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Rome's solar Christmas tree draws boos

Paul Heymont 12/13/222:00 PM

Rome's annual city Christmas tree has had tough critics over the past few years, and this year's innovative version is no exception. Critics this time are not out for the tree, but for the array of solar panels at its base which light up its LED display, calling them 'ugly.'

Previous trees have had criticisms all their own, starting in 2016 with a sparse 'Austerity Tree,' labeled the ugliest in the world. 2017 saw a threadbare tree that some compared to a toilet brush and nicknamed Spellacchio, or Baldy. 2018 was called Spezzacchio, or Broken for its notable shortage of branches.

This year's tree, dubbed 'Fotovoltacchio' by right-wing politicians who object to what they called "an exhibition of bogus environmentalism," while more centrist critics have objected for other reasons: “There are other ways of lighting the tree with clean energy without installing two panels which are objectively ugly.”

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