On the initiative of the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI), which is concerned about the impact of these increases on the accounts of local authorities, many mayors have decided to symbolically cut off the light from 8:00 p.m. local time ( 19:00 GMT), for a duration of 30 minutes to one hour.
The Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri decided to join because "the increase in bills puts families and institutions, municipalities both small and large, in serious difficulty, especially in this already difficult period due to the pandemic", he explained in a press release.
ANCI President Antonio Decaro estimates the additional cost caused by the price increase at "at least 550 million euros for local authorities, for an annual expenditure for electrical energy of between 1.6 and 1.8 billion euro".
"The government's responses to our requests are not sufficient," he regrets.
At the end of January, the government announced aid of 5.5 billion euros to reduce the electricity and gas bills of households and businesses.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi himself acknowledged on Wednesday, during a trip to Genoa (north-west), the existence "of the difficulties faced by families and businesses in the face of the increase in the price of electrical energy ", adding that the "government is preparing a large-scale intervention in the coming days" on this problem.
Prior to this announcement, the mayors therefore decided to put pressure on the government.
"We will extinguish some monuments, a symbolic gesture to send a message to the government", explained Beppe Sala, the mayor of the Lombard capital, where both the town hall and the Sforza castle will remain in the shadows.
"Milan uses a lot of LEDs, we can't do much more than dim the lighting," he explained.
According to a study by the rating agency S&P Global Ratings quoted by the Turin daily La Stampa, the rise in electricity prices should lead to an additional cost of at least 35 billion euros for Italy alone.
© 2022 AFP