What a ballot it is. As expected for some time, by many people from Bari, and as confirmed right up until the end by the polls, Vito Leccese and Fabio Romito will have to compete in the second round. Different ending for Lecce, where the run-off is a close second despite the positive opinion on the outgoing Salvemini (strong of a cohesive centre-left), with Adriana Poli Bortone, historical face of the Apulian and national right, who comes close to winning the first shift. Another medal that Prime Minister Meloni, strengthened by the European elections and about to have her government “blessed” by the G7 convened in Borgo Egnazia, could put on her chest.
Returning to Bari, for goodness sake, anything can happen in extra time: the polls are always like the mystery of Fatima. But we have a small, painful certainty: fewer people will turn out to vote, the “camel troops” of the parties (or what remains of them) will retreat after the “call” of the leaders and it will be difficult for the two contenders to recall everyone ( including the “defeated”, the followers of Laforgia) to the political passion that leads you to abandon the seaside or Sunday relaxation.
Here, before the “political” analysis it would be appropriate to examine a non-secondary aspect of these votes: participation. Well, even on this occasion, the 2024 administrative elections, in Puglia we recorded yet another noticeable drop. Bari and Taranto lead the way, respectively with a drop of 5 and 3 percentage points compared to 2019, but even in the other provinces things didn’t go much better, with drops between 1 and 3%, despite the fact that the Lecce challenge. A little bad? Not really, especially when election day does not only concern the “far away” parliament of Brussels (as in this case) or the “far away” parliament of Rome (as on previous occasions). But it concerns your mayor, the one who has to solve your daily problems, the one who is behind the door to knock on if they inflict an unjust fine on you or don’t repair the sidewalk under your house. Well, the distrust measured by that precious criterion called “turnout” says a lot about citizens’ perception of politics. And, on the other hand, at least the people of Bari can blame them?
En masse, after the installation of the Interior Ministry commission on the Internal Code investigation, they took to the streets to acclaim “their” mayor, today crowned as the most supported MEP in Italy, and to defend the city from the nickname “mafia ». But, evidently, that mass that filled Piazza Ferrarese and witnessed the curtain call on the boss’s sister between Emiliano and Decaro, which ended in an embrace with inevitable tears, did not represent the whole city. There is a 37.4% of people from Bari, whether right or left, who didn’t go to the polls at all, probably disgusted by what politics has bequeathed to its citizen-voters: an avalanche of mud with over 130 under investigation, exponents of ballot-boxing civicism who paid for those votes or exchanged them for favors and, even, a municipal company that escaped not only controls, but the common sense that should not even allow crime to come close to public administration.
Based on the obvious predictions, the center-left had to lose out. And instead – let’s move on to the political analysis – analyzing the vote on the city of Bari, we discover that Forza Italia (also dragged by the Tajani effect, leader of the European elections) no longer reaches 4% of the votes, abundantly outclassed by both the civics of the mayoral candidate Romito both from FdI. In short, if the center-right manages to gather a third of the preferences around itself it certainly does not owe it to the Berlusconi supporters, now reduced to a bare minimum despite still expressing parliamentarians and sub-governments in office. On the left, however, the Democratic Party confirms its leading role in the coalition (over 20% of the votes) and, in this case, it is not attributable to the “Decaro effect” alone, given the presence of its civic members in support of the Leccese candidate. While in the case of their “friend” rival, Laforgia, the Five Star Movement supported the alliance in his name but confirmed the historical vocation of the Movement, that of being irrelevant in the territories and in electoral challenges where preference prevails.
Once the polls are closed, we start again from the “interrupted” – but widely expected – film with the run-offs on 23-24 June. And, from today, the negotiations begin, the internal negotiations, the assignments of future positions that count in the municipality and outside the municipality, the political “barter” and the agreements that serve to strengthen that center-left which came out with a clear advantage, but arrived strongly divided at the finish. A division that could have been defined as healthy if, at least, it had gone through the primaries for the choice of the unitary candidate, as 20 years of Apulian spring have taught since the times of Emiliano and Vendola. No way.
Even the one about the ballots, alas, is a film that in the past ended in the worst possible way, with the investigations into the “swaps” and the “sales” that still hover over the “new life” of the Municipality, soiled by those divisions and those agreements of candies. A life that risks being short, because it is threatened by the commissioner. Well, probably those 37% of Bari people who didn’t go to vote haven’t forgotten that film – so quickly thrown behind the polls.
It is to be hoped that the change of direction, waved from the rooftops by all the contenders, will write a different ending for the second half. And hopefully, an authentic new beginning for a city that deserves it, even when it does not take to the streets to acclaim the leaders at rallies but with equal pride, in silence, fights for a better future.
