Only today will it be possible to know if any of the La Spezia candidates have won, or re-conquered in the case of the dem Brando Benifei, a seat in the European Parliament. As is known, the province of La Spezia, like all of Liguria, is included in the North West constituency together with Piedmont, Val d’Aosta and Lombardy and the counting of the ballots – with indication of preference for both the party and the individual candidates – has begun at the close of voting operations, at 11pm yesterday, to continue into the night. The definitive data, on the basis of which the seats will be assigned, is expected this morning.
The turnout is the first political data available for this election cycle. The final figure recorded at the closing of the polls was, for the entire La Spezia area, 51.11 percent. There is a decline compared to the European session of five years ago, when 58.73 percent of those entitled to vote, there is no collapse below the symbolic threshold of 50 percent but the numbers confirm the growing disaffection of the electorate for voting appointments. The municipality in our territory where the highest turnout was recorded is Bonassola with 72.06 percent, the one with the lowest turnout is Borghetto with 35.15 percent. In the capital Spezia the turnout was 47.57 percent (55.58 in 2019), in Sarzana 49.12 (57.54) and in Arcola, the third largest municipality in the province by population, 58.22 (67 .48 five years ago) but we also voted for mayor and city council. At the Liguria Region level, 50.71 voted against 58.5 percent in 2019.
In detail, at the European elections on 26 May 2019, in the entire La Spezia area, 107,842 out of 183,623 eligible voters voted, equal to 58.73. For a closer temporal comparison, we recall the political elections of 25 September 2022 but the data available is that of the multi-member constituency Liguria 4 which, in addition to Spezzino, included municipalities in the Tigullio: 194,856 out of 296,378 eligible voters voted, equal to 65.75 .
There are five candidates from La Spezia on the list, for different parties, in the North West constituency: Brando Benifei, European parliamentarian for two legislatures and head of the PD delegation in Brussels; Raffaella Paita, senator of Italia Viva, on the list with ‘United States of Europe’; as many as three from the ranks of Forza Italia: Dina Nobili, municipal coordinator of the party in La Spezia, Luigi Grillo, former senator, and Andrea Costa, former mayor of Beverino, regional councilor and undersecretary of Health in the Draghi government. We will know precisely today what consensus is recorded by each individual.
