The marmot card returns and lights up the Pesaro crossroads

I shook my ballot out of electoral hibernation: it’s been snoring in an open drawer in the multiverse since September 2022 (yes, the sock-in-the-washing-machine effect also applies to ballot papers, you know you put them in but someone still disappears swallowed up between the centrifuge strings) and I woke her up because she will have a busy and challenging weekend. However as a protagonist. We vote: a robust election day for marathon runners with the pairing of Europeans and Municipalities (in the province of Pesaro Urbino 38 out of 50, almost a thread) and while I smooth my ballot – stamped, wrinkled and worn from years of changing hands seats – I associate it with a marmot. And not just for his periodic sleep linked to the voting cycle. Today, Saturday 8 June 2024, is his Groundhog Day which we people kissed by the Mediterranean sun (while it lasts) have learned to know thanks to the cult hit “Groundhog Day” with the couple Andie MacDowell and Bill Murray in a state of grace. A time loop that forces the protagonists to relive February 2nd every 24 hours, which in North America tradition associates with the end (or almost) of winter.

And who knows if this weekend for the people of Pesaro to vote it will be a starting over from scratch (centre-left) or starting from scratch (centre-right or civic lists)? Let’s be clear: every election on the eve of the election is important, decisive, vital, decisive and in any case you can drench it with adjectives at will to increase its pathos. Every time the candidates are determined, fierce and aggressive. Every time we smell the air and interpret the soothsayers from the undergrowth of the polls off (don’t worry, they bounced from chat to chat in this round too) to understand where the wind of politics and the rumblings in people’s bellies will make the vote bend. Before the destination the electoral journey always ends with a crossroads and this year the crossroads are even more marked. After 10 years and two mandates, Mayor Matteo Ricci faces the European challenge with the Democratic Party, passing the baton to Andrea Biancani, regional councilor with an established curriculum as a public administrator.

The center-right wants the Municipality to close the circle of flags hoisted on the town halls of the provincial capitals in the Marche. After Ancona only Pesaro remains (but enough with the climate of the assault on the red strongholds which here at the latest since the third millennium has gone rosé) and to drain votes among the undecided and dissatisfied on the left he has put the civic Marco Lanzi into play. Pesaro never went to the ballot. They tried, yes, but at the end of the polls it was understood that extra time and penalties were always out of the question. Just to stay in the decade: Ricci I, in turn heir to Ceriscioli I and II, in 2014 won he played easy with 60% or so, challenged by 6 other candidates of which the most pugnacious competitor was Roberta Crescentini with the centre-right coalition. First there is Pesaro (just 18%), followed closely by the bold 5 Stars (17%) today incorporated into the wide field. First there is Pesaro then tried again in 2019 with Nicola Baiocchi, now regional councilor and kingmaker of the Lanzi operation. It went better, reaching 30% but it wasn’t enough to stem Ricci II which in the meantime lost a few crumbs of percentage along the way while still remaining steady at 57%. Five years later politics has changed the scenarios again at both regional and national level and here we are at the crossroads between the restart and the renewal considering that the other two competitors are also focusing on the latter: the lawyer Pia Perricci and the hotelier Fabrizio Oliva in head of as many civic lists, Veni Oltre and Spazi Liberi. Today and tomorrow we are preparing 48 hours (not wanting another cult title) of suspended time, a bubble that expands the wait in the collective rite of voting and choice. For those who run a stress test. For others? I smooth out the marmot card and get ready. And then? I almost shampoo myself.

*Head of the Pesaro editorial team

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