Watch out for your first name! If having “Giorgia” written on the European elections ballot is an purely electoral choice by Prime Minister Meloni, in the Cagliari elections all the difference between the two main sides is based on the names of the candidates. In a singular case of homonymy, the center-left decided to nominate Zedda (Massimo) and the center-right relied on Zedda (Alessandra). There is no degree of kinship between the two: on the other hand, on the Sardinian island there are around a thousand families who bear the surname Zedda, the majority concentrated in the province of Cagliari. The voters of the capital will be able to orient themselves at the ballot box – in addition to looking at the names – with the symbols of the lists connected to the two main candidates. Ten those linked to the centre-left exponent, including the Democratic Party, 5 Star Movement and Left Green Alliance, seven those in support of the centre-right Zedda, including Fratelli d’Italia, Forza Italia and Lega.
Polling stations open in conjunction with those of the European elections, from 3pm to 11pm on Saturday 8th and from 7am to 11pm on Sunday 9th June. If none of the Cagliari candidates exceed 50% of the votes, given that it is a municipality with more than 15 thousand inhabitants, a run-off will be necessary, which will take place on 23 and 24 June. Split voting is possible by crossing out the rectangle of the mayoral candidate and the symbol of a list not nominated by him. Finally, in the event that two preferences of municipal councilors are expressed – the maximum limit -, the gender of the candidates must be different, under penalty of cancellation of the second preference indicated. Returning to the competitors for the race for Palazzo Bacaredda, in addition to the two Zeddas, there are – but trailing in the polls – Emanuele Corda, of Alternativa, Claudia Ortu, of Cagliari Popolari, and Giuseppe Farris, of Civica 2024.
Massimo Zedda
In the last 20 years, in Cagliari, the center-right has always won the elections. Except twice. It was in 2011 that the change of direction occurred. A 35-year-old, member of Nichi Vendola’s Left Ecology and Freedom, obtains the investiture in the center-left primaries, beating the Democratic Party senator Antonello Cabras. This is Massimo Zedda, son of a politician: his father, Paolo, was a leader of the Italian Communist Party. His son, at a very young age, began to serve in the same party as his father. Then it will pass through the various acronyms of the world of the left born with the decline of the First Republic, until it creates its political entity in 2022, the Progressive Party. It is among the Vendolians that he achieves the feat, becoming first citizen of Cagliari, in the run-off against Massimo Fantola of the centre-right. Zedda’s administration was rewarded by the citizens, so much so that five years after the election, in 2016, he won his second term as mayor in the first round.
He hasn’t fared as well in the regional elections since 2019 where, as a centre-left candidate, he lost to Christian Solinas. He resigns from the position of mayor to take on the role of regional opposition councilor. It is in this context that he founded the Progressives and, in the regional elections last February, signed an agreement with the candidate of the 5 Star Movement, Alessandra Todde. Zedda’s approximately 20,000 votes will prove decisive for the election of the grillina on which he has set his sights. Today, the 48 year old is the man that that same Sardinian wide field has chosen for a new objective: to attempt, after the Region, an encore in the capital. It would be his third term as mayor. The latest published polls put Zedda (Massimo) in the lead: for a few years now, the wind of the left has been blowing in Cagliari. In the capital, both in the 2022 elections and in the 2024 regional elections, the center-left obtained the majority of votes.
Alessandra Zedda
Zedda (Alessandra) is also a doyenne of politics. At 57, you have already held the role of regional councilor and councilor several times. Her candidacy for mayor of Cagliari initially causes a shock in the island’s centre-right coalition: the historic regionalist party, the Sardinian Action Party, decides to leave the negotiating table as it is not allowed to nominate its Gianni Chessa. Then the crisis returns. But Zedda will still not be able to count on the support, for example, of another face of the Sardinian centre-right, Giuseppe Farris, who is participating in the session as an independent. To those who accuse her of a sort of continuity with the mandate of the Melonian Paolo Truzzu, she replies that “he is in bad faith and uses this argument to denigrate her”. Zedda entered the Cagliaritan administration for the first time in 2001, when she was appointed councilor for regional affairs. Ten years later, in Ugo Cappellacci’s regional council, you lead the Industry department. In the running, she was then entrusted with the budget department.
With Solinas, he holds the role of vice-president of Sardinia – as well as councilor for Labor – a position he leaves in 2022, officially for “personal reasons”. She is the only woman elected in the Cagliari constituency in the three regional legislatures of 2009, 2014 and 2019, she has long been an exponent of Forza Italia. Then, after the death of Silvio Berlusconi, he bid farewell to the Azzurri in controversy with Antonio Tajani: «What the president of the party said, that is, that for the presidency of the Forza Italia region in Sardinia it had no suitable candidates, had a notable impact.” She lets her Forza Italia membership expire, moving closer to the League, but without ever officially joining the Northern League. Before her politics, Zedda made herself known for her sporting successes: she played for Virtus Cagliari as a playmaker, even coming close to making the playoffs for Serie A1. The candidate has never really given up on the world of basketball: today, she is part of the Italian national team over 55.
