«Udine’s turnaround demonstrates that the ballot must be abolished»- Corriere.it

In my view, the ballot mechanism no longer makes sense, because there is an obvious risk of distorting the popular will. The most recent and striking example is that of Udine. The Minister for Reforms Roberto Calderoli does not like the final result of the municipal elections in the Friulian capital, where the center-left candidate Alberto De Toni defeated the outgoing Northern League mayor Pietro Fontanini (53 to 47%) overturning the results of fifteen days earlier, when it ended with a 46 to 39% for the mayor. In the light of the final verdict, the minister observes: Not only did the ballot completely reverse the outcome of the first round, which saw Fontanini clearly ahead of all the other candidates, but the new mayor was even elected in the second round with a thousand of absolute votes less than those collected by Fontanini in the first round. How can such a system make sense, where the winner has collected fewer votes than the loser? Not to mention the classic `cow market’ which takes place between shifts, in defiance of the will of the citizens. it is clear that something is wrong, the ballot must be questioned.

In the centre-right, often beaten in ballots in the Municipalities, the idea of ​​eliminating the second round not new. Just over a month ago, Senators Adriano Paroli of Forza Italia, Paolo Tosato of the League and Marco Lisei of Fratelli d’Italia presented an amendment to a decree with a precise objective: the elimination of the ballot in the election of mayors, limiting the competition in the first round for those who exceed the 40% threshold. The attempt did not go through due to the opposition of the Democratic Party and the M5S, but the issue remains on the table. And Calderoli’s words suggest that the minister intends to present a text to make changes to the system for electing mayors in municipalities with more than 15,000 inhabitants.