The numbers depict a substantial tie. Which in the runoffs of the local elections leads the PD to speak of a victory for the “progressive camp.” And to mock Giorgia Meloni, who, along with Deputy Prime Ministers Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani, praises the “solidity and rootedness” of the center-right coalition.
Elly Schlein attacks Meloni over the use of the “calculator.” But since, as Cuccia used to say about stocks, the political significance of the vote of millions of voters is perhaps better weighed than counted, the PD and the broad camp suddenly seem to forget the heavy defeat in the first round in Venice, the most important city in this round of local elections, which remained center-right, despite the left having announced that from the lagoon they would send the premier home, feeling confident of an automatic link between the No victory in the Justice referendum and the comeback through the local elections towards the final victory in the 2027 general elections.
Just yesterday, as he had already announced, Andrea Martella, the defeated former candidate, emphasizes, resigned as regional secretary of the PD in Veneto, which will have to restart from “a political profile.” The PD and also Matteo Renzi, who praises the fact that the broad camp took Agrigento from the center-right, which also lost in Bronte, seem to also forget the sensational first-round victory of the center-right that snatched Reggio Calabria from the center-left after more than a decade.
But even in these runoffs, concluded in substantial numerical parity and with a number of mayors in 18 provincial capitals for the left higher, 8 mayors compared to 6 for the center-right, there are some symbolic achievements for the governing coalition in cities taken from the left such as Lecco, with the new mayor Filippo Boscagli, expressed by FdI, and in other Lombardy cities like Vigevano. In particular in Vigevano, the surge of Roberto Vannacci’s candidate, who in the first round reached more than 14 percent, suddenly fades, who despite having indicated not to vote in the runoff even for the Forza Italia candidate, who ran alone in the first round where the coalition was divided, must acknowledge that center-right voters instead rewarded the new mayor, FI candidate Paolo Previde Massara. A victory that especially excites Tajani and Lombard deputy Alessandro Sorte. Salvini in turn celebrates particularly the confirmation of the mayor of Macerata, expressed by the League, Sandro Parcaroli: “Great Sandro, I’ll pitch a tent there…” in Macerata where the League leader has been many times.
Andrea Crippa, commissioner of the League in Tuscany, highlights the “active contribution” of the League to the victory in Arezzo, which remains center-right, of the new mayor Francesco Comanducci and Sara Grilli who, with a sensational upset, snatches Viareggio from the left, she who had been expelled from the PD, supported by the center-right.
Also the League, particularly targeted by the political and media wave of Vannacci, who had recently held a mega rally with the general in the Tuscan city, breathes a sigh of relief at the runoffs. The center-left retains important municipalities such as Chieti, Mantua, and many others, snatches Agrigento from the center-right. But it seems to already forget Venice, which had become in these local elections the symbolic city of the failed “comeback” driven by the referendum. And, in all this, Vannacci so far absent from the final outcome of the polls. Polls aside. Maurizio Lupi, leader of “Noi Moderati,” already declares: “The Vannacci effect has faded.”
