It could have been confirmation that the wind, in Italy, continues to blow to the right. The European elections vote, with Fratelli d’Italia as the first party, Forza Italia on the rise and the League standing on the shoulders of Vannacci, gave the government coalition hope. Until 3pm yesterday, 24 June, when the ballot boxes closed and in a few minutes, the evidence of a centre-left victory began to arrive from the polling stations. Nothing to do: the big cities remain red. Indeed, Perugia and Potenza change color and dump the previous centre-right administrations. The results of Bari and Florence, then, crystallize a worrying gap for the majority, especially in view of the Regionals: the controversies over the management of power by the Decaro-Emiliano duo have not affected the Apulian electorate, in Tuscany the investment of Fratelli d ‘Italy on Eike Schmidt has led to a debacle. And with the turnaround in Campobasso and the victory of Cagliari in the first round, the center-left takes home all the regional capitals in the vote: 6 to 0, a tennis score that does not allow interpretations.
The provincial capitals on the ballot
If you look at the nine provincial capitals that ended up in the ballot, however, the match was more balanced. The center-right manages to confirm Urbino and Vercelli. From the centre-left, he snatches the administrations of Caltanissetta, Lecce and Rovigo. The parties that are in opposition at a national level, however, take Vibo Valentia and narrowly retain the council in Cremona. The other two provincial capitals where voting was held, Avellino and Verbania, rewarded two civics. The second round, therefore, adding the regional and provincial capitals, sees a victory for the centre-left by 7 to 5: here too, a set tennis match that was resolved at the last minute game useful before tie-break. In the entire round – including the first round – the centre-right drops from 12 to 10 mayors in the regional and provincial capitals, while the centre-left makes a leap from 13 to 17. The opposition’s margin of victory widens by focusing the lens on all municipalities with more than 15 thousand inhabitants: 114 go to the centre-left, 80 to the centre-right.
A vote that scares the center-right, with the prospect of the Regionals
After ten years, the administration of Perugia is once again led by the centre-left. There are those who, in this result, also read a disavowal of the regional council, currently in the hands of the Northern League member Donatella Tesei. The Northern League obtained, in the internal negotiations of the coalition, the promise of a re-nomination of the governor. The victory in the capital of the 37-year-old Vittoria Ferdinandi, who some have renamed the Damiano Tommasi of Umbria, worries the center-right and could call into question the strategies for the upcoming regional round. If the Region returned to the centre-left next autumn, what was a masterpiece of sovereignism in 2019 would be nullified in just five years: no exponent of the centre-right, before Tesei, had won the presidency of Umbria. In 2025, there will also be voting in Tuscany and Puglia. Strengthened by the victory in the majority of Tuscan municipalities in the vote, President Eugenio Giani appears confident in his reconfirmation. In Bari, where the new mayor Vito Leccese obtained more than 70% of the votes, the center-left of the so-called “Apulian spring” seems unshakeable.
Schlein claims success and relaunches the battle on differentiated autonomy
The Democratic Party called a press conference at the Nazarene. Appointment at 11am today, June 25th. Together with Elly Schlein, the head of local authorities, Davide Baruffi. Already yesterday, the message arriving from the secretary was one of jubilation: «A historic victory for us and for the progressive camp. We won in all six regional capitals, taking three from the right – Cagliari, Perugia and Potenza -. 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.”
La Russa takes issue with the electoral law, Donzelli gives an “alternative” reading of the outcome of the polls
The president of the Senate gives up the role of the second office of the state and takes issue with the current electoral law. Ignazio La Russa underlines how the turnout in the run-offs dropped – which is actually a physiological figure – from 62.8% in the first round to 47.7%. And he insists: «The double shift increases abstention. You can be elected with only 20% of the votes of those entitled to vote. It is unacceptable.” It seems that the center-right has been working for some time on a reform of the electoral system for local elections. The idea is that of the Sicilian double round, which would allow a mayor to be elected in the first round if this exceeds 40% of the votes. However, after the outcome of this round, the message that would come from a change in the electoral law would be that of a coalition that admits defeat and, for this reason, changes the rules of the game. Also for this reason, Giovanni Donzelli, head of the Fratelli d’Italia organisation, gives another reading of the outcome of the polls: “I don’t understand the enthusiasm on the left, we have wrested more cities from them”. What is the Donzellian calculation system? «The center-right has wrested four provincial capitals from the center-left, while the center-left only took three from us».
