Pd primary results: Elly Schlein wins in Milan and Lombardy

In Milan, the signal is strong: 72% of those who voted in the city preferred Elly Schlein as the new leader of the Democratic Party. A victory that is also clear in the metropolitan area but slightly different: 65% voted for the woman who became the new party secretary and 35% for Stefano Bonaccini. In the end, the activist of «OccupyPd», between city and hinterland, thus reaches 69%. It was decided for a convinced change of pace, a sentiment that was already in the air yesterday listening to the citizens lining up at the polling stations for the Pd primaries, even in the suburbs. The words “change” and “youth at the center” were spoken on every side of the city. Yesterday after 1 pm there were 30,000 voters who braved the bad weather to express their preference for the next party secretary and by the closing date at 8 pm in the Lombard capital, the number had more than doubled, reaching 70,000.

A turnout that is considered a good result, even if it is still lower than in the last primaries of 2019 (where 97,000 went to the polling stations) and also compared to those of 2017, where around 90,000 people voted. The result in the city led by Beppe Sala therefore confirmed the result of the club congresses: compared to the national figure (which had rewarded Bonaccini with 52.87%) the Milanese had already preferred Schlein (41.3 percent against the 41.2 collected by the challenger). Looking instead at the regional picture, Elly Schlein wins with 100,970 votes, which correspond to 65.15%, while the governor of Emilia Romagna stops at 54,007 votes, ie 34.85%. In total, 155,830 people voted in Lombardy, including party members and sympathizers, with 705 blank ballots and 148 void ballots.

The newly elected secretary was congratulated by the former center-left candidate for the presidency of the Lombardy Region, Pierfrancesco Majorino, now councilor at Pirellone, who had already made no secret of his support for Schlein during the electoral campaign for the vote on 12 and 13 February : «My heart beats for Elly» he said at the Milan stage of the tour around Italy. “What a beautiful thing Elly Schlein at the head of the Democratic Party – writes Majorino in a message on social media – the comments of the right-wing haters against him confirm the absolute goodness of the choice”. For the regional secretary, Vinicio Peluffo, the turnout of the primary vote shows «that our party is more alive than ever. It was a great celebration of democracy. I proudly claim the passion and stature of our community: we are the only ones in this country to create moments of sharing political choices, we are the only ones who are totally transparent in decisions”.