I live in Nervi and since I’ve got a big family (6 children) I’ve decided to put in a request to transform my home into a Comune {municipality}. If I transfer the residence of my parents-in-law, a couple of friends and my brother’s family, we’d be getting on for twenty people.

We’d be a bit squashed, but I wouldn’t leave anyone without a position. Mayor, deputy mayor, councillors, comune technical person, comune secretary, comune agent, comune police, a few secretaries, a door keeper.
Everyone will have a position. Let it be clear: I’m not paying for anything. It’s the State that has to pay. I will combine the delight of all these positions with the use of public money.

Grillo’s comune (Genova-Nervi) would then be competing with the comuni of Pedesina (Sondrio), 38 inhabitants and Morterone (Lecco), 35 inhabitants. In Italy there are 8.100 comuni (source: www.ds.unifi.it), of these 819 have up to 500 inhabitants, 1.140 have between 501 and 1.000, 1.708 have between 1.001 and 2.000. 7,061 comuni have less than 10,000 inhabitants.

And 10,000 inhabitants is the threshold laid down in the unified text on the organisation of local authorities for comuni that are newly formed. At the time, the aim of the legislator was to reduce the number of comuni. The text in fact allows for the provision of State funding to comuni that join together.

Let’s do some sums: There are 7,061 comuni with less than 10,000 inhabitants covering a population of 8,049,053 inhabitants. If we divide that by 10,000 we get about 800 comuni. That gives 800 as against 7,061.
I’m asking Padoa Schioppa how much that would save us. He too, should surely do something. It’s not only about saving. It’d be more efficient. The comuni in the same area have the same problems. To divide up the municipalities is not only a costly exercise, it also often leads to immobility or to divergent decisions. One comune downstream has a purifier and the one above doesn’t even have a sewer.

Result: public costs (purifier) together with private shit. There can be numerous examples and I invite bloggers to report their own. In the tiny comuni you don’t elect a mayor but a family member. At times it’s the son of the previous mayor. Or anyway a family member of second or third communal degree.