The test of the Municipalities: six million to vote for the mayors. Eyes on Brescia, Ancona, Vicenza and Siena

ROME. It is a local vote, the one that begins today and tomorrow for the administrative elections, but will still have a national political significance. First of all, because there is a total of 790 municipalities voting and a total of around 6 million voters including 195 administrations with special statutes, with Trentino and Valle d’Aosta which will then go to the vote on 21st and those of Sicily and Sardinia on 28-29 May . Among the 595 cities that already today have to renew their mayor and city council, there are also 13 provincial capitals. But, numbers aside, local elections always become a test for parties, both government and opposition, and this is demonstrated by the fact that the leaders have taken the field themselves, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who on Friday he closed the electoral campaign in Brescia together with Salvini and Tajani.

The Lombard city is precisely one of the challenges that will give the sense of this electoral round. Brescia has been governed by the centre-left since 2013, but the outgoing mayor Emilio Del Bono has now served two terms and it will be up to his deputy Laura Castelletti to try to pick up the baton. The Democratic Party is allied here with the centrists of Azione-Italia viva, while the 5 Stars go their own way and for this reason too, the center-right thinks it can reconquer the city with Fabio Rolfi.

Another municipality to keep an eye on is that of Ancona: also in this case the outgoing junta is center-left and here too the 5 Stars go their own way, while the centrists and Pd are allies. And, as in Brescia, the centre-right hopes to be able to take advantage of the opposing divisions. In Vicenza, on the other hand, it is the Pd that dreams of the coup with the young Giacomo Possamai, 33, who, like Schlein, has experience in Obama’s electoral committee in his curriculum and who aims to beat the outgoing centre-right mayor Francesco Rucco, who in 2018 won in the first round. Even here, however, the 5 Stars go their own way.

The Democratic Party then seeks revenge in Tuscany, after the setback of 2018, when the center-right conquered Massa, Pisa and Siena for the first time. In Tuscany, however, the picture of center-left alliances is even more complex: the agreement with the M5s is only in Pisa, where, however, there are no centrists in the coalition. Action and Iv, however, are even divided in Siena and Massa (where Iv supports the Pd candidate).

Curiosity in Imperia, where the outgoing center-right Claudio Scajola, former Minister of the Interior, is challenged – for the center-left – by deputy commissioner Ivan Bracco, who has investigated Scajola for 6 different inquiries since 2010.

In general, only in 4 capitals out of 13 Pd and M5s have found an agreement, even if in many cases the democrats count on repeating the scheme that led to the victory in Udine, that is, the appearance in the ballot. But Massa is also the only capital where the center-right is also divided, since FdI has presented its own candidate. It will above all be the eventual “away victories”, i.e. the cities wrested from the adversary, which will give the political sign of this vote. For Meloni it is a question of verifying the stability of the consensus after the first 6 months of government. For Elly Schlein it will be an opportunity to confirm the polls showing the Pd growing since she was elected.