Polls open in 3,700 municipalities and for the renewal of the Piedmont regional council. A map of the most important electoral challenges
Not just European elections. Between Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 June, as well as for the renewal of the European Parliament, many Italian citizens will be called to vote in the administrative elections in more than 3,700 municipalities and for the renewal of the Piedmont regional council. Voting takes place, as for the European elections, on Saturdays from 3pm to 11pm and on Sundays from 7am to 11pm. There are a total of 29 provincial capitals that will have to elect a new mayor and city council and among these there are six regional capitals. In addition to Perugia, Potenza and Campobasso, the residents of Bari and Florence will be called to the polls for two electoral matches which are anything but predictable: if in Puglia the investigations of recent months have put not only the alliances that guide the city, but also those of the region in difficulty, in Florence the round is played between a united centre-right against nine other different candidates.
The elections in Bari
The renewal of the next Bari city council, led so far by mayor Antonio Decaro (now no longer a candidate and therefore competing for a seat in Brussels) have become of particular national importance due to the numerous investigations that have hit the municipality in recent months. The Democratic Party, which until now has led the city, in favor of the centre-right coalition, could pay the price. There are five candidates for the municipal elections in the Apulian capital.
The center-right is betting everything on the mayoral election of Fabio Saverio Romito. Thirty-six years old, he is the current regional councilor for the League, a party he joined after starting his career in Forza Italia. Romito is supported not only by these two parties, but also by the Brothers of Italy, Noi Moderates, the Centro Union and other local lists. The opposition to the current council is therefore united in expressing a single name.
On the other hand, however, the center-left presents itself with two different names. The Democratic Party together with Green Europe supports the candidacy of Vito Leccese, 43 years old, former Green MP from 1992 to 1994.
The 5 Star Movement and the Italian Left support the lawyer Michele Laforgia, 62 years of age. The breakdown of the broad camp came, in the end, due to the numerous investigations that involved the local and regional administration and which pushed Giuseppe Conte to withdraw support for Michele Emiliano’s regional council. Around mid-April the Democratic Party and the M5S should have held primaries between the two candidates now expressed separately in order to find a common name, but the primaries never took place and the broad field project foundered.
Finally, outside the main camps, there are two other candidates: Nicola Sciacovellisupported by Italexit and the “Sciacovelli mayor – We like it!” list, e Sabino Manganosupported by the civic list “Oltre – Associated Civic Movements – Mangano mayor”.
The investigations still in progress, the arrest of 130 people, the procedure started for the dissolution of the council and the investigations into mafia-related crimes have changed the political life of the city a lot: the victory taken for granted by the centre-left, before last February , it may no longer be very insured.
The elections in Florence
A similar argument can also be made for the city of Florence, investigations aside. The electoral round of the Tuscan capital will be a ten-way competition and among the candidates there is no mayor Dario Nardella, who like Decaro has completed his electoral mandates and is running for the European elections.
The Apulian pattern is repeated here too. The center-right presented a unified candidate: Eike Schmidt Fratelli d’Italia, Forza Italia and Lega are supported. He is 56 years old, he is an art historian and between 2015 and 2023 he was director of the Uffizi Gallery. Schmidt was born in Germany, but obtained Italian citizenship in November 2023.
The art historian’s main competitor is the outgoing Welfare councilor, Sara Funaro. She is 47 years old, she is supported by the Democratic Party, the Green-Left Alliance, More Europe, Action and other minor and local lists.
Here too the agreement for a large camp was not reached: the 5 Star Movement supports another candidate, Lorenzo Masicurrent deputy leader of the Grillini group in the city council.
Matteo Renzi’s Italia Viva is also running independently, having decided to support an independent candidacy for his city, that of Stefania Saccardi, vice president of the Tuscany region. The candidacy was announced by the party in December. Here too there was discussion about organizing primaries but no agreement was ever reached.
At the time the primaries had also been requested by Cecilia Del Re, former councilor for urban planning in the Nardella council. However, the Democratic Party confirmed her choices and the former councilor presented her candidacy independently. In addition to her, outside the mold of the big parties there are also Francesco Zini, Francesca Mazzacca, Dmitrij Palagi Gabriellovic, Alessandro De Giuli and Andrea Asciuti.
The elections in Piedmont
In addition to the two regional capitals, on 8 and 9 June there will also be voting for the renewal of the Piedmont regional council. In all likelihood the outgoing governor Alberto Cirio will be reconfirmed president of the region. In this last electoral round he is supported not only by Forza Italia, Lega and Fratelli d’Italia, but also by Carlo Calenda’s Action.
Also in this case, the Democratic Party and the 5 Star Movement presented two separate candidates. For the first she took to the field Gianna Pentenero, also supported by the Green and Left Alliance and the United States of Europe. For grillini, however, there is Sarah Disabato. Also in the running is the lawyer Alberto Costanzo, supported by Cateno De Luca’s Libertà list, and Francesca Frediani, elected to the regional council with the M5s and now a candidate with the Popular Union.
Cagliari, Perugia, Potenza and the other municipalities to vote
Among the other regional capitals that will elect a new city council there is also Cagliari. Paolo Truzzuformer mayor, resigned as mayor after the Sardinian regional elections in February. Defeated by Alessandra Todde, he was elected to the island’s regional council. The match is mainly played between two candidates with the same surname.
For the centre-right there is Alessandra Zedda, former president of the regional council and former councilor, who after a past in Forza Italia joined the League and is supported, among other lists, also by Fratelli d’Italia. For the centre-left he returns to the field instead Massimo Zedda. former mayor of the Sardinian capital from 2011 to 2019, which is mainly supported by the Democratic Party and the 5 Star Movement.
Other regional capitals include Campobasso, Perugia and Potenza. While among those in the provinces there are Ascoli Piceno, Avellino, Bergamo, Biella, Caltanissetta, Cesena, Cremona, Ferrara, Forlì, Lecce, Livorno, Modena, Pavia, Pesaro, Pescara, Prato, Reggio Emilia, Rovigo, Sassari, Urbino, Verbania , Vercelli and Vibo Valentia. Then there are many smaller ones, for a total of over 3,700 municipalities.
For cities with over 15,000 inhabitants, it should be remembered that a second round of balloting is planned if one of the candidates does not reach 50 percent plus one of the votes in the first round.. A mechanism which however does not exist in municipalities with less than 15 thousand inhabitants, where the mayor is elected if at least 40 percent of the population has voted and the candidate has half of the valid votes.
