Economist.com Cities Guide: Milan Briefing - January 2006

News this month

The race begins

The battle to replace Gabriele Albertini, Milan's centre-right mayor, who must step down this spring because of term limits, began in earnest in December. Letizia Moratti, Italy’s education minister, declared her candidacy for mayor at a press conference on December 15th. The announcement was hardly a surprise: Ms Moratti had been the centre-right’s preferred candidate for months, but had been coy about whether she would accept the nomination. But now her campaign is officially in motion, complete with promises to make Milan more liveable, clean and safe.

Awkwardly, Ms Moratti may have to run against her sister-in-law, Milly Moratti, a city-council member for the Green party, and one of four contenders for the centre-left’s nomination. Other centre-left candidates in the primaries on January 29th include Dario Fo, a writer and Nobel laureate; Bruno Ferrante, a former prefect of Milan; and Davide Corritore, a former head of SWG, an Italian research and polling group. Ombretta Colli, a former president of Milan’s provincial government, is expected to run as an independent. The elections will take place in April.

Bank blues

The fallout continues from a big banking scandal. An investigation of a bid by Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI) for another Italian lender, Banca Antoniana Popolare Veneta (Antonveneta), came to a head in December when Milanese officials arrested the former chief of BPI, Gianpiero Fiorani, on charges of embezzlement. Less than a week later on December 19th, Antonio Fazio, the governor of the Bank of Italy, finally succumbed to calls for his resignation. Mr Fazio had been criticised for months for unfairly favouring BPI’s bid over that of ABN Amro, a Dutch bank that eventually won the fight for Antonveneta.

Now the Bank of Italy, once the country’s most respected office, must struggle to restore its credibility. Its new chief is Mario Draghi, a Goldman Sachs executive and former director general of Italy’s treasury. With Mr Fazio gone, one of the first tests for the Bank of Italy will be to assess a bid by Unipol, an Italian insurer, for Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL). Unipol has been implicated in the Antonveneta scandal—Giovanni Consorte and Ivano Sacchetti, the former chairman and deputy chairman of Unipol, are under investigation in Milan—and the central bank is eyeing Unipol’s bid for BNL with caution. Should Unipol’s offer be blocked, analysts expect that Spain’s BBVA is likely to revive its own failed bid for BNL.

Putting a roof over their heads

Milan’s debate over housing—who should provide it, who gets it and what is acceptable—has heated up as officials struggle to accommodate a group of African immigrants. In late December, refugees from Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea occupied Milan’s central Duomo square for two days, in protest against their eviction from a building without utilities, where they had lived for more than a month. The protest ended after the immigrants, part of a group of more than 200 from the building, accepted a temporary housing offer from the city. But all is not resolved: some have pledged to return to the streets unless the city provides a more permanent housing solution by January 10th.

Milan’s refugee crisis has elicited ample finger-pointing. The mayor, Gabriele Albertini, insisted that the temporary housing the city offered was sufficient and that the refugees have been treated fairly—after all, thousands of Milanese are also awaiting public housing. He also criticised Filippo Penati, the president of Milan province, for opening the provincial government’s headquarters one night to provide emergency shelter to the immigrants, an act some judged to be political grandstanding. Mr Penati responded that his was a humanitarian gesture.

Young souls

About 50,000 young adults from more than 40 countries flocked to Milan's central fairground for a meeting of Taizé, a Christian ecumenical community, at the end of December. Those attending—some of whom travelled for more than 24 hours to attend the five-day event—prayed, meditated and discussed issues such as globalisation and poverty, co-existence with Muslims and world peace.

The meeting was the 28th event of its kind and the first since Brother Roger Schutz, Taizé’s founding father, was murdered in August. The 90-year-old Swiss theologian had started the movement in the French town of Taizé in 1940—the Taizé monastery has become a destination for young pilgrims, attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year. The Taizé community organises mass meetings throughout the world, and last came to Milan in 1998.

In with the new

Milan saw the birth of a new tradition this year, when some 185 foreign families living in the city invited locals to share a meal with them on New Year’s Day. The initiative was sponsored by a non-profit group, Osservatorio di Milano (Observatory of Milan), which has encouraged such cross-cultural events for the last decade. For several years Milanese families have hosted foreigners on Christmas Day, but the New Year’s gatherings marked the first time that Milan’s African, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Latin American and Eastern European residents welcomed Milanese to their own homes.

Milan’s Muslims, encouraged by the imam of the city’s Segrate mosque, participated in high numbers: about 85 Muslim families hosted Milanese. Massimo Todisco, Osservatorio’s president and the creator of the programme, says that foreign families have been pushing for the event for years. “There is a hunger for dialogue,” he explained.

Catch if you can

January 2006

Mozart in Milan

Throughout 2006

Milan, where Mozart enjoyed great success during his lifetime, will stage numerous events this year to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth. Chances are your trip will coincide with a concert, conference, workshop or other special event.

In January, look out for I Pomeriggi Musicali’s production of the opera, “La Betulia Liberata” (between January 12th and 14th), and performances of Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, K. 427, by the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi (January 19th, 20th and 22nd). On January 31st, the renowned Emerson Quartet will perform two of Mozart's quartets—and another by Shostakovich—at the Milan Conservatory.

Some of the year’s most important tributes will take place at La Scala: the theatre got a head start in December with a production of the opera “Idomeneo”, and will close its season in the autumn with two more of Mozart’s operas, “Ascanio in Alba” and “Le Nozze di Figaro”. Other events at La Scala include a performance of Mozart’s “Jupiter” symphony in April (conducted by Lorin Maazel), and a show at the theatre's charming little museum that examines Mozart’s Italian repertoire.

For a full calendar of events, visit Milan’s Mozart website. Information can also be found at www.mozartways.com.

More from the Milan cultural calendar