Municipalities, there was no Schlein effect. In the centre-right, the challenge on list voting

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It is true that in at least 7 of the 13 capitals that went to the vote it will be necessary to wait for the ballot (Ancona, Brindisi, Siena, Massa, Pisa, Vicenza, Terni) but what can be said is that at the moment the Elly Schlein effect is not seen much. Or not seen yet. And it was also predictable, since in elections based on the opposition between two blocs such as the municipal elections, the so-called asymmetrical bipolarism weighs on the center-left: center-right united almost everywhere, Pd allied with the M5s only in 6 capitals (Pisa, Brindisi , Catania, Latina, Syracuse and Teramo) and with Action/Italia Viva only in 3 (Brescia, Vicenza and Ancona).

For Schlein the victory in Brescia

However, the secretary of the Democratic Party can breathe a sigh of relief in Brescia, where the former councilor of the outgoing mayor Emilio Del Bono, Laura Castelletti, wins in the first round (the only other city conquered in the first round is Teramo). Thus failing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s intention to turn around, who in Brescia, not by chance, had wanted to close an electoral campaign that involved 598 municipalities overall.

The thorns of Pisa and Ancona for the Democratic Party

On the other hand, the match in Pisa, the city of Enrico Letta that Schlein aimed to bring “home” and where he held his closing rally: here the center-right came close to winning the first round. The Schleinian candidate Paolo Martinelli, provincial president of the ACLI and pacifist supported by the M5s but not by the centrists of the Third Pole, is coming out badly, at least for now.

But above all, Schlein risks losing a historic stronghold like Ancona, another city on which Meloni had bet: here the center-right candidate Daniele Silvetti goes to the ballot starting with an advantage of about five points over Ida Simonella, outgoing councilor of the center-left junta led by Valeria Mancinelli. It is true that the M5s could converge on the ballot on Simonella, but in any case, the center-right had never reached this level of consensus in a city considered a historic red stronghold.

In the cities that will go to the ballot, the center-left instead starts ahead of Siena, which therefore could be torn from the center-right which surprisingly won the last elections, and obtains a good placement in Vicenza with Giacomo Possamai who is only two points behind the outgoing mayor Francesco Rucco. “Many municipalities will go to the ballot. We started from a situation in which the center-right led 2/3 of the municipalities to vote and now we are head-to-head… now the challenge is to unite the center-left in the second round», is the glass half full that can be seen in Largo of the Nazarene.