Video surveillance, welfare and energy efficiency: how the mayor of Parma earned the top spot

At the beginning of the term of office, maintenance without price increases of basic services to citizens and high attention on public accounts in ordinary pedestrianisation of the historic centre. Then focus on safety and liveability, with the institution of community agents, Street tutors and the increase of video surveillance and controls in sensitive areas of the city. But also the public-private plan on the housing emergency. And the work on the energy efficiency of public buildings has led to a saving of more than one and a half million euro in utility bills. This is how the mayor of Parma earned first place in the 2024 edition of the Governance Poll conducted by Noto for Il Sole 24 Ore. Guerra - who was fourth last year - came out on top with a 63% approval rating.

Born in 1982, married, two children, he is full professor at the University of Parma. He teaches Theories of Cinema, History and Criticism of Cinema and Theories and Techniques of Cinema and Audiovisuals at the University of Parma; he chaired the degree course in Communication and Contemporary Media for the Creative Industries and was Vice-Director of the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Enterprises: positions from which he resigned following his appointment as Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Parma. From 2017 to June 2022, in fact, he was Councillor for Culture of the City of Parma, in the second junta of the mayor Federico Pizzarotti, leading the project of Parma Italian Capital of Culture for the year 2020, a title later extended by the Ministry of Culture to 2021 due to the pandemic.

His academic research mainly concerns the theory of cinema and images, with a particular interest in the relationship between moving images and cognitive neuroscience, on which he obtained a fellowship at Stanford University and conducted experimental research in collaboration with neuroscientist Vittorio Gallese, which resulted in the book 'Lo schermo empatico. Cinema and neuroscience' (Limina Prize 2016), published in Italian by Raffaello Cortina and translated into English by Oxford University Press.

In the run-up to the 2022 municipal elections, following an agreement between the Effetto Parma movement of outgoing mayor Pizzarotti and the centre-left coalition led by the Democratic Party and including Articolo Uno, Coraggiosa, Sinistra Italiana, Italia Viva, +Europa, Radicali, Volt, Partito Socialista and Lista Michele Guerra Sindaco, Guerra was indicated as the official candidate of the coalition for the office of mayor of Parma. After obtaining 44.18% of the votes in the first round, he defeated the centre-right candidate, former mayor Pietro Vignali, with 66% of the votes, being elected first citizen.

During the election campaign, Guerra presented a programme focused on welfare policies: the elderly, social pact, housing, food income, healthcare, cycle paths. Then, he played on his challenger's less noble past, recalling Vignali's two-year sentence for embezzlement plea bargained in 2015, as a symbolic episode of bad governance in the years when the city was governed by the latter.