Rome, 26 June 2022 – The eyes of the main parties and their leaders are focused above all on Verona, Parma and Catanzarobut in total there are thirteen (compared to 26 in the first round) i provincial capitals who return to the polls today, Sunday 26 Junefor the ballot of the Municipal. The four regional capitals that went to vote to choose the mayor gave their results already in the first round in three out of four cases and, in all three cases, the center-right won. It is, respectively, of Marco Bucci (Genova), Pierluigi Biondi (L’Auila) e Roberto Lagalla (Palermo). Missing the appeal only Catanzaro. But Alessandria, Cuneo, Monza, Como and Gorizia in the North are also voted, and then Piacenza, Lucca, Viterbo and Frosinone, to close with Barletta in the South. In fact, in the first round of last 12 June, none of the candidates reached the majority of 50% + 1 request for municipalities with more than 15 thousand inhabitants. In these cities there will then be a ballot between the two most voted names from the first round.
Municipal election ballot, how to vote and when the results will be known
The challenge for the main parties and coalitions
A challenge within the challenge, especially for the Pd and the center left, led by Enrico Letta, who started at a disadvantage (he administered only six cities out of the 26 to vote in this electoral round) but who made no secret of aiming high: “We have the possibility to elect thirteen mayors, of which six are women”, he said and repeated. Instead Lega, Forza Italia and Fratelli d’Italia, the more minor allies will have to be able to confirm the outgoing mayors (they ruled over 20 capitals) and possibly grab new ones. Non-existent, however, the possible contributions to the ‘large field’ of the Democratic Party by the 5Stelle, who took, in the first round, minimum percentages and do not go to the ballot in any provincial capital. Instead, it will be necessary to verify the actual consistency of the centrist pole, whose candidates have obtained, in the first round, good performances and which, depending on who they have chosen to support in view of the second round, can often be decisive, for example to Lucca, where Action will support the center-left, or in Frosinone, with the center-right. Obviously, the abstentions will also be decisive.
Two million Italians vote in 65 municipalities
In absolute terms, they are beyond 2 million Italians that Sunday will be called to the polls for the ballot round of the administrative which will be held, in total, in as many as 65 municipalities (only two with less than 15 thousand inhabitants): 59 in the regions with ordinary statute and 6 in those with special statute.
The municipalities voting in the Regions with ordinary statute with the highest number of voters are Verona (202,638), Parma (146,939), Monza (98,073), Barletta (80,159), Lucca (79,634), Alessandria (73,657), Catanzaro (73,294) and Como (72,132). In the Regions with a special statute, Gorizia is the municipality in the ballot with the highest number of voters (30,295) and Villafranca Sicula, in the province of Agrigento, has the lowest number (1,407).
Municipalities where the center-left has the advantage
Wanting to examine the capitals depending on which coalition has the advantage, we begin to see those in which the center-left starts in front. To Alexandria the challenge is between the outgoing mayor Gianfranco Cuttica di Revigliasco, center-right, and between the center-left candidate Giorgio Abonante, who in the first round won respectively 40.24% and 42.04% of the votes. In Piedmont it will be again election day for Wedge. Here, Patrizia Manassero – the name on which the center-left is aiming – will reach the ballot with a clear advantage over the challenger from the opposite area, Franco Civallero (46.95% against 19.84% of the votes in the first round). Also to As, according to the data of the first round, the center-left with Barbara Minghetti shows up for the ballot in front of Alessandro Rapinese. TO Verona it will be head to head between the center-left candidate Damiano Tommasi (39.79%) and the outgoing mayor Federico Sboarina (32.69%). With 44.18% of votes in the first round, he will run for the ballot in Parma the center-left candidate Michele Guerra, who will contend with the center-right one Pietro Vignali (21.25%). TO Piacenza the duel will be between the former center-left councilor Katia Tarasconi (39.93%) and the center-right opponent Patrizia Barbieri (37.72%). The citizens of Lucca will instead have to choose between Francesco Raspini (center-left; 42.60%) and Mario Pardini (center-right; 34.30%).
The municipalities where the center-right has the advantage
As for the municipalities in which, instead, the center-right has an advantage, they are the following. Monza he will have to choose who to elect between the outgoing mayor Dario Allevi (47.12% in the first round) and the center-left opponent Paolo Pilotto (40.08%). TO Gorizia the match is played between Rodolfo Ziberna (center-right; 41.88% in the first round) and Laura Fasiolo (center-left; 30.67%). Frosinone on the other hand, either the center-right candidate Riccardo Mastrangeli (49.26%) or the one from the opposite area Domenico Marzi (39.13%) will be elected. The center-right also has an advantage in Catanzaro, where on Sunday 12 June the former dem Valerio Donato – civic list but supported by the center-right – with 44.01% of the votes closed above Nicola Fiorita, supported by the center-left opponents (31.71%). For Barletta the choice will be between Cosimo Damiano Cannito (center-right; 42.27%) and Santa Scommegna (center-left; 36.63%).
Only in Viterbo a civic list has the advantage
The only provincial capital where a candidate on a civic list got more votes in the first round is Viterbo. Here the most voted name was that of Chiara Frontini (32.82%), who will go to the second round with Alessandra Troncarelli, from the center left (28.30%).
The main challenges: Verona, Parma, Catanzaro
However, the three games with the highest level of the clash between parties and coalitions are only three: Verona, Parma and Catanzaro. In Verona, the “campo largo” coalition formed by the Democratic Party and the 5-star Movement took first place, with the mayoral candidate Damiano Tommasi in the lead with 39.8% of preferences. The first outgoing citizen follows, 32.7% Federico Sboarina, supported by Lega and Fratelli d’Italia. An open head to head as in the city of Verona has not been seen for years: the third place, Flavio Tosi (Forza Italia) with a strong 23.9%, has in fact made it known that he will support the center-right, but Sboarina has refused the apparent, shuffling the cards and increasing the hopes of victory for the former center-left player. That was enough to cause irritation to mount among the leaders, with Matteo Salvini speaking of a “huge mistake” and a part of Forza Italia on a war footing due to the lack of agreement.
The center-right, on the other hand, is the winner in Catanzaro, with the candidate supported by the FdI and the Lega Valerio Donato, in the lead with 44%. Professor of private law and with a background in the center-left and the Democratic Party, thanks to many civic lists. To chase it is Nicola Fiorita of the center-left, still more than ten points below 31.7, another professor of canon law. The center-right has presented itself divided, while the center-left is united in the typical ‘wide field’. The tip of the balance could be the voters of the civic Antonello Talerico, president of the Council of the Order, who had 13.5% in the first round. The candidate for mayor of the Brothers of Italy, the parliamentarian Wanda Ferro (9.2% of the votes), who ran independently from the center-right, in view of the ballots, however, sides with Donato.
Finally, in Parma, he hopes Michele Guerraformer councilor in the council of the former pentastellato mayor Federico Pizzarotti (who later left the Movement). Guerra, supported by the Democratic Party, restarts from 44% of the first round: the opponent of Lega and Forza Italia stopped at the half (about 21st) Pietro Vignaliwhich, however, will almost certainly count on about 7% of the consensus collected by the candidate of the Brothers of Italy Priam Bocchi. Much will depend on the voters of the third pole, who in Parma (with the civic Dario Costi) had reached 13.5%.