Word: piras
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...became mayor of Florence six years ago, bustling Giorgio La Pira summoned a city official and announced: "Your only preoccupation will be to employ for the city as many jobless as possible." When the official uneasily remarked that city funds were already overdrawn, La Pira blithely replied: "This town is dedicated to God. He never worried about money and neither shall...
True to his word, devout little Giorgio La Pira has kept Florence on the verge of municipal bankruptcy ever since and, in the process, made himself the idol of the Florentine masses. A year ago, largely on the strength of La Pira's public works, his Christian Democratic ticket won the biggest municipal vote (101,000) in Florence's history. But, unhappily for La Pira, the newly adopted proportional representation left the Christian Democrats with only 25 out of 60 seats on the municipal council. La Pira found himself obliged to strike up an unwritten alliance with...
Distasteful as it was to both parties, this alliance survived until the day not long ago when La Pira pressed the council to approve his long-cherished scheme for construction of a "satellite city" which would house 12,000 Florentines who now live either in slums or on the streets. The project aroused the esthetic displeasure of famed Art Expert Bernard Berenson: it would lie on the road to his villa. And it aroused the political wrath of the Social Democrats because of La Pira's failure to consult them. Faced with the likelihood of a vote...
...last week, Deputies from Milan, Naples, Rome and other cities had formed a solid pro-opera bloc. The Under Secretary of State for Spectacles withdrew his lubsidy bill and promised to submit a new, milder version. Florence's monkish Mayor Giorgio La Pira refused to sign orders laying off opera employees on the;rounds that it would require so much in severance pay that it was cheaper to keep ,hem employed. Said he: "Angels sing in perfect harmony. In paradise, nothing but music is heard. I must remind the government that in paradise the angelic chorus s not subject...
...moment the crowd remained silent in confusion. Then a few quickwitted Christian Democrats began to cheer. They remembered a queer quirk in the Italian electoral law: in case of tie votes, the older man is chosen. And 52-year-old La Pira happens to be 18 months older than Socialist Ramat...