In Piedmont Alberto Cirio, candidate of the right, was confirmed president of the Region. His victory was in fact a foregone conclusion, and all the polls preceding the local elections gave him a large lead over his opponents. Although this result was widely expected, the victory of the right is nevertheless notable: in Piedmont for 25 years there have been alternating centre-left and right or centre-right councils, and therefore it is the first time in a long time that the outgoing coalition has won.
Cirio has governed Piedmont since 2019 with a right-wing junta supported by the governing parties Fratelli d’Italia, Lega and Forza Italia. Based on initial projections, she obtained more than 50 percent of the votes, while in second place came Gianna Pentenero, councilor for Labor of the municipality of Turin supported by a centre-left coalition with PD, Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra, Italia Viva and +Europa , with approximately 34 percent.
The third most voted candidate was Sarah Disabato, outgoing regional councilor of the 5 Star Movement, with around 9 percent, while Francesca Frediani, former 5 Star Movement, candidate with Luigi de Magistris’s political movement Unione Popolare, got slightly more by 1 percent. Pentenero was announced as a candidate by the Democratic Party already in March, creating a rift with the 5 Star Movement which wanted to be involved in the choice: the M5S had therefore decided to present Disabato as its candidate.
In Piedmont, the so-called “split vote” was also envisaged, i.e. the possibility of voting for a presidential candidate and for an unrelated list, while a second round of balloting was not envisaged: therefore Cirio would have won even with a majority that did not exceed 50 percent.
Cirio is 51 years old and began politics with the League in the early nineties, getting elected as a municipal councilor in Alba, before moving to Forza Italia. He had been a municipal councilor and deputy mayor of Alba for a long time, and in 2005 he served two terms in the regional council, before leaving Piedmont in 2014 following his election to the European Parliament. In 2019 he clearly won against the outgoing president, Sergio Chiamparino, of the Democratic Party.
