Here is the commissioner, it's the first time. But now Prato risks paralysis

Prato, June 22, 2025 – The Saturday that Prato will never forget. The one in which the Town Hall gate remained closed, in silence. Unreal silence, phones turned off. No one answers. No one speaks. As if even words needed time to recover from the shock.

The political earthquake triggered by the notice of investigation for corruption, with a request for house arrest, against the mayor Ilaria Bugetti has overwhelmed everything. Together with her, in the file of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, also Richard Matteini B. king ski , a textile entrepreneur already convicted in the past. Bugetti resigned. She took her time to do so, she tried to resist, but then she gave in. The resignation is now on the Prefect's table: it will become definitive in twenty days, but the countdown has already started.

With the mayor, the city council falls, the executive falls. Everything is reset. The city finds itself in the hands of a commissioner, appointed by the Prefect, who will have full powers: he will manage the administration, represent the body, govern every decision. It is the first time in eighty years of the city's political history. It has never happened that Prato was left without an elected leader.

And it won't be a short administration . The idea of ​​merging the municipal elections with the regional ones in 2025 is facing insurmountable technical obstacles. Thus, a long interregnum begins, which will most likely lead to the administrative elections in the spring of 2026. In the meantime, the city stops. Only ordinary administration remains standing. But everything else is paralyzed, and the question that many are asking is: what will happen to the PNRR? And the investments? Many projects are still in the take-off phase. The tenders, the authorizations, the works: everything was waiting to start. Now the risk is that that train will be lost.

Prato, the most important textile city in Europe, thus enters a stalemate in an already difficult moment. The markets are slowing down, businesses are looking for oxygen, and politics – right now – is abdicating. Months lost, some say. Months to start again, others hope. What happens now? Which direction to take? What to hope for?

In the Democratic Party, the circle around Bugetti is closing. His resignation is seen as a “choice of responsibility and respect for the city”. But they are looking ahead. The petals of the next electoral challenge are being peeled off. The fans are getting heated up. The young Democrats are making their way, close to the secretary Elly Schlein, led by the Democratic Party secretary, Marco Biagioni. New blood to give back a different image. Less likely, even if on one side there are those who dream, is the return of Matteo Biffoni, mayor for ten years, now projected towards the Regionals.

In the center-right , the confrontation is scheduled for tomorrow. A meeting to take stock and define the line. Change course, this is the mantra. There are several names in the field, with the Fratelli d'Italia MP Chiara La Porta at the head, but everything will also be decided based on what will happen at the regional table. In the meantime Prato observes. He questions himself. He tries to raise his head. But he does so in silence, under an uncertain sky. And with a door still closed.