The Mayor of Florence, Leonardo Domenici, is also the President of the National Mayor’s Association (ANCI), and last week, when he opened one of the many round table discussions at the National Public Administration Conference on behalf of the Mayoral organization, he sparked a chain of rebuttals and much discussion. His speech had sharply criticised Prime Minister Berlusconi’s disregard for local issues and his consequential spending cuts at local government levels. Domenici declared that there was a serious problem with relations between government institutions and that Berlusconi’s accusations that local communities waste too much money on tourism and social and cultural events were totally unfounded.
In a surprising response to Domenici’s opening statements, the mayor of Palermo, Diego Cammarata, implied that Domenici’s comments were inappropriate and that he was, in reality, just campaigning against Berlusconi. Upon hearing this accusation, Domenici decided to leave the round table discussion, which was subsequently cancelled as other mayors followed him out.
Domenici’s actions were not regarded kindly and even initiated talks regarding his resignation as ANCI President.
Upon returning to Palazzo Vecchio, Domenici reiterated his concerns and continued to stand firm behind his comments, even amidst the criticisms from his centre-right opponents. He believes the statements he made are about issues that he has repeatedly brought up in the past, and that they absolutely do not constitute a campaign tactic against the federal government. He reiterated his intolerance of the fact that local governments have been accused of spending too much of their funding on tourist-related issues and other social and cultural events when statistics demonstrate the opposite.
