OfGabriele Guccione
According to the exit polls, the outgoing governor is ahead by 14 points. One in two Piedmontese went to the polls. The turnout for the Regionals was approximately two points lower than that for the European Championships
For the first time in twenty-five years a regional president is preparing to be re-elected for a second term. Alberto Cirio is one step away from the finish line, that of regaining the trust of the Piedmontese. Or at least of those few – one in two – who went to vote, given that turnout dropped by almost ten points compared to five years ago.
According to the exit polls conducted by Opinio for Rai the outgoing governor is destined for BISwith a 16-point advantage over the main challenger, the center-left candidate Gianna Pentenero, who would stop between 34-38%, and over the five-star candidate Sarah Disabato (7-9%).
The distance between Cirio and Pentenero is smaller, but just two points less measured by Swg readings for La7, according to which the governor is given at 50-54%, the Dem candidate at 36-40%, the Five Star representative at 5.5-9.5%. With his usual superstition, Cirio does not comment: “I’m waiting for the count”. But if the data is validated on Monday afternoon by the counting of the ballot papers, which is expected from 2pm onwards, the Italian president will be the first, since the direct election of the number one of the regional council was reformed in 1999to sit for an encore on the highest seat in Piedmont.
This will break the alternation which in the last quarter of a century has characterized all the electoral rounds, with the uninterrupted alternation between the center-right and the center-left. That of Cirio, 51 years old, national deputy secretary of Forza Italia, will therefore become a record-breaking feat.
If already on the eve of the regional elections it seemed like a script already written, now a showdown is looming for the Piedmontese centre-left.
Pentenero, 60 years old, multiple councilor in all the “red” regional councils of the last twenty years, has failed to mobilize the people of the center-left. So much so that the turnout at the regional elections it was approximately two points lower than that for the European elections. A sign that many in the polling stations refused the green card, considering the competition to be a non-starter.
Once the counting is finished, the Democratic Party will do the math.
And much will depend on the number of elected representatives that the two currents that have faced each other in recent months, the one headed by the national secretariat Elly Schlein and the other, that of the more centrist wing, will be able to place in the Regional Council. Meanwhile, the Piedmontese have rewarded a governor who has made his ability to speak with everyone – not only with the deep Piedmontese province from which he comes but also with Turin and its metropolis – a winning card. From this point of view, the excellent relations with the mayor Stefano Lo Russo they marked a further fracture in the center-left torn apart by internal strife and the inability to find a challenger capable of standing up to the governor. Now, however, only the final data will be able to say whether Cirio has won his double bet. Not just that of re-election. But also that of being able to make itself autonomous, with its civic list, from the more cumbersome allies of its coalition, starting with the Brothers of Italy. And then — why not? — the dream of making inroads into the Turin electorate, traditionally the prerogative of the centre-left.
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June 9, 2024 (modified June 10, 2024 | 10:43)
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