Debt reduction and recycling keep Parma's Five Star mayor occupied

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/15/parma-italy-mayor-pizzarotti-five-star

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The mayor's office on Parma's Piazza Garibaldi seems too vast and luxurious for the current holder of the office, Federico Pizzarotti, 41, elected on a Five Star Movement (M5S) list in May 2012. The massive paintings and high ceilings seem at odds with the Five Star Movement's professed ideals of simplicity, transparency and the modest exercise of power. "I try to illustrate the Five Star philosophy every day," protested the mayor, who reduced his pay by 10%. "I haven't changed, I'm modest and accessible."

Nevertheless, something has changed. His well-tailored suit, for one thing, and the press attache hovering in the background. Not to mention his self-assurance, in contrast with the man who, just two years ago, was combing the streets of Parma in a short-sleeved shirt, promising to clean up the city and rid it of corruption after the disastrous management of the previous rightwing local government team, bogged down by political and financial scandals and a debt of €860m ($1.2bn). He may deny it, but Pizzarotti, now a TV chatshow regular, has become an eminent local figure.

For someone claiming to be "anti-system", Pizzarotti received an almost embarrassing homage on 23 June when the Parma Union of Manufacturers stated: "The decision by the mayor and his team to pay off the city's debts, a difficult and painful one for the inhabitants, fully deserves our support." It seems a far cry from the promise by the M5S leader Beppe Grillo to make Parma "the Stalingrad of Emilia-Romagna" and a pioneer in "caste-resistance".

In fact, the mayor needed the compliment, for the popular enthusiasm that carried him to the head of the largest commune governed by M5S has waned in the past two years. Pizzarotti was elected with 60% of the votes but M5S only got 19% in the European elections, below the national average of 21.7%.

Meanwhile, he has had to raise local taxes, sell off some municipal companies while putting others into receivership, and reduce subsidies – including to the Verdi Festival. "We are going to announce that we have reduced the debt by as much as 40% or 60%," said the mayor. Pizzarotti once had more lofty ambitions than mere honest management of a quiet town.

One of his election promises was to halt the construction of a refuse incinerator just outside Parma and yet there it now stands, polluting the air. "It was already more than half built," argued Pizzarotti. "We would have had to pay millions of euros in fines to stop the work. We may have lost a battle but we haven't lost the war." That unfulfilled promise is blotting his copybook. "But we have increased the sorting of household waste," insists Pizzarotti. "We said that the incinerator was useless and we've proved it. It's only working at 50% of its capacity."

After two years as mayor, Pizzarotti is denouncing the bureaucracy that is preventing him from carrying out his reforms. According to Antonio Mascolo, editor of the local edition of La Repubblica, "he uses the lack of funds as an excuse for inaction. With him, it's always somebody else's fault."

Grillo has used this criticism to try to oust Pizzarotti, even though he was once a trailblazer and a hero. Today Grillo has nicknamed him "Captain Pizza" on his famous blog. Mayor Pizzarotti's reply was to the point: "Are you going to continue like that, trusting bad advisers who want to damage the movement, or do you really want to solve citizens' problems?"

This heated exchange was beneficial to Pizzarotti. By standing up to the head of M5S, who is increasingly perceived as sectarian and confused, Pizzarotti has appeared as the good guy who is having to deal with the real problems of a city up to its neck in debt. Paolo Scarpa, who runs a cultural organisation called Il Borgho, which has sympathies with the centre-left Democratic party, believes that "Pizzarotti now has to address the promises he made and cannot possibly fulfil. We were hoping for a revolution but instead we've just got a decent person doing his best. He's trying to manage the city as well he can, rather as an elected Christian Democrat might. It's just normal city management with a dash of common sense."

True, Pizzarotti has failed to launch any major project for lack of money. Parma is just getting by in the hope of regaining its former prestige some time in the future. "The streets are cleaned less often and the garbage is piling up here and there," said one disgruntled inhabitant. "We're still in decline."

Meanwhile, the mayor is coping with the day-to-day problems of town management. "When I was a mere citizen I got angry at things such as an abandoned plot of land next door to me. Now I know that it's not owned by the city and therefore the city can't do anything about it. I've matured."

This article appeared in Guardian Weekly, which incorporates material from Le Monde