M5S Cultural Policy Challenges in Rome and Turin

The article analyzes the cultural policy challenges facing the newly elected Five Star Movement (M5S) mayors of Rome and Turin, Virginia Raggi and Chiara Appendino. Both cities are major cultural hubs, but their cultural management follows routine processes that are difficult to change. The M5S must address issues such as suburban regeneration, interculturality, tourism, and urban furniture, all within a national context lacking coherent cultural policies. The mayors are aware of culture's role in governance and must navigate obligatory steps: focusing on peripheries, reducing concentration of municipal funds, and increasing cultural players. A key example from Turin's 2014 budget shows that foundations received 88% of the €25 million cultural budget (€22.1 million), while direct municipal management accounted for €3 million, and youth activities less than 1% (€205,000). The article suggests a middle path: slightly increasing the budget and renegotiating existing agreements, possibly using funds from other budget items. It emphasizes the need for competence and navigating informal human capital networks. The piece also highlights the difficulty of reducing funding to established foundations that may not survive without it, and the importance of public-private cooperation, including citizens, associations, startups, and universities, to truly change urban cultural policies.