The centre-right wants the return of the provinces. But at the provincial level it splits on the presidents

On the one hand they want the direct election of the president of the province, the reassignment of a series of powers that were taken away by the now famous Delrio law almost ten years ago. On the other hand, they have a great deal of effort even just to agree internally for a candidacy that brings together all the sensitivities of the coalition. In the centre-right one struggles between these two opposing states of mind. You want a return to the comfort of the past. But when it comes to outlining an administration path, it is a moment that Lega, Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia get stuck in their respective differences and contradictions.

We have also seen it recently, on the occasion of the administrative elections. Months and months of discussions trying to overcome the respective vetoes. And then it happened that Rome and Milan remained far from being truly competitive. Or as happened in Verona, where two opposing area candidates led to the victory of the left after years of unchallenged government of the city. So what we are about to list are small cases, “provincial” tendencies, to be precise. But at the same time they take on all their politically glocal relevance that transcends the narrow observation area.

Last December the province of Arezzo elected its new president. According to the rules dictated by Delrio, the mayors of the municipalities of the province can compete as candidates, who are voted on by the municipal councilors of the individual municipalities. In the Arezzo area the great favorite was the outgoing one Silvia Chiassai, first citizen of Montevarchi, of the centre-right. It ended with an unexpected turnaround that led to the election of Alessandro Polcri, mayor of Anghiari. A surprise result because Montevarchi is a larger municipality, its councilors have a wider weight. But also and above all because the capital Arezzo has been governed since 2015 by Alessandro Ghinelli, jointly supported by the Brothers of Italy, Lega and Forza Italia. What happened then? According to Chiassai “some people had been working on a concocted and woven design for a year to split the center-right to the advantage of their own interests”. And also for the mayor of Arezzo, Ghinelli, “these elections have been surreal for many reasons, the last of which is that which has seen the center-right united on paper but not united in the polls”. In practice, many votes would have been missing from the same advisers of the coalition parties.

A similar climate was felt in Savona, where for the presidency of the province there was a head-to-head all within the coalition that governs the country. On Tuesday they challenged the outgoing president Pierangelo Olivierimayor of Calizzano supported by Cambiamo, the movement of governor Giovanni Toti, and the mayor of Borghetto Santo Spirito Giancarlo Canepa, for which the big parties have spent. The left didn’t even have its own candidate. In the end Olivieri was reconfirmed with over 66 percent of weighted preferences. Couldn’t it have been mended earlier? Immediately after the re-election, the president of the Toti region confessed that he did not understand why “some centre-right allies did not support him”. Leaving a sense of a growing malaise in the region, where the solidity and unity of purpose of the center-right are considered rather dancers.

Almost nothing compared to what happened to Frosinone. Where the flight forward of the mayor of the capital Riccardo Mastrangeli was about to cause a crisis in the center-right majority that governs the municipality. With Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia reproaching the frusinate mayor for having advanced his candidacy without prior consultations with the coalition forces. The fact is that the tensions were taken over by a specific regional table (which in the meantime was closing due to the candidacy of Francesco Rocca). Which in any case failed to prevent the defeat of Mastrangeli, who in the end was preferred by the mayor of Sora Luca Di Stefano, of the Pd.

The last case in chronological order, however, concerns the province of Foggia. Where the race to choose the top of the province will be three because the acronyms of the center have presented two distinct candidates. Forza Italia and Fratelli d’Italia are betting on Nicholas Cat, mayor of Candela but above all the brother of the plenipotentiary Giandiego, long-time regional councilor of FI, elected to the Chamber in September. While the League a couple of days ago presented its “unitary candidacy of the identity centre-right”, i.e. the mayor of Lesina Primiano Di Mauro, also baptized by the MEP and patron of Papeete Massimo Casanova, a loyalist of Matteo Salvini. It is understandable then why the proposal to reintroduce the old provinces brings with it at least one question: but if on the right they argue even when the candidacy options are already rather narrow, what can they get to do if they have to go back to fishing among the most boundless and imaginative?