – if defeated the aspiring mayor would lose everything – the third is instead considered practicable. At the risk, however, of an obvious forcing.
Eike Schmidt, from Florence to Capodimonte: “Happy to be here”
According to jurisprudence, leave cannot be granted in the presence of a fixed-term assignment. A principle which, when applied to Schmidt, takes on paradoxical contours: if the director of Capodimonte were to win the municipal elections in Florence, in fact, the position at the top of the Neapolitan museum would be frozen for a period longer than the (four-year) duration of his contract. In addition to the fact that the Ministry of Culture should appoint another director in Naples (without knowing how long it will last) and explain why it is keeping the seat for Schmitdt beyond the deadline. An ad personam maneuver. Necessary to conquer one of the few forts ever conquered by the right.
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