The electoral race is over. The polls are open and the games are over. Once the voting for the European elections has begun, the leaders rush to the polls, but between one tweet and another, with social media which as always remains a no-man’s land, that is, without precise rules or prohibitions, in addition to the inevitable breaking of the electoral silence, comes the attack of the historic leader of the Carroccio Umberto Bossi against the Salvini-led League.
“Bossi called me in a very angry voice and told me: ‘Let it be known that I am voting for Reguzzoni’ who, as you know, presents himself as an independent candidate of Forza Italia”. The announcement of Bossi’s choice of side was Paolo Grimoldi, former parliamentarian and secretary of the Lombard League, who assured: “Bossi absolutely doesn’t like Vannacci”.
While Marco Reguzzoni says he is satisfied with Bossi’s announcement also because “it demonstrates my coherence”. And it is “a satisfaction that alone is worth the entire electoral campaign”. “Bossi asked all of us to vote for Reguzzoni – urges another early Northern League member Matteo Brigandì – and we agree” because “the League is no longer being the League” and because “we don’t want to die fascists”. But the League is the protagonist of this first call to the polls also due to the breaking of the electoral silence by Matteo Salvini and General Roberto Vannacci. In fact, if Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni maintains a more sober line, bypassing the silence only with a video on Instagram in which she eats cherries from the ‘Giorgia Variety’, the deputy prime minister is much more direct. Dressed completely in dark, Salvini declares that he voted “tithe” for his party, rather than X. Then he explains that what is given to his League “is a vote for peace”.
“The Italians, by voting for us, can stop the winds of war” he assures. Then he gives a jab at his government allies: “I expect an excellent result for the League, certainly superior to the policies and superior to Forza Italia.” And on social media the general is no different. In a video on Facebook, with the ‘black sun’ behind him and the attached reference to the ‘Decima Mas’, he invites people to vote for him and for Salvini’s party. A reference which the President of the Senate, Ignazio la Russa, however, in replying to a reporter who asks him for a comment on ‘X Mas’, seems to put a stop to: “You don’t joke about serious things”.
The breaking of the electoral silence unleashes the anger of the opposition which, with one of the Avs leaders, Angelo Bonelli, asks for the intervention of the Interior Ministry. “Piantedosi intervene immediately and sanction Salvini and Vannacci” is his appeal. Meloni at the polling station, where 4 female scrutineers welcomed her, recalled the electoral silence, but launched the appeal to vote because with these elections “our next 5 years in Europe will be decided”. Almost all the leaders, perhaps to set a good example in a session that has to deal with the great unknown of turnout, immediately show up at the polls. PD secretary Elly Schlein votes in Bologna, where she patiently waits her turn in line before entering the booth and breaks the tip of her pencil. Matteo Renzi, candidate for ‘United States of Europe’ and Carlo Calenda, Action leader candidate with ‘We are Europeans’, show up to vote, the first in Florence and the second in Rome, with their adult children in tow. Renzi’s daughter, Ester, has just turned 18.
“The first time at the polling station with Giulio at his first vote is exciting,” Calenda tells the reporters waiting for him outside the polling station. “What a great achievement democracy has!” says Renzi. Emma Bonino is also at the polls, voting in Rome accompanied by the secretary of Più Europa, Riccardo Magi. The president of the M5S Giuseppe Conte expresses his preference for Rome but he also makes his invitation to vote on social media. Posting the photo of him with the ballot paper in his hands, he wrote: “I voted and you? Happy voting to everyone”.
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