Basilicata goes to vote, the center-right tests its broad field

“Tell us what you think of the work of this government.” Giorgia Meloni gives a national dimension to the vote in Basilicata, the third to last region by population, where the centre-right expects an “extraordinary” result, according to the forecasts set out by the leaders in the final rally in support of Vito Bardi, the governor in search of reconfirm. He himself thinks “to exceed 50%”. To celebrate a victory on Monday, when the polls close, AC Milan player Matteo Salvini says he is ready to trade a defeat for his team who will face the derby against Inter that evening. To achieve the objective, the coalition has expanded its scope to Action. “The demonstration of Bardi’s good government lies in the many lists that support him. The borders are widening, the real wide field is the centre-right”, the thesis of Antonio Tajani, on the eve of a test also towards the European elections, where the leader of Forza Italia is ready to run in four constituencies. Meloni should run in all of them, but the issue is not officially resolved. However, the campaign has already started and is intertwined with that of the various local electoral events, in a continuous long-distance confrontation with the centre-left, with references to a “Europe to change”. On a cold and rainy afternoon Gianfranco Rotondi, Lorenzo Cesa, Maurizio Lupi speak, then it’s the turn of the leaders of the three main parties of the coalition. “The banana republic is over”, the expression dusted off by that of FdI to claim the work on security, on “friendly taxation” and to reject what it considers “shameless falsehoods” on the prison for journalists and law 194 on abortion: “We are becoming the world capital of fake news.” “In a year and a half this government has produced much more than left-wing governments put together with scotch tape have done in an entire legislature”, the claim of the prime minister, who expects a check on “consensus and enthusiasm” from Basilicata . And from Power he accuses his rivals of “sympathizing more with those who attack” the police outside the universities than with the officers. Or to exploit the controversies over Autonomy. “Imagine if I, who believe in a united Italy more than anything else, leave half of Italy behind”, he raises his voice from the stage, underlining that the reform gives the South “the responsibility of its ruling class, and it is something that is needed” . “We are working – Tajani points out – so that differentiated autonomy can also be a fair objective for Southern Italy”. From the stage the FI leader also quotes Silvio Berlusconi: “We need to increase minimum pensions to a thousand euros, it is a commitment that we have made and that he asked of us until the last day of his life. He is watching us, he is sitting there, he is following the rally too”. His appeal to the audience is to bring abstentionists to the polls. He assures us that the objective is not to erode the allies’ votes, but on Monday we will look carefully at the results of the FI and Lega lists. “This government, Conte and Schlein rest their souls, will continue for the next 5 years and then you will decide whether we have done well”, assures Salvini, who took the credit in the last preview of his book , together with Berlusconi, of having created the conditions to end the experience of the Draghi government and give birth to that of Meloni. A little surprising, like when a few weeks ago he announced the house-saving measure. “I undertake to bring it to Parliament as soon as possible, for a regularization of small internal irregularities: we want to liberalize, heal, give Italians back their homes and their shops”, he clarifies in his umpteenth attack on Europe: “We must change it completely. Brussels eat worm flour, we eat bran peppers.”