And now? Now that the dems have won in Bari the challenge in the polls against the inconvenient ally, the M5S, forcing their champion to third place, will the entire center-left be able to unite against the opponent of the center-right? Obviously the answer you get in the city from anyone who receives this question is only one: of course yes, of course. Yet too much hatred has flowed between the two lefts in recent weeks not to remain lukewarm on the final result, because we know that until the referee has blown his whistle, the end of the match will not have occurred.
Quick summary of the situation.
Meanwhile, it went as expected on the eve: on Sunday 23 and Monday 24 June the centre-left Vito Leccese, champion of the Democratic Party, who won 48.02% of the votes (equal to 73,735 votes) will go to the run-off and the Northern League member Fabio Romito will go to the centre-right, to whom it received 29.1% of the votes (equal to 44,709 votes). The other left-wing candidate, Michele Laforgia, driven by Giuseppe Conte’s ambitions to break with the Democratic Party and present himself alone, came third, obtaining 21.7% of the preferences (i.e. 33,402 votes).
The victory of the Democratic Party, the disaster of the M5S
It must be said that at a certain point during the count, Leccese came close to winning the first round, causing, as one imagines, the heartbeat of those in the democratic area who had hoped to drive “Sant’ Antonio” Decaro who was preparing to become the most supported mayor in Italy. But it didn’t last long, the miracle didn’t occur, leaving the dem camp with a bitter taste in their mouths even more because the feat would have been possible if it hadn’t arrived at one of the most senseless and absurd splits in the political history of the left.
Because, as you will remember, Conte had broken the table in the Bari primaries a week before the vote that would have chosen the sole champion of the coalition, riding a justicialist strategy which, after the investigations opened by the judiciary into alleged vote-buying, had as its sole aim to create a vacuum around the PD. A strategy that did not pay off at the polls given the disastrous results of the M5S which took a paltry 5.9% in the city (it had 8.8% in 2019) against the 19.7% of the Democratic Party (16.9% in 2019) and 11.1% of FdI (in 2019 it had 3.7%).
Although saddened by the lack of success, the Dems, however, can only be satisfied with the result given the months of hell they have experienced since February, when the judiciary opened the first investigation into vote buying which had led to over one hundred people in prison, including also a city councilor and her husband, a former regional councilor, previously elected with a center-right list and then passed bag and baggage into the mayor’s ranks. If at first the investigation remained in the pages of the local newspapers, the spotlight of all the national media was later focused on the city as soon as the Minister of the Interior, at the instigation of his colleagues from the city party, had decided to send a police report to Bari. commission of inquiry to verify whether there had been mafia infiltration in the municipality and to dissolve the municipality.
A decision that had been defined by the mayor and the disloyal dems since the same magistrate who conducted the investigation had said clearly that Decaro not only had not been touched by the investigations, but that he had done everything he could to help justice shed light on the obscure points. But it wasn’t enough for Piantedosi who, by sending the commissioners, had placed a time bomb under the Municipality which, among other things, is waiting to explode because the commissioners are still in the city and it will be the next administration that will have to deal with it.
From that moment on Everything had happened in Bari: on the one hand, other judges had opened other investigations to verify hypotheses of sales of favors in exchange for votes; while on the other hand the parties’ rush to find the right candidates for the June elections seemed entirely influenced by the moves of the judiciary.
So on the right we remained immobile waiting to deal the final blow once Piantedosi’s commissioners had found something that would push them to dissolve the Municipality.
While on the left the drama of internal division began which, it is true, led to the run-off, but which could also have given the city, governed (well) for twenty years, to the opponents. Because it is at this point that Conte’s descent to Bari comes in to separate the destinies of the two candidates so that each can go to the polls for himself.
Will Leccese and Laforgia be able to overcome the divisions?
And so we come to today. We mentioned the last hatred (especially on social media) between the two families, the Montagues and the Capulets of the left. Although the loser Laforgia assured, as a “man of the twentieth century” as he declared himself, his extreme loyalty to his fellow opponent Leccese, and that he would therefore never have voted for the right, not all of him think so.
Read posts and comments from the two factions after the result that prevented Leccese from winning the first round, it won’t be easy to mend things. The Piddini accuse the “Laforgians” of having played into the hands of the right; they react by accusing them of illiberals without a people.
Will it change as the days go by?
In reality, the generals are already agreeing on concrete things and what happens after the vote, and it is normal for this to be the case. What is concrete, for example, is that there will be no alliance and this relates to a purely technical fact that has nothing to do with the hatred of the troops, as it might appear after what we have said. It’s actually about preventing the loser (the right supposedly) from taking all the seats left by the winner, which would happen if there was only one opposition. But if there are two, the right and the Laforgians, they have to divide the places, and it is an excellent thing for those who govern to be able to rely on an opponent who is softer than the other. Assuming it is, of course.
As for what happens after the vote, we are already talking about the appointments of the council and important councillors, starting with the role of Laforgia. Will he join the council? And in what role? All to be verified knowing that the lawyer does not like second places and that he has already put his robe back on his shoulders to return to the courtroom to defend his clients.
But we can only talk about this after the 24th. First it will be necessary for the centre-left to defeat its opponent, the young, rampant Romito wanted by Berlusconi and then passed to Salvini. All the leaders are working hard for him, starting with Deputy Minister Sisto. Not to mention that Meloni, in Puglia to chair the G 7, despite not appearing or declaring only if necessary, has so far supported all the steps taken by him to wrest the once very fascist Municipality from the hated left. Including the sending of commissioners.
An insult for the people of Bari, especially in light of what is happening in Genoa, where the president, despite being under arrest, continues to govern the Region.
Hateful double standards, they say.
How to blame them.
 is seeking unity for the run-off){kind=link}