Italian mayor hits back at petition against felling of 29-metre Christmas tree

Last year's Vatican Christmas Tree was a 28-metre-high white spruce. Credit: AP

The mayor of a northern Italian municipality has defended his decision to have a 29-metre high fir tree cut down and sent to decorate the Vatican for Christmas.

It comes after a petition calling for authorities in Ledro to pull out of the agreement surpassed 40,000 signatures.

Renato Girardi, the mayor of Ledro, told newspaper Il Dolomiti: "We are facing a controversy based on nothing. Incorrect information has been spread just to make it a case of national resonance.

“There are people who have nothing to do with our community and are ruining a celebration," he said.

Every year in the Vatican City since 1982, a large fir or spruce tree donated from a forest in Europe is erected in St Peter's Square.

Last year's Vatican Christmas Tree was a 28-metre-high white spruce felled in the Italian Alps.

The petition condemned what is calls the "purely consumerist practice of using living trees for ephemeral use, for mere advertising purposes and a few ridiculous selfies".

It went on to argue that the tree should not be felled given growing global concerns about climate change, and "increasingly dramatic climatic anomalies".

Despite the petition claiming 40 trees will be felled, Girardi said only one will be cut down from the Ledro Valley - and the others will be sourced from nurseries.

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He confirmed the fir tree at the centre of the controversy will be chopped down between November 19 and 20, with the cost of felling and transporting it reaching €6,000 (£4,999).

The mayor of Ledro went on to tell Il Dolomiti that the fir tree due to be sent to Rome is one of many which need to be cut down as part of forest management.

Those behind the petition have said it will be sent to the Pope and "other decision makers" ahead of the tree's felling next week.

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