Five years. A five-year period that seems like an ice age. Four governments and four different majorities have changed the political framework. We’re back to voting for the European Parliament. On Saturday 8th (from 3pm to 11pm) and Sunday 9th to 11am (from 7am to 11pm), the counting will begin immediately after the polls close. While the one for the municipal elections will begin on Monday 10th at 2pm.
Campania is part of the southern district together with Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise and Puglia. Macroarea which elects 18 MEPs out of the 76 Italians. A maximum of three preferences can be given, but always alternating the gender.
The party of abstention
Reading the votes of the 2019 European elections and the 2022 elections, Campania is the land of confirmations (M5S, Pd and Fi), of exploits (Fdi) and of defeats (Lega). But above all there is a party that always wins: that of abstention. In 2019 only 47.6 percent of eligible voters voted, in Naples even just 40 percent, in the 2022 elections it went just a little better: 53.3 percent. A true bête noire prowling the polls. And which in the European Parliament session seems to take on an almost pathological value.
How it went in 2019 and 2022 in the wide field
Both in 2019 and 2022 the first party in Campania is the 5 Star Movement: 33.8 percent at the European Championships (29.1 in the entire Southern constituency) and even 34.6 in 2022. The Campania of Roberto Fico and the former Luigi Di Maio confirms itself as a fiefdom of the Five Star Movement, also and above all in contrast with the trend compared to the rest of the country. A safe but without any more jewels (read Citizenship Income and Superbonus). Giuseppe Conte’s new party is playing a delicate game, also because in Naples it governs with the mayor Gaetano Manfredi. It will be seen whether the metropolis will remain a stronghold or will be definitively conquered. In the wide field derby the Democratic Party, however, went from 19.1 in 2019 to 15.8 in 2022. Despite expressing a piece of ninety like Vincenzo De Luca and having also reconquered Naples. Every percentage point he gains would therefore be a victory.
The challenge in the center-right
However, the challenge entirely within the centre-right is interesting. Between the last two electoral rounds it is as if FdI and Lega exchanged voters: of the communicating vessels. At the last European elections, Meloni’s party was at just 5.8 percent, in 2022 at 17.9. On the contrary, Salvini’s League had filled up in 2019 with 19.2 percent, only to collapse to 4.09 percent in 2022. Forza Italia’s trend is more constant: 13.6 and 10.6.
The other parties
As for the other parties: + Europa stands at 2.5 in 2019 and 2.1 in 2022 (the quorum needed to go to Brussels is set at 4 percent), but this year it presents itself with Matteo Renzi’s Italia Viva with the symbol of United States of Europe. Calenda’s party, Action, presented itself in 2022 reaching 5.2 percent. The Greens-Left remained stuck at 2.7 percent in the latest elections. The roll call is missing the new protagonists, the new entries: from the list of Michele Santoro (Pace Terra Dignità), to that of Cateno De Luca (Libertà), to that of Stefano Bandecchi (Popular Alternative), to the Animalist party.
