For years Lapressa.it has offered free and independent information to its readers without any type of public contribution. Private advertising covers part of the costs, but it is not sufficient. For this reason we ask those who read us and follow us every day to give us, if they wish, a contribution based on their possibilities. Even a small support, multiplied by the tens of thousands of people from Modena and Emilia-Romagna who read us every day, is fundamental.
On the one hand, the center-left of Massimo Mezzetti who chose ‘kindness’ as a slogan, on the other the centre-right of the mayoral candidate Luca Negrini, perennially impeccable in style, ready with his Marinella tie to participate in every single meeting, even in the most left-wing circles, but who so far has carefully avoided any direct attack on his opponents. In the middle, the other ‘civic’ candidates, or those supported by ‘minor’ parties, act as a backdrop.
It is an electoral campaign in the name of fair play that is entering its final stages in Modena.
Repeated handshakes between the two main adversaries, mutual visits to the openings of their respective electoral campaigns and no out of line tone in the public debates held so far.
Massimo Mezzetti, unlike Bonaccini and Schlein, did not use the worn-out and instrumental weapon of anti-fascism, he did not engage in any swollen-neck invectives against ‘the reactionary and dangerous right’ and did not issue any warnings of the forest to the ‘comrades’, in the name of belonging written in the heart which, as we know, always beats very close to the wallet. Mezzetti, aware of his means, has understood that he does not need to dust off the paraphernalia of ideologies and is betting everything on a change of pace in his ways compared to the muscularity and arrogance of his predecessor Giancarlo Muzzarelli, who, for his part, obviously doesn’t like it. So for the former regional councilor, forward with smiles, dialogue, an invitation to ‘high’ politics and no fear of showing off a cultural approach that borders on radical chic without however having the arrogance.
Few press releases, entrusted to a very ‘institutional’ Whatsapp chat, and social profiles based on thematic proposals that exploit the horizontality of the surface more than a vertical analysis.
Luca Negrini at the same time based his electoral campaign on participation and meetings in the area. Having distanced himself from the flame that still stands out on the Fdi symbol, he has built a profile for himself more as an entrepreneur (which he is) than as a politician, far from strictly belonging to the right. Also for this reason, perhaps, he decided to avoid direct attacks on his opponents. So far he has not missed a meeting or a debate, he has shown an enthusiasm and resourcefulness far superior to that of the leaders of the provincial party who indicated him (now more interested in supporting the campaign for the European elections Stefano Cavedagna than to the work of the candidate for mayor) and has filled with dedication the gaps linked to the absence of a network which, to blame, the centre-right has failed to build around him. In the round tables he developed the themes of his electoral programme, demonstrated that he was prepared on the individual topics and used a sort of chivalrous gallantry, in form and content. With Mezzetti, but also with the other candidates, there was praise and pats on the back and the speeches were accompanied by mutual nods of approval. Even in press releases and in social media management, the style has so far been sober and never aggressive. Negrini has certainly established himself as a reliable entrepreneur and credible candidate, he is no longer the ‘shop boy’ launched by Michele Barcaiuolo as a ‘sacrificial lamb’, chosen as plan B after the (obvious) failure of the civic track linked to Paolo Cavicchioli. And even the center-left has recognized this – reluctantly.
All good, all beautiful. But there is only one question now: who has the most to gain from this ‘soft’ electoral campaign? The answer is clear: the team that has governed the territory uninterruptedly for 80 years, which has built an unshakeable Moloch made up of an iron triangulation between party, institutions and a slice of the economic and associative world and which, thanks to its potential advantage, does not has no interest in raising the bar of comparison.
For this reason, in the last three weeks separating the vote, Negrini is called upon to make a change of pace. Of course, the dark and silent work of weaving, made even more burdensome by the absence of an organized structure, absorbs mental and physical energy, but a change is still needed to avoid frustrating the hidden commitment.
The issue is not to attack head-on or abandon the fair play that has characterized these weeks of electoral campaign, but to clear the field of what could be misinterpreted as ‘reverence’ towards power and get out of the drowsiness that – understandably – the centre-left of the government and the system has forced the debate in view of the vote. The run-off, as we have said several times, given the conditions in which Negrini was forced to work, is a very difficult objective, but all in all not impossible. After all, try, also in view of the early voting for the Regionals, which he has been carefully working on for some time Galeazzo Bignami and that the escape to Europe of Stefano Bonaccini will impose, it is a duty for the center-right. Even Mezzetti knows (and fears) this, despite his composed and peacefully Roman attitude.
Giuseppe Leonelli
 – Il Punto){kind=link}