The Democratic Party and the center-left, together with Cinque Stelle and Verdi, are trying to strengthen the wide field that Enrico Letta, the DEM secretary, has spoken about several times in recent months. The center-right (with the League that debuts with the name “First Italy”) allies itself with various civic expressions, opens up to exponents who come from the left (the mayoral candidate was, in recent years, Pd secretary and in 2020 he nominated himself to the regional Puglia in the center-left with Michele Emiliano) and tries to build what he considers a laboratory to be exported elsewhere.
This is the meaning of the municipal elections of Taranto, one of the great cities of the South, together with Palermo, Messina and Catanzaro, called to vote on 12 June. Four mayoral candidates, center-left and center-right grouped into two large containers, respectively “Ecosistema Taranto” and “Grande Alleanza per Taranto”, 27 lists, overall, at the starting line. The mayoral candidates are Rinaldo Melucci, of the Democratic Party, outgoing mayor for the center-left; Walter Musillo, former secretary of the Democratic Party years ago and now in the civic area for the coalition that unites the center-right (FI, FdI and Lega) and civics of various backgrounds; Massimo Battista, outgoing municipal councilor, and Luigi Abbate, at the head of other camps. Compared to the municipalities of June 2017, there is a strong reduction in both lists and candidates for mayor.
The center-left for Melucci was the first to present all the lists, 11. They are: Provincial Democratic Party, Movimento 5 Stelle, Più CentroSinistra Taranto Emiliano, Italian Socialist Party and Italian Republican Party, Green Europe-Verdi Taranto, CON Taranto, Taranto Crea, Taranto 2030, Taranto Popular, Taranto Mediterranean and Autonomous and VAT-Eugenio Filograna. The latter had run for mayor for his movement but in recent days he withdrew his candidacy converging with a list on Melucci. After Naples with the mayor Gaetano Manfredi, Taranto is the second city in the South where Pd and M5S are allies already in the first place.
The center-right and civics for Musillo present themselves with 10 lists: Popular Pact, AT6, Pact for Taranto, Sports Movement, Together, Taranto Really, Us with Italy, Italy First, Brothers of Italy and Forza Italia. Three lists also for Battista: A city to change, Taranto normal city and suburbs in the center. Finally, three for Abbate. There are 32 municipal councilors to be elected. Some lists, however, presented fewer candidates.
In Taranto, the Council has lapsed since mid-November because 17 out of 32 directors submitted early resignations. Currently in the Town Hall there is a commissioner, the prefect Vincenzo Cardellicchio. Among the 17 resigning, in addition to the opposition councilors, several exponents of the center-left majority who supported Melucci, also present in the council, and who then joined the center-right as a whole.