After long months of a strange, uncertain, unprecedented and very crowded electoral campaign, just a few days before ballotwhich will be held on Sunday 23 and Monday 24 June between the 2 most voted candidates, both excellent professionals, the lawyer Alessandro Mager (list N.1) and the engineer Giovanni Rolando (list N.2), a Sanremo we fear the risk of a new serious epidemic: abstentionism in voting or, as the English and Germans say, theabstention voting and theenthalungsvotum. Incredible, but true. Rolando, who presents himself with the 4 centre-right parties plus 2 civic lists, has a 10 point advantage over his competitor Mager, representing 4 civic lists. In the runoffs, as we know, we start from scratch, everything or nothing can change. It’s roulette. The epidemic of abstentionism in the shadow of San Siro, however, is a certainty. Remember Agatha Christie, the queen of crime fiction: “A clue is a clue, two clues are a coincidence, but three clues make a proof”? In the city of festivals, flowers and gambling, Agatha’s three clues are all there.
First clue. Perhaps the most disturbing thing for Mager and Rolando to win Palazzo Bellevue and the coveted seat of mayor of Matutia is the question of how many men and women, young and old will go to vote. Will the gap between those who show up at the polls and those who desert them for the second time within 15 days grow further? Twenty thousand 488 is a lot. This is in fact the number of Sanremo people disappointed by politics, by the parties, by those in administration who, in protest, said “No” to the vote. Almost half of those entitled to vote, exactly 45.21%, deserted the seats. Half an army that preferred to stay at home, go to the seaside, to the hinterland, take care of the garden, the terrace, put order in the wardrobes, take out costumes, shorts, put autumn-winter clothes in mothballs, read a book. The municipal elections of 5 years ago, which for the second time had handed over the keys to the city to Biancheri, had been better: 62.6%.
Second clue. The sea of 400 candidates, the 16 competing lists, hundreds of their family members who, unfortunately, too many of them have spectacularly failed electorally, even taking 1, 3, 9, 20 votes despite the promises of dozens of acquaintances, neighbours, friends, colleagues, even relatives who had also sworn that they would vote for them and make others vote too, how will they behave next Saturday and Sunday? Leaving aside the Judas of the third millennium, the 400 candidates & family, given the Waterloo of membership and the votes obtained in the face of the avalanches of slogans, aperitifs, pizzas, flags, coffee offered and consumed at the bar, in the squares, musical shows , handshakes, smiles, programs, promises, interviews, discussions, debates in theatres, in alleys, outdoors, indoors, in the suburbs, in sports areas, in the sky, on earth and sea, in short everywhere, who even opens the doorstep or, for the luckiest, the garage to park cars, scooters, bikes, electric skates, he even feared finding someone offering him yet another holy card or print in an atmosphere that he often remembered, without offense to anyone, Totò and his “Vote Antonio-Vote Antonio La Trippa”, what will they do? Will they, at least, all come back to vote together? The numbers will eventually rise or continue to fall instead. Many, it is no mystery, the most disappointed, but above all those who thought they could put a more substantial number of votes on the scales could legitimately obtain some advantage or those who hoped to gain, illegitimately, some improvement suggested or promised by someone, from usual dishonest charlatans it is very probable, it is better for everyone, that he disappears.
Third clue. The truth has come out. In Sanremo, as in half of Italy and in other countries, whether the right, the centre, the left, white, red, black, real or fake independents, civic or robots win or govern, trust has been lost. In those who lead, decide, legislate. Disappointment, impotence, questions are growing towards those who already occupy command positions (with exceptions), those who are ready to replace them and their more or less hidden sponsors. Only the Constitution still holds, but there is a big risk because, starting from Rome, not all those who have been elected to administer the “res publica”, public affairs, the people, in the best possible way with absolute honesty, ability, professionalism , transparency, humanity in the exclusive and total interest of the community is not doing it. “Dignity and Honour” two guiding words of our Constitution, we no longer know where they have ended up. Too often they seem erased. Confidence in voting is decreasing more and more. You write Caio on the card, then for games, alliances, abstruse and unacceptable alchemies here is the third test of Agatha Christie: Sempronio wins.
Maybe he was right Corrado Guzzanti when he said: “If politicians no longer represent the voters, let’s change these blessed voters”.
