08.21 am – The turnaround of Todde, 5 Star manager: the years abroad, Murgia’s books, the top of the class curriculum
Alessandra Todde’s success is double: political and personal, “because” – explains Roberto Gressi – “the centre-right gets more votes than its candidate and she instead wins more consensus than her broad camp, despite the handicap of having competition in home, that Renato Soru who seemed destined to decree their defeat even before starting the match”.
Todde, continues Gressi, is a «first-time Conti supporter, more convinced than him that broad alliances are needed to win, starting with the Democratic Party, as long as Elly Schlein and above all the current leaders are convinced that none of the souls has the right to prevail over the others». . «Another way to say it», continues the analysis, «is that, if an agreement were to be reached for the political elections, it is not a given that the Dems will have to be at the helm, even if they get more votes. Because the Five Star Movement has winning candidates, and she is there to prove it.” Full analysis here.
08.06 am – Conte: «You can’t win with arrogance, with the Democratic Party it’s a “right field”»
«Sardinia has chosen our Alessandra Todde. She is the first Regional President of the M5S, the first woman to lead Sardinia. It’s an unforgettable day. The Sardinian citizens closed the door to Meloni and his associates and opened it to the alternative. The air has changed”: the leader of the 5 Star Movement, Giuseppe Conte, wrote it on Instagram.
«You don’t always win with the arrogance of those who – like Meloni – impose candidates on the territory and limit themselves to going on stage for their monologues full of false promises, without even engaging with the citizens, without even stopping to listen to their problems”, comments Conte.
«We won by listening to the cry of pain of the territories, offering solutions against a healthcare system that was devastated by the center-right. We won with Alessandra’s strength and competence, with serious and credible proposals, with a “right field” with the other political forces. There is no need for crowds, very large and minefields”, adds the leader of the M5S.
07.53 am – The hug between Conte, Schlein and Todde after the victory
07.48 am – Truzzu lost the elections in Sardinia by less than 3 thousand votes
The data is not yet definitive – for now, the last sections are missing – but all the data suggests that there is a difference of a few thousand votes separating Paolo Truzzu (centre-right candidate) and Alessandra Todde (winner of the elections).
The disjointed vote seems to have weighed heavily, as Renato Benedetto explains: «Truzzu collected around 327 thousand votes (when the counting was at 1,822 sections out of 1,844); the centre-right lists that support him, together, 333 thousand. There are four points of difference between his 45% and the coalition’s 49%. Over five thousand voters on the ballot chose a centre-right list, but drew the X on the name of another presidential candidate.”
07.39 am – After 24 hours, the counting is still not closed
24 were not enough to conclude the counting of ballots for the regional elections in Sardinia. According to data published on the Sardinian regional administration website, at 7am on Tuesday 1822 out of 1844 sections had been scrutinized. In the lead is Alessandra Todde, supported among others by the Pd and M5S, with 330,619 votes (45.3% ), followed by the centre-right candidate Paolo Truzzu with 327,695 votes (45%). Renato Soru (63,021, 8.7%) and Lucia Chessa (7,147, 1%) are further behind. The counting continued with remarkable slowness during the night.
07.28 am – Who is Alessandra Todde
Alessandra Todde is the first female president of Sardinia. She was born in Nuoro on 6 February 1969, she graduated in Information Sciences and Computer Science. You worked for years abroad (11 years in the United States) where you worked on energy and digital evolution.
In 2019, when she ran for the European elections for the M5S, she declared: «We will transform Sardinia into European California using European funds».
Subsequently, she was undersecretary in the Conte II government (from September 2019 to 13 February 2021), deputy minister of Economic Development from March 2021 to October 2022 in the Draghi government, deputy for the M5S and vice-president of the 5 Star Movement from October 2021 until to November 2023, when she resigned to run for the presidency of the Sardinia Region.
The portrait, signed by Franco Stefanoni, here.
07.02 am – «If Truzzu loses the pieces belong to Meloni»: Verderami’s analysis
What effects will the results of the regional elections in Sardinia have on the government coalition and on the parties’ strategy in view of the European elections? According to Francesco Verderami, «if Truzzu loses the pieces belong to Meloni. Because the gubernatorial candidate is his. Because it is his party that managed the negotiations in the coalition, imposing the name of the mayor of Cagliari after a tug of war that left deep scars in the alliance.” Not only.
«The problem», he continues, «is not losing one’s unbeaten streak, which also counts in politics. The theme is that if the centre-right is defeated by the left-wing bloc Pd-M5S-Avs led by the grillini, despite the disturbing action of the Third Pole, it means that the path to the European elections risks being very treacherous for the majority, given that there will be a mini-administrative session before June 9th.” Verderami’s analysis can be read, in full, here.
06.19am – A day of overtaking, right down to the end
(Cesare Zapperi, from Cagliari) Cycling, a sport of effort and endurance, teaches this: the one who breaks away first doesn’t always win, it often happens that those behind come back and beat you when the finish line looms in the background.
A bit of what happened yesterday to Paolo Truzzu, who started in the lead and then stuck on the pedals at the end, and to Alessandra Todde, who took the lead late in the evening (the verdict will come today) after having chased for a long time.
At one in the morning the M5S deputy appears to the electoral committee amid applause and offers a few words: “I’m happy and proud, a page of history is being written.” The victory has not yet been announced, but we are almost there. And then she shows up again with Elly Schlein and Giuseppe Conte at her side. «The wind is changing for the government» says the PD secretary. «With a serious project the results are surprising. He is our first president »remarks the M5S leader.
The counting day of the Sardinian regional elections was similar in many ways to a stage of the Giro d’Italia. An interminable stage of those, thanks to the organization’s difficulties in transmitting and processing data, a sore and unresolved point for the Region. Precisely these problems have made the challenge between the candidate of the so-called “wide field” (Pd-M5S) and the challenger from the center-right even more competitive than it already was. Because while the official data slowly flowed onto the regional platform, and for hours gave the mayor of Cagliari the advantage, from the offices of the parties and electoral committees decidedly heavy numbers arrived for Truzzu, especially at home. Twenty points less in Cagliari, his city. Same in Sassari. A confirmation for those who had long warned the centre-right against relying on a mayor whose approval ratings showed low approval ratings.
But it was Giorgia Meloni herself, engaging in a no-holds-barred tug-of-war with Matteo Salvini, who imposed that youth battle companion, a loyalist from the start. A question of power relations to be rebalanced within the centre-right, the motivation given to cripple the outgoing president Christian Solinas. The response from Sardinian voters was not consistent. Except in Oristano and Olbia, Truzzu left many consensuses on the ground with inevitable repercussions even on those who politically invested him with a role for which he was perhaps not the best equipped.
On the other hand, the Northern League ally can perhaps console itself because it was right, even if at the polls the votes for the Northern League were very few to claim victory (while FdI battled for a long time with the Pd for primacy among the parties).
06:04 am – The data, so far
(Gianluca Mercuri) Alessandra Todde of the 5 Stars, supported by the “wide field” with the Pd and the Left-Greens, won with 45.4% of the votes against the 45% of Paolo Truzzu, FdI candidate supported by the centre-right.
The count was very slow, with continuous twists and turns, from a large initial advantage for Todde to the overtaking by Truzzu up to the final counter-overtaking, just a hair’s breadth.
In the end, with 1,821 sections counted out of 1,844, the votes for Todde are now 330,433, those for Truzzu 327,540. The difference therefore lies in the classic handful of votes, 2,893. 0.4%.
Todde, 55 years old, from Nuoro, will go down in history as the first five-star governor, but already escapes many clichés because, writes Roberto Gressi, she has «a top-of-the-class curriculum, in a party that is largely portrayed as an army of people who ran away from home.” In short, her competence is not in question.
Entrepreneur and manager, she has lived abroad for years – USA, Spain, England, France, Holland – and speaks languages. She was founder and CEO of Energeya, then CEO of Olidata, undersecretary for Economic Development in the Conte 2 government and deputy minister with Draghi, she also had the respect of the demanding Calenda, who however did not support her. Confirming her appeal: she got more votes than her coalition. Last but not least: during the election campaign you insisted on anti-fascism.