Economist.com Cities Guide: Milan Briefing - February 2006

News this month

Conquering his Fo

Bruno Ferrante, Milan’s former chief of police, has won the candidacy of the centre-left coalition for the city’s mayoral election in April. Roughly two-thirds of the 80,000-odd voters who cast a ballot in primary elections on January 29th chose him. Dario Fo, a playwright and Nobel laureate who had counted the London mayor, Ken Livingstone, among his supporters, came second with just over 23% of the vote. The remaining two candidates shared less than 10%.

Mr Ferrante will fight Letizia Moratti, the education minister in Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right national government, for the mayorship. Ombretta Colli, the former president of the province of Milan and an ex-ally of Mr Berlusconi, will run as an independent candidate. The winner will replace Gabriele Albertini from the centre-right coalition, who must step down at the end of his second term because of term limits.

Abortion march

Tens of thousands of Italians took to the streets of Milan on January 14th to demand that Italy keep its abortion law intact. At issue is whether Catholic politicians will try to chip away at a 1978 law that makes abortion legal in the first three months of pregnancy. The demonstration, which ended in the square before the Duomo cathedral, came days after Pope Benedict XVI renewed the Vatican’s condemnation of both abortion and same-sex unions. Organisers estimated that the Milan event, whose slogan was “Let’s emerge from silence”, drew a crowd of about 200,000; police put the figure closer to 50,000.

On the same day, some 1,000-odd proponents of legal rights for homosexual unions demonstrated in Rome. Both issues have become controversial in the run-up to national elections this spring. Italians upheld the law on abortion in a 1981 referendum.

Exchange listing

The company that runs the Milan stock exchange, Borsa Italiana SpA, said in January that it was considering listing itself—a move that could pave the way for an alliance with another exchange. The bourse, which is controlled by a group of Italian banks, is expected to place a 25% to 30% stake through an initial public offering (IPO), which could value the exchange at around €1 billion ($1.2 billion). Such a move was made possible only in December, when Italy’s parliament approved a measure to allow Consob, the stockmarket regulator, to authorise the listing, a role that the exchange normally would have fulfilled itself.

An alliance with another exchange could well follow the IPO. Massimo Capuano, the Borsa Italiana chief executive, suggested that he would favour a partnership with the London Stock Exchange. Analysts say a deal with Paris-based Euronext, which operates several continental exchanges, is also a possibility. Last year, the Italian exchange joined forces with Euronext to purchase a controlling stake in MTS, a European bond-trading platform.

Snowed in

Some 50 centimetres of snow fell on Milan in late January—the heaviest snowfall the city has seen since 70 centimetres hit the ground in January 1985. The weather conditions disrupted public transport and temporarily closed Malpensa and Linate airports. For Alitalia, the struggling national air carrier, the weather was yet more bad news after a week of wildcat strikes that caused delays and cancelled over 1,000 flights.

Opera-lovers were forced to sit tight when La Scala’s January 26th performance of “Rigoletto” was delayed for 45 minutes because Leo Nucci—singing the role of Rigoletto—had trouble reaching the opera house.

Playing with fire

The Olympic torch was carried by some 120 runners through the streets of Milan, en route to Turin, on January 29th. Among those given the honour were Giorgio Armani, a fashion designer, and Andriy Shevchenko, a Ukrainian footballer who plays for AC Milan.

The torch is set to arrive in Turin on February 9th, before the Winter Olympics start on the 10th. Its path across Italy has been difficult, with its passing interrupted by dozens of protests—it even arrived an hour late in Milan. Some demonstrators have accused Coca-Cola, a big sponsor of the games, of violating workers’ rights in Colombia. Others have concentrated on local issues, speaking out against a project to save Venice from rising sea waters (which might do more harm than the floods themselves) and against a planned high-speed rail link to connect north-west Italy to France. Earlier in January one group of protesters was momentarily able to grab the torch as it passed through the city of Trento.

Milan itself has expressed an interested in holding the 2016 Summer Olympics, but will probably have to vie with Rome for the Italian candidacy.

Catch if you can

February 2006

Techne 2005

Until February 28th 2005

This show at the Spazio Oberdan uses the work of ten international video artists to examine the intersection of art and technology. One of its highlights is “Ascension” by Bill Viola, a pre-eminent American artist. The work, exhibited in Italy for the first time, offers a powerful, deceptively simple image of a man jumping into water and then slowly rising. Other installations are more playful: “Demolition” by Luiz Duva, a Brazilian artist, allows the spectator to destroy a wall simply by pushing a button. Mario Canali’s “M.otu” transforms viewers into sumo wrestlers, while the rhythm of a dancer in the Agon group’s “Phases” is altered by the proximity of the viewer. Other exhibits come from Studio Azzurro, an Italian video collective, and Andreas Sachsenmaier, who offers a modern, female version of the Last Supper.

Spazio Oberdan, Viale Vittorio Veneto 2. Tel: +39 (02) 7611-5394. Open: Tues-Sun, 10am-7.30pm (till 10pm Tues and Thurs). Tickets: €6.20. See the website for details.

More from the Milan cultural calendar