Umberto Baldo
I know well that some of you reading what I write will sometimes be led to think that I am a “contrarian” who doesn’t like anything, always ready to find the “nitpick”.
I don’t feel like blaming you, but what do you want, he’s stronger than me, and I just can’t help but denounce the things that are wrong in this Republic of ours, obviously always hoping for a possible improvement.
And speaking of the European elections, it is impossible not to point out the Italian anomaly regarding the timing of voting, which visibly divides us from the rest of Europe.
It may also be true that our Demosthenes never miss the opportunity to highlight our “diversity”, as if it were a value to be proud of, but someone should give me a reasonable explanation of why in “normal” Europe (the which I would define as “civil”) we vote in a single day, while here we need two.
To be precise, there is another state in which voting took place for two days, the Czech Republic, which, Czech friends don’t blame me, is certainly not a leading EU nation.
But there is another “diversity” that I also find inexplicable, that of the “time” of voting.
You will have seen, to give some examples, that in Germany voting was only held until 6pm yesterday, and in France and Spain until 8pm.
Why on earth did it become necessary for us to keep the polls open from 3pm to 11pm on Saturday 8th June, and from 7am to 11pm on Sunday 9th?
The only explanation I can give myself is that our party leaders are still stuck in the last century, when the two days (regularly Sunday and Monday) were used by the helpers of the Christian Democracy and the comrades of the Communist Party to sift through the lists of those attending right, by going to collect the elderly, the sick, and in general anyone who had decided for their own reasons to desert the polls from their homes to accompany them to the vote.
But those were other times, those of the bitter “cold war” confrontation, in which every vote should not be wasted.
Today it no longer makes any sense to prolong the voting times indefinitely.
Our Demosthenes have not yet understood that if one does not intend to vote, he will never go, even if you keep the polls open day and night!
And this is demonstrated by the voter turnout figure, which stood at 49.69%, but with the particularity that it was approximately 13 percentage points lower than that for the concurrent administrative elections, which reached 62.7%.
Do you perceive the moral that comes from these two data?
That our political class over the years has done the impossible to discredit the image and role of Europe, for which the Italians, who in themselves are tied to their own “particular”, have concluded that the elections for the renewal of the City Council of Roccacannuccia (a location chosen at random) rather than those for the European Parliament.
On top of everything, with this “madness” of closing the polls at 11 pm, we have effectively blocked the continental electoral process for hours, because the common rule requires that the results begin to be disseminated when the last state has also closed.
But in reality the “others” at least released the exit polls immediately, and so, in defiance of our sacred principle of electoral silence, the last Italians went to the polls when in Germany the second place obtained by the neo-Nazis of Alternative fur Deutschland (behind the CDU and before the socialists), in Austria for the first place always of the far right, and in France even President Macron dissolved the National Assembly calling new elections for 30 June and 7 July (Marine Le Pen doubled the President’s Party).
In short, the whole of Europe was in post-election turmoil, while in the Republic of Pulcinella people calmly went to the polls (those few who went) after returning from the beach and stopping at a pizzeria.
But what’s so strange about it?
We are Mediterranean, Italy is the land of the sun; except that Spain is also Mediterranean, but in terms of efficiency it increasingly seems like a Northern European country.
“We are different”, our Demosthenes tell us, only they don’t realize that this vaunted diversity of ours now borders on the ridiculous.
Coming to the electoral results, to the numbers, which in politics are ultimately the thing that counts because they determine governability, at the time of writing they do not yet have the stamp of definitiveness, but we are very close to it.
Since the vote was taken at a European level, the final balance must inevitably be done by looking at the countries as a whole.
And in this regard, there is no point in beating around the bush, the far right is advancing everywhere and asserting itself in Europe, shaking some countries. We have seen that Macron has called new elections in France, that Belgian Prime Minister De Croo has resigned in tears, and it is not that German Chancellor Scholz is better off, given that the socialists have placed themselves after the AfD.
Of course, the signs were all there, but although these results were partially announced, when they become reality they open up new and unpredictable scenarios, inaugurating a high-risk legislature for the European project.
But despite the “earthquake”, the balance of the new European Parliament will probably not change compared to the previous one
In fact, according to provisional counts, the formations of the old European coalition, popular, social democrats and liberals (Renew) amount to 56% of the 720 seats in the European hemicycle; with the Greens, called to become the key and the emergency brake of the far right, they should represent 63%.
Of course, negotiations will be necessary, even difficult ones, but in the end I imagine that the so-called “Ursula” majority, perhaps a little dented, in Brussels will be reconfirmed.
Coming to Italy, all the answers can be found by looking at the summary screen of the results.
And this (58488 sections out of 61650) tells us that the Brothers of Italy stands at 28.8%, the Democratic Party at 24.04%, the 5Star Movement at 9.87%, Forza Italia-Noi Moderati at 9.71 %, the League at 9.47%, Alleanza Verdi Sinistra at 6.61, United States of Europe at 3.69%, Action at 3.29%, Pace Terra Libertà at 2.19%. Freedom at 1.23% and SvP at 0.54.
Wanting to give the report cards, Fratelli d’Italia is the first party with around 29 percent (increasing compared to the policies, and that’s no small thing), ahead of the PD which is above an excellent 24 percent. For both it is a very positive result, which shows that the polarization between the two leaders has paid off.
The League exceeds 9 percent, which was somewhat of the minimum objective so as not to consider the result of these elections as very negative, but it is under Forza Italia, and is therefore the third party in terms of consensus in the right-wing coalition.
The 5 Star Movement, on the other hand, fared badly, falling below 10 percent, while the Green and Left Alliance obtained a surprising result, clearly above expectations, given that it took 6.6 percent, probably due to the Ilaria Salis”, which you may like or not, but evidently mobilizes the adherents of movements such as Potere al Popolo.
Both the United States of Europe list of Matteo Renzi and Emma Bonino and Carlo Calenda’s Azione list have not reached the 4% threshold, and therefore will not elect MEPs.
Wanting to summarize with the category “Who wins and who loses” I would have no doubt: Giorgia Meloni and Elly Schlein certainly won; Giuseppe Conte and Matteo Salvini lost.
A separate discussion for the moderates of Action and the United States of Europe, whose defeat (net of the madness of dividing) tells us that between the consolidation of bipolarism, and the spread of the right, in this country of ours, but unfortunately also in Europe, the space for liberal democratic forces, perhaps the only truly pro-European ones, is increasingly narrowing.
This is not good news, because European history teaches us that the affirmation of extremism has always turned in the long run into adventurism and restrictions on spaces of freedom.
Surely in the next few days we will have to return to the electoral topic, not only to think with a cooler head, but also to analyze the results of our Veneto, and of the administrative elections in general
Umberto Baldo
