Eike Schmidt will be the mayoral candidate in Florence for the center-right

All that is missing is the official announcement, but reservations have now been lifted: Eike Schmidt, former director of the Uffizi and current director of the Capodimonte Museum and Real Bosco in Naples, will be the center-right’s candidate for mayor of Florence. The official announcement and start of the campaign is scheduled for April 6. So, barring any unpredictable last-minute reversals, the German art historian, who obtained Italian citizenship last November, will run for Palazzo Vecchio for the coalition that includes Fratelli d’Italia ( Schmidt’s main “sponsor”), Lega and Forza Italia, against the center-left, which will be orphaned by Italia Viva and will see Sara Funaro as a candidate.

This brings to a close a soap opera that began when Schmidt’s tenure at the Uffizi was on its last legs. The center-right’s choice fell on Schmidt, as far as is known, for several reasons: his ties to the city (where the former Uffizi director has lived for more than a decade), the successes of his directorship at the Uffizi, and his recognizability. Schmidt, since he will begin campaigning, will have just two months to convince the Florentines, since the vote is on June 8 and 9: will that be enough?

In cultural heritage circles, however, the question is another: what will happen at Capodimonte? Schmidt, a candidate for Florence’s top chair, will have to take a leave of absence, and so an interim director will be needed for the Neapolitan museum. Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano, on the sidelines of a press conference in Capodimonte, however, downplayed the problem: “We have many valuable directors and in any case we follow everything, I myself was recently in Capodimonte to check the state of the works,” he told reporters. “Luigi La Rocca is Neapolitan and has the interim of the Superintendency so the ministry is able to cope. Like when the term for Brera expired with the interim of Cappelletti who did a great job, and director Russo of the Colosseum also had the interim. In short, you certainly don’t close Capodimonte.”

Eike Schmidt will be the mayoral candidate in Florence for the center-right

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