Municipal ballot in Potenza, the center-left finds an agreement. Having failed yesterday morning the formal alliance between the centre-left mayoral candidate Vincenzo Telesca and the political forces that supported the defeated mayoral candidates Pierluigi Smaldone and Francesco Giuzio in the first round, the progressive camp already tried to regroup in the afternoon. Smaldone (Movimento civico Potenza returns, supported by the M5s) and Giuzio (La Basilicata Possibile) signed a ten-point programmatic agreement. They will support Telesca in the race for mayor of Potenza against the Northern League member and centre-right candidate Francesco Fanelli. Voting takes place on June 23rd and 24th, whoever gets the most votes wins.
The negotiations
Busy day yesterday in the Lucanian centre-left. At 1pm, the deadline for filing the affiliations, it was clear that the request for “obvious affiliation on the ballot paper”, made by Smaldone and Giuzio to support him in his run for the Municipality, had failed. Telesca did not accept the conditions. If the request had been successful, the people of Potenza would have found on the ballot paper under the name of Vincenzo Telesca the symbols of the three lists linked to the first round with Smaldone (Potenza Ritorna, Città Nuova and M5s) as well as of Giuzio’s list (Basilicata possible). . In this way, the losers in the first round would take part in the distribution of the twenty seats in the City Council. In the end, the no line prevailed among the aspiring councilors of the lists linked to Telesca. Telesca, supported by the majority of the Democratic Party but running without the Dem symbol due to the split in the party, looks forward confidently: “We continue more united and stronger than before”, he wrote on Facebook in the afternoon, posting a photo with Smaldone. Telesca proposed the sharing of a programmatic agreement for the aggregation of a reformist and progressive camp in Basilicata, accepted by Smaldone and Giuzio. Among the ten programmatic points is also the request to the government for the appointment of an extraordinary commissioner for Bucaletto. The consensus was no to differentiated autonomy. At the base there is the idea of acting as a political laboratory for Potenza and Basilicata.
The centre-right
As for the other front, the centre-right candidate Fanelli reiterates the compactness of the coalition (Fdi, Fi, Lega, Noi Moderati, Potenza civica-Fanelli mayor, Insieme per Potenza, Amaiamo Potenza and Orgoglio Lucano). In the first round Fanelli obtained 40.6 percent of votes, while Telesca obtained 32.44. Followed by the other three candidates, Smaldone, Giuzio and Marino “Forza del Popolo” with 17.63, 8.5 and 1.27 percent respectively. Less than a week until the vote and the face of the new mayor will be known. Meanwhile, the electoral campaign continues with posts on social media. «Finally the veil falls. In the first round they had insulted each other and promised that there would never be a tie. Today, one step away from defeat, they are trying to get back together to save their seat”, writes Fanelli.
