Late at night and counting is underway, there is already some certainty regarding the European elections. One, unequivocal, concerns the turnout figure: the almost definitive figure is 49.69% (61,635 sections out of 61,650). A collapse compared to 2019 (which stood at 56.09%), but also compared to the 2022 policies, where voters were 63.91%. More than half of the voters stayed at home and this, in a national election, had never happened before.
Those who can rejoice at the outcome of the vote are Fratelli d’Italia, attested at the threshold of 29% and that is almost three points above the 26% of the political elections. The comparison with the 6.4% of the 2019 European elections is even striking. Giorgia Meloni strengthens herself in an election, that for the parliament of Strasbourg, which traditionally penalizes government parties: either because it arrives halfway through the mandate, or because there are no appeals for the useful vote that are relevant when it is not the coalitions that are weighing . Yet the result of the flame is strengthened even in spite of the collapse that the government parties face in the other large EU countries, France and Germany.
But the Democratic Party also shows greater resistance than the polls credited it with. Elly Schlein’s Dems are close to 25%, six points above the political ones, two more than the 2019 European elections. Fifteen points away is Giuseppe Conte’s 5 Star Movement which, dropping to 9.5%, achieves its worst result ever in a national consultation, despite remaining third party. Around 9% are both Forza Italia and the League, with the Azzurri most likely to come in fourth place at the time of writing: the feelings with which Meloni’s allies welcome the result are opposite. For Tajani it is a confirmation of the good state of health of the party, one year after the death of Silvio Berlusconi. For Salvini it is a debacle, despite the slight recovery in the policy data, barely attenuated by the Vannacci effect.
There is also a powerful drive from one of the candidates on the left, where Ilaria Salis has a lot of preferences in the Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra: the party, above 6.5%, is the last to achieve the achievement of the quorum. However, the two centrist lists, United States of Europe and Action, both below the fateful four percent, cannot make it: the Renzi-Bonino and Calenda duo march divided to “commit suicide” united, destroying each other’s hopes of election. Among the parties that do not reach the quorum – stopping at 2% – we note the result of Pace Terra Dignità, an electoral cartel with a pacifist imprint headed by Michele Santoro: among the most voted candidates is the Cuneo native Piergiorgio Odifreddi.
In the North West constituency, the one in which Cuneo voters vote, a result that has now been achieved is the election in Strasbourg of Giovanni Crosetto, nephew of the minister and co-founder of FdI Guido and current group leader of Meloni’s party in Turin. Crosetto junior, 33 years old in August, born in Savigliano, carried out his cursus honorum in the shadow of the Mole but is linked, by obvious affinities, to his province of origin, where in fact he is among the most voted, behind only the leader Meloni . The only other candidate to pass the thousand votes is Federica Barbero Invernizzialso with the advantage of playing “at home” but too far from the top for the election.
Fratelli d’Italia in the province is at 35%: a figure that makes the right smile in view of the counting of the regional elections on Monday afternoon. It is double the votes of the Democratic Party, at 17.5%, and more than twenty points above the League which stands at around 14% and Forza Italia which stands at 11.5%. Speaking of the Carroccio, it is worth mentioning the failure of Lady Calderoli’s impossible challenge, Gianna Gancia, the only outgoing MEP from the Granda province. In the “home” she sees herself second and lapped by Roberto Vannacci, but even in the constituency her positioning is too low to give rise to hope, given the League’s results, in a re-election which seemed uphill from the start. The door to Palazzo Lascaris remains open for her, in the face of the more than probable reconfirmation of Alberto Cirio in the Region.
