The 14 runoffs in the provincial capitals ended 7-5 for the centre-left, with two civic successes. Pd and allies confirm themselves in Bari, Florence, Campobasso and Cremona and conquer Perugia, Potenza and Vibo Valentia. The right-wing consoles themselves with Rovigo, Urbino, Vercelli, Caltanissetta and Lecce. In Verbania and Avellino two civics win.
TWO WEEKS AGO 15 other capitals had been assigned in the first round, with a result of 10-5 for the progressives (among these the victories of Cagliari and Bergamo stood out, while the right confirmed the leadership of Pescara and Ferrara). The final figure is therefore 17 cities against 10: compared to 5 years ago, when the situation was essentially in balance, there has been an advance of the centre-left, even more significant given that in the meantime the right have won the 2022 elections and in the palace Chigi Giorgia Meloni has arrived.
In this context, winning in 6 out of 6 regional capitals for the Democratic Party and its allies is no small feat. In particular in a region, such as Basilicata, after April the right-wing parties had won the regional elections by a landslide while this weekend the recomposition between the progressive forces (after the traumas of this spring which produced a split even within the Democratic Party which did not present the symbol)) allowed Vincenzo Telesca to beat the right-wing candidate Francesco Fanelli with 64.9%, who was indicated as the big favorite on the eve.
Not to mention Perugia, governed for ten years by the centre-right, where at the beginning of the campaign the outsider Vittoria Ferdinandi was considered, even within the Democratic Party, a gamble and instead she prevailed with 52% in a very tough ballot. «You can beat the right with a profile of change», gloats Nicola Fratoianni who immediately supported his candidacy. A wide field that was replicated in Campobasso, where another civic player, the former superintendent Maria Luisa Forte, started with a 15 point gap and overturned the match (by a whisker).
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IN BARI AND FLORENCE, won respectively with 70% by Vito Leccese and 60% by Sara Funaro, the center-left started very divided, particularly in the Tuscan capital, where Renzi dreamed of dealing a blow to Schlein’s leadership. In the Apulian one, the campaign was taught with investigations that had involved exponents of the center-left in the city and region and a very harsh campaign by the right. The primaries were off, but then in the run-off the Left and M5S candidate Michele Laforgia maintained the mutual support agreement signed on the eve of the first round and his voters followed him. And so the Northern League member Fabio Romito, although far from Vannacci-style excesses and decidedly more presentable, in the end only garnered 29%.
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CONFIRMATION TO BE REPORTED of the centre-left in Cremona (with Andrea Virgilio winning by a whisker with 50.4%) and the victory in Vibo Valentia, which had been governed by the centre-right for 20 years) where Enzo Romeo prevailed with 53.6%, beating Roberto Cosentino who at first round he had a 7 point lead. The defeat in Lecce weighs heavily on the progressives, where the former mayor Adriana Poli Bortone won by a narrow margin (50.7%) against the outgoing mayor Carlo Salvemini supported by the Pd, M5S and the left.
And the defeats of Avellino and deep Piedmont, Vercelli and Verbania also weigh heavily, with the latter coming from 10 years of centre-left government. Crunches for the Democratic Party also come from the Bologna area, where two historic red municipalities, Pianoro and Castel Maggiore, saw the defeat of the Dem candidates after decades of unchallenged domination. Success for the centre-left instead in Vittorio Veneto, where the divisions in the League (after the expulsion of the historic leader Toni Da Re) favored the surprise victory of the dem Mirella Balliana with 53.8% (with the League excluded from the ballot and from the council municipal). For the progressives there were also good results from Lazio (with the victory in Civitavecchia) and from Campania with the victories in the 4 municipalities of the Neapolitan area.
The clear fact is that in large and medium-sized cities the Democratic Party is still able to set up competitive coalitions, and even to take over municipalities governed by the right. A fact that, however, becomes blurred as we move deeper into Italy’s smaller municipalities.
THE POLITICAL SIGN OF THIS round is confirmed by the comments after the vote. Schlein rejoices: «A historic victory for the Democratic Party and the progressive camp. It is irrevocable: the cities have rejected the governing right and sent a clear message to Giorgia Meloni. No more cuts to healthcare, no more low wages and no more differentiated autonomy.” «A coat that no one had foreseen», echoes the local authorities manager Davide Baruffi.
The M5S confirms Conte’s line: «Citizens reward the projects of agreement between the opposition forces, the result not of palace alchemy but of a convergence that is consolidating in the parliamentary halls as well as in the squares. A fact that comforts and encourages us to continue working to build the alternative to the government. Meloni and Salvini do not comment. The Northern League leader will meet the federal council today to analyze the vote. From Fdi comes the voice of Donzelli, who recalculates the results in his own way: «We have wrested 4 capitals from the left, Lecce, Rovigo, Verbania and Caltanissetta. Only three made it to the other side. However, the balance of the ballots has a positive balance for us.”
