Mayors abroad are alternatives; in Italy, they are a symptom of a problem

This applies to the wider picture, of course, but it also applies to other spheres – the European, the American and the international – and the formula is essentially always the same: if a vacuum is created in politics, the first to fill that vacuum, for better or for worse, are usually them. There is a common thread with an old-world flavour, which has suddenly become relevant once more, linking certain points in world politics that appear to be far apart. It is a thread that runs through Downing Street in London, reaches Paris, passes through Warsaw, crosses Bucharest, skirts Istanbul, and extends as far as New York, touching on several Italian cities along the way. It is a thread that is seemingly invisible, yet very much present, reminding us – sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse – that when there is a void, a gap, a deficit in politics, that gap is often filled by them: the mayors. Write ‘mayors’, read ‘alternative’.

The new British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham – formerly Mayor of Greater Manchester – is a metropolitan mayor who promises to draw on his experience as a metro mayor to find new solutions for a hyper-centralised country such as the United Kingdom. A mayor is also the figure who, for better or worse, embodies the alternative to Donald Trump in America – and we are, of course, referring to Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York, whose political activism contributed to the recent victory of three candidates he backed in the New York Democratic primaries for a seat in the House of Representatives. Édouard Philippe is also, after all, a mayor – mayor of Le Havre and a declared candidate for the 2027 presidential election – who could help ensure that France does not have to contend with a Bardella-style version of Le Penism at the Élysée for the next five years. Nicușor Dan is also a mayor – he served as mayor of Bucharest – the politician who defeated the pro-Putin candidate George Simion in the Romanian presidential election. The Prime Minister of Belgium, Bart De Wever, is also a mayor; it was precisely during the twelve years he spent at the helm of a city – Antwerp – that he managed to put his turbulent extremist past behind him. The Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, is also a mayor – or rather, a deputy mayor – having previously served as deputy mayor of Stockholm. It was Rafal Trzaskowski, mayor of Warsaw, who offered an alternative to Karol Nawrocki, the nationalist elected president of Poland just over a year ago. António Costa, President of the European Council, was also a mayor of Lisbon for eight years. Claudia Sheinbaum, now President of Mexico, was also a mayor of Mexico City. Giorgia Meloni was, after all, also a mayoral candidate in 2016, when she unsuccessfully attempted to reach the second round of the Rome mayoral elections, which were eventually contested by Roberto Giachetti and Virginia Raggi.

Every country, of course, has its own history, its own distinctive characteristics, and its own gaps to fill. But in recent years, something has begun to stir once more amongst mayors, in Europe even more so than in America. "The Economist", which devoted an article to the subject a year ago, states that beneath the populists lies a layer of pragmatic politicians who keep the day-to-day machinery of government running, and it is thanks to this subtle network that countries swept up in the wave of populism manage to remain in balance.

In an article on the future of cities, Foreign Policy noted that the central role of mayors in world politics is set to grow, primarily for demographic reasons: by 2050, nearly seven out of ten people will live in cities; already today, urban centres generate over 80 per cent of global GDP, and as time goes on, having national leaders capable of understanding certain local trends will be not an option but a necessity. Ultimately, the formula is always the same: if a vacuum is created in politics, they are usually the first to fill it, for better or for worse.

And if one has the patience to look around in Italy too, in the political spectrum alternative to that of the centre-right – where the fear of uttering the word ‘primaries’ is directly proportional to the fear of having to admit that party leaders are failing to put forward competitive candidates – one will realise that it is always from the cities that the broad coalition hopes, sooner or later, to find an alternative to the Conte-Schlein duo. There are those who hope this might happen by bringing Silvia Salis, the mayor of Genoa, into the fray; until the primaries take place, we will never know for certain whether she will, as she claims, refuse to hold the primaries she says she does not want to hold, or whether she will instead realise that trains – on those rare occasions when they do pass – do not always come round a second time. There are those who hope this might happen a minute before the elections, through a ‘unifying figure’, as not-so-subtly advocated by the political circle centred on Dario Franceschini, or after the elections, the very next moment, hoping for a dead heat that might offer the opportunity, to fill a void, to a mayor such as Gaetano Manfredi, mayor of Naples, or a mayor such as Roberto Gualtieri, mayor of Rome. And then there are those who, when thinking about the future, believe they can back a former mayor, such as Antonio Decaro, now president of the Puglia region, to succeed Schlein – obviously, should the election campaign not take the hoped-for turn.

As we have said, if a vacuum arises in politics, mayors are usually the first to fill it. And if, within a political sphere, there are many mayors ready to fill a void, one can either prepare to fill that void or pretend it does not exist. This applies to the broader political landscape, but it also applies to other spheres: the European, American and international ones. It is not necessarily the case that a mayor is the solution to problems – often they are not – but when one looks for a mayor, it is usually because something is not working within one’s own political camp; there is a sense of desperation; there is a void to be filled. It’s spelled ‘mayor’, but it reads ‘alternative’ – we might say, in a romantic way, as we observe what’s happening around the world. But if we were to be more cynical, looking at Italy today, we could also say: it’s spelled ‘mayor’, but it reads ‘panic’. Next, please.