The lights are going out in Italy's cities.

Only temporarily, but in a prominent place.

From Milan to Rome to Palermo, town halls and landmarks are now always dark on Thursdays from 8:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The action to switch off the indoor and outdoor lighting of symbolic buildings because of the exploding electricity prices came from the city of Cento in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna.

Matthias Rub

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.

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Mayor Edoardo Accorsi was already known in October.

The 27-year-old challenger in the local elections had prevailed against the seasoned official of the city of 35,000 inhabitants.

Accorsi is considered a beacon of hope that the generation of millennials will not emigrate in view of youth unemployment of 30 percent, but that some will at least be willing to look for their future at home and take on responsibility.

And now the “baby sindaco” is back in the headlines.

"We are expecting additional expenditure of up to 450,000 euros for electricity and gas this year," says Accorsi.

"Typically, our city's electricity and gas bills total about $1.5 million a year." And while the city is helping needy families and small businesses groaning under the weight of rising energy bills, "we have to ask for help ourselves," laments the mayor.

The symbolic action has found imitators

The city, halfway between Bologna and Ferrara, does not spare much when the Rocca di Cento, the 14th-century fortress, sinks into the winter darkness for half an hour.

But Accorsi's symbolic action has found imitators all over the country - among mayors of all political persuasions, in large cities and in small towns.

First, the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Emilia-Romagna region expressed its support for the mayor of Cento, and soon after that the national association of towns and cities as well.

City Council President Antonio Decaro, Mayor of Bari in Apulia, calculates that the country's cities and municipalities will have to pay at least 550 million euros more for electricity and gas this year;

in the past few years, the total had ranged between 1.6 and 1.8 billion.

In addition to the electricity bill, which is an average of 30 percent more expensive, there are reduced municipal taxes and higher expenditure to enforce the relevant hygiene measures due to the ongoing pandemic and economic crisis.

"A vicious circle," complains the mayor of Reggio Emilia, Luca Vecchi.

In Rome the Capitol will be darkened, in Florence the Palazzo Vecchio, in Milan the Palazzo Marino and the Castello Sforzesco, in Turin the Mole Antonelliana and in Palermo the Quattro Canti, to name but a few.

Mario Draghi's government is not in the dark when it comes to the explosion in electricity prices.

Eleven billion euros have already been made available for last year and for the first quarter of 2022 to help families and companies pay their electricity bills.

Another five to seven billion euros in electricity money from the state should flow from the second quarter.

The municipalities should also get something from this.