Meloni wants former Uffizi Gallery director as
mayor of Florence
Germany’s Eike Schmidt is considering accepting a call
from the far-right Brothers of Italy to try to wrest the Tuscan capital from
the left, where it has governed for almost five decades. ‘Nothing’s been
decided,’ he tells EL PAÍS
DANIEL VERDÚ
Rome - JAN 19, 2024 -
20:10 CET
German-born
Eike Schmidt, 56, is a man with a genius for public art management. An
extraordinary museum director, he has brought the Uffizi Gallery in Florence
into the 21st century by applying new museum management techniques. Schmidt is
a scholarly, open-minded man – avowedly anti-fascist. He is also German. In
theory, these factors would fail to make him the ideal candidate for Prime
Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ultra-right Brothers of Italy to put forward for
mayor. But it is precisely because of his centralist image that Meloni wants
him, and he is giving the candidacy some thought. For Meloni, having Schmidt on
side seems one of the few ways to seize control of this apparently unassailable
stronghold of the left for almost 50 years in elections expected to be held in
early June.
Schmidt was
the director of the Uffizi for nine years, a position he left recently in order
to take the reins at the Capodimonte museum in Naples. During those nine years,
he became a leading public figure not just in Florence but in the whole of
Italy. The size and influence of the Uffizi Renaissance gallery, which when set
up by the Medici family was something like the west wing of the mayor’s
headquarters in the Palazzo Vecchio, made it the perfect podium from which
Schmidt could weigh in on public debates, thereby building a significant public
profile.
Soon after
being appointed director of the Uffizi Gallery, Eike Schmidt – the first
foreigner to govern one of Italy’s greatest cultural institutions – grabbed a
microphone and sent a message to pickpockets and petty thieves through loud
speakers in the streets. For the first time, someone was tackling the chaos at
the museum entrance. Schmidt’s boldness was yet another indication of his
interventionist, and somewhat populist and popular, idea of how to run the
museum, which receives almost four million visitors a year. No matter that,
three days later, the Florence police showed up at his office and handed him a
fine of approximately €300 for speaking out in public without a permit. The
next morning, Schmidt went to the City Hall and paid the debt.
Recently a
nationalized Italian, Schmidt has not yet made a decision on whether to run for
mayor. “Look, I have no news,” he told EL PAÍS. “It’s something I still have to
finish thinking about. Nothing’s decided and I don’t have a deadline for coming
to a decision.” A spokesman for the Brothers of Italy has confirmed that the
candidacy is open while Schmidt’s new assignment managing the museum in Naples
will not influence the decision. “They are separate things. They have nothing
to do with each other,” said the spokesman.
Cultural hegemony
The
seduction of Schmidt, who maintains a good relationship with the Minister of
Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, is also part of the strategy of the radical right
to give a central role to culture in its political program. It is an idea that
connects with the old postulates of the philosopher Antonio Gramsci on cultural
hegemony, traditionally attributed to the left but which Meloni’s party aims to
appropriate for itself.
A
self-declared moderate, Schmidt believes that Florence faces two fundamental
issues: security and infrastructure. Though mass tourism and the progressive
emptying of the center in favor of tourist apartments and hotels is recognized
as a huge problem, it is not being considered a priority. “I would not limit
visits to the city,” Schmidt said several days ago. “But you can work on the
idea of scheduling them.” He pointed out that the Uffizi had resorted to this
formula using an algorithm to decongest the museum.
The left
has already begun its campaign against Schmidt. The current mayor, Dario
Nardella, has accused him of failing to meet the deadlines for reforms at the
Uffizi. Other voices assert Schmidt secured the post at the prestigious
Capodeimonte museum in exchange for running in Florence, so that if he lost the
electoral race he would have something to fall back on. Obviously, Schmidt
denies this, though his return to Florence shortly after taking up the post in
Naples has raised more than a few eyebrows.
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