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"Mayors can impact the centre-left and make it more competitive through the example of good administration. We have a class of mayors that has already defeated populism, or rather, the Popular Mayors. Citizens evaluate us and then, if they’re convinced, they choose us. In the local territories we have a large ruling class. First Citizens bring people together, they don’t divide. They’ve already proven this."

Telos: Every time someone talks about the direct election of the Prime Minister, people use the very evocative expression “Mayor of Italy”. So, is it true that a Mayor has, in the administration of his or her own city, more power than the Prime Minister has today?

Matteo Ricci: The direct election of the Mayor and the two-round majority voting system is what has worked better. This way, citizens have begun to trust politics again, in the aftermath of the Tangentopoli scandal, through the First Citizens. The community is fully represented in the role of the Mayor. It isn’t so much a question of power, as of authoritativeness. Mayors have to handle questions that fall outside the competence of Municipalities, Regions, Nations and even Europe. This is also why the role of Mayor, in these years, has acquired authoritativeness: underneath that tri-colour sash there’s a whole lot of work, effort and even risk. Mayors are the ones who have the greatest responsibilities, and low compensation. It’s no wonder that in recent months along with the ALI-Italian Local Autonomies, we’ve been fighting to give Mayors of small Municipalities a decent minimum salary, and because of our battle, starting this year they will receive a salary of at least 1400 euros a month. To acknowledge the dignity of the role of Mayor, because it is truly different from all the other institutional roles.

The breakdown in the party system has very likely been the source of people’s widespread anti-political sentiment. And yet this gap between citizens and politics is not nearly as wide when it comes to the mayor. Are your citizens still passionate about politics?

I see that there’s a closeness between the Mayor and citizens. You either love your Mayor or you hate him, citizens can tangibly measure the distance between the promises and the things done. The person who is Mayor has to have at least two characteristics: first of all, they have to like being around people, feeling their city breathe. I live just a few hundred metres from the Town Hall, but I usually go by bike, not just because Pesaro is the bicycle City, but because if I walked, it would take me more than half an hour! As soon as I leave the house, people stop me to ask me all kinds of different things. The second characteristic is the popular approach of the Mayor, or the ability to be around people, where the people work, suffer and have fun. They’re always in the trenches, on the frontline in emergencies: these dramatic days of the Coronavirus are concrete proof. This brings the Mayor closer to citizens.
However, mayors cannot be afraid to make decisions, because they are called to do this everyday. Anybody who is afraid of making decisions cannot be Mayor. However, despite the daily problems, anybody who has been Mayor says this is indeed the most wonderful experience.
First citizens are brought together by passion and commitment to people who want to work towards the common good and a better future. Helping to bolster this by starting with the place where they live. I think this is why, to give an example, mayors are so popular among kids. In fact, for them the known world actually coincides with their own city. And the Mayor is their closest and most important reference.

You are the Mayor, Vice President of the ANCI and in charge of the Local Governments in the national secretary of the Democratic Party. An all-around politician. When you were re-elected in this last term you announced that “the PD will only be able to relaunch if it becomes the party of the local areas and of the Mayors and less of the internal currents.” What did you mean?

In the territories, there’s a lot of local energy that can be freed up for the Democratic Party, made up of administrators who have worked their way up, who know the citizens and constantly confront their consensus. Mayors can impact the centre-left to make it more competitive through the example of good administration. We have a class of mayors who have already defeated populism, or the Popular Mayors. In the last administrative elections, the same day we witnessed the success of the right-wing League in the European elections with more than 30% of the votes, many mayors of the PD, of the centre-left and the civic lists achieved the same result in their own city, winning the local elections against the centre-right candidates. This is what happened in Pesaro: the League got 34% of the votes in the European elections and the PD got 28%. The next day, I got nearly 58% of the votes. This is what happened in Bergamo, Florence, Bari, Pesaro, Modena and many other municipalities throughout Italy where the mayors of the PD were clearly confirmed. Citizens evaluate us and then, if they’re convinced, they choose us. In the local territories, we have a large ruling class. First citizens bring people together, they don’t divide. They’ve already proven this. So, the PD and the centre-left, the reformist area, and the Europeanist area that we need to build has to start again with the people the populists already defeated with a popular approach. We have popular administrators, even including Stefano Bonaccini, who won in Emilia Romagna and beat Salvini’s League party with these same characteristics.

A few months ago, with the appointment of Francesca Frenquellucci as the Assessore for Innovation, you opened your Executive committee up to a representative of the Five-Star Movement. The first experiment at the local level of a PD-Five-Star Movement administration. And in October of last year you entrusted her with relationships with the university.This appointment had quite an impact throughout Italy, and even sparked polemic. Can you tell us why you made this choice?

The PD and the Five-Star Movement govern at the national level, but we can’t figure out why they can’t do it at the local level. It’s a very simple issue: the longer the government lasts, the more the alliance between the centre-left and the Five-Star Movement will become structural.
The problem for Five-Star is that they have to decide which side they’re on, but for me it’s obvious that if you make decisions together at the national level you have to try and do it at the local level as well, like we did in Pesaro, starting with the content, with concrete actions and with programmes, in the interests of the citizens. With Francesca Frenquellucci we found convergence in the Council on the re-opening of university courses in the city, at conditions that were sustainable for the municipality.
In just a few months extraordinary results were achieved, in agreement with the Università Politecnica delle Marche to activate a 3-year university course in the city, starting next October. This is a very important course of study in Industrial and Information systems, which will generate benefits for our enterprises and for employment. So as a next step it just seemed logical to me to ask her to join the team as the Assessore for Innovation.
We were the first Municipality in Italy to do something like this, strengthened by being coherent in the path taken, and I hope there will be many other administrations around Italy that try to do what we have done. Our collaboration is really working well, Francesca Frenquellucci is doing a great job, even during the Coronavirus emergency, handling economic activities. This is proof that if you want to collaborate, you find points of agreement. Politics is made up of people, but you need to be concrete and coherent at the same time.
Sooner or later the Five Star Movement will have to make this choice. Besides, now that between Premier Conte and the PD, so between the main representative heading up the Five-Star world, even though he’s a technocrat, and the PD there’s a very strong relationship of great and productive collaboration.

Marco Sonsini