Pistoia, 8 June 2024 – The organizational machine for the European and Administrative elections has already been in motion for a couple of days, i.e. when all the procedures for preparing the polls began. Today at 3pm (for the first time in history in Italy there will be voting on Saturday), voting operations will begin which will continue until 11pm and continue tomorrow from 7am to 11pm.
Throughout Italy we are proceeding with the European elections for the renewal of Parliament (our country has 76 members) and the allocation of seats occurs proportionally. On the card you can put a cross on the symbol of the list you intend to vote for but there is also the possibility of indicating from one to three preferences, paying attention to gender alternation: whoever writes only one preference has no problems, whoever puts one must indicate a man and a woman otherwise the second will be cancelled, for those who put three the important thing is that at least one candidate is of a different sex than the other two, under penalty of cancellation of the second and third preferences. Our province is part of the central Italian constituency and in competition, among others, there will also be three politicians from our territory: Barbara Masini for Azione, Manuel Vescovi for Fratelli d’Italia and Marco Baldassarri for Forza Italia.
At the same time when voting for the European elections, in eleven municipalities (out of 20) in the province the mayor and the municipal council will be renewed. As regards the plain and the mountains, the administrative ones concern Agliana, Montale, Abetone Cutigliano and Sambuca Pistoiese. In Agliana the outgoing mayor Luca Benesperi (centre-right and civic list Benesperi Mayor) will challenge Guido Del Fante (Democratic Party, Action + PRI and Agliana in Comune), Ambra Torresi (Agliana in the centre), Roberto Bertini (Italian Communist Party) and Alessandro Bartolini (5 Star Movement). If no candidate rwill add more than 50% of the votes, we will go to a runoff.
How much for municipalities under 15 thousand inhabitants, however, in Montale the race is three-way: against the outgoing mayor Ferdinando Betti (Montale Concreta, centre-left area) seeking the third mandate, there are Sandro Nincheri (Montale Rinasce) and Lorenzo Bandinelli (Noi per Montale, centre-right area). After the commissionership, a duel takes place in Abetone Cutigliano: on one side the former deputy mayor Gabriele Bacci (Vivi Abetone Cutigliano), on the other Andrea Tonarelli (We are Abetone Cutigliano, centre-right area). Finally, head to head also in Sambuca Pistoiese where Marco Breschi (Together for Sambuca, centre-left area) will face Maurizio Pasquinelli (Noi per Sambuca, centre-right area plus Italia Viva) for the post-Micheletti. Seven municipalities are voting in Valdinievole, where the disputes stand out in Montecatini Terme and Monsummano Terme (dedicated report on page 13).
