The right’s assault on Italy’s red heart will have to wait. The center-left won this Monday in its historic bastion of Emilia-Romagna and recovered the region of Umbria, which it had lost five years ago. In total, some four million voters were called to the polls during regional elections whose results were important both for the majority which supports the government of Giorgia Meloni and for the opposition.
The news in Emilia-Romagna would have been a victory for the right, as happened five years ago in Umbria where in 2019 the League candidate achieved a victory that seriously hurt the progressive camp that governed the region for 70 years. But the victory of center-left candidate Michele De Pascale had been taken for granted for days in Emilia-Romagna, one of the richest regions in Europe and Italy’s third region in terms of GDP per capita.
It was more difficult for Tesei who wanted to repeat the feat of 2019, by revalidating his mandate with the support of the entire center-right, now that Matteo Salvini’s League has gone from majority shareholder five years ago to a minority shareholder and rebel. coalition partner. On the opposite front, the secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, did her best to accompany her candidate in an electoral campaign during which she visited several cities, theaters, companies… The center-left, after the recent defeat in the Liguria region elections, where he lost by a handful of votes, this time appeared united in a coalition that ranged from the Green Left Alliance to the party of former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Italia Viva and the 5 Star Movement, which has therefore been called “camp width” which is far from being forged at the national level.
“We have come to support a very good candidate, Stefania Proietti, who has already demonstrated as mayor of Assisi that she knows how to be close to the needs of the people and give concrete answers,” said Schlein in the last days of the campaign. . This proximity is what the Democratic Party is looking for to be present again in the territories, after the defeat in the general elections of September 2022 which delivered the country to the center-right led by Meloni’s ultra party.
In Emilia-Romagna, where polls put the center-left ahead by 10 points, Meloni was not seen much in the electoral campaign. Winning in the red heart of Italy would have meant obtaining definitive consecration and demonstrating through actions that what has become an obsession of the right was achieved: putting an end to the cultural hegemony of the left also in its traditional bastions. For the company, they chose a candidate, Elena Ugolini, who was Secretary of State for Education in the technocratic government of Mario Monti, between 2011 and 2013, and who presented herself as leader of a ” civic candidacy”.
But De Pascale, 39, candidate of the Democratic Party, managed to unite the entire center left behind his name. Mayor of the city of Ravenna in his second term, he made the bet to maintain control of a territory which the progressive camp cannot relinquish.
Even if he could count on an almost assured victory, de Pascale traveled through towns and villages in recent weeks, aware that the enemy to defeat was abstention, in a region which, since May 2023, has suffered four floods , with thousands of homes destroyed and. numerous delays in the disbursement of aid. And, in fact, turnout was much lower than five years ago: only 46.5% of voters voted compared to 67.6% in 2019. This figure is higher in Umbria, where turnout was actually increased by 50% – 52.3% – but. it is much lower than that of 2019, when it was 64.4%.
“There are three very strong elements on this earth [en esta victoria]: the values, we knew how to interpret them; pride, what this land feels for what it has been able to build; and confidence, which inspired our electoral campaign, which was honest and never arrogant,” De Stefano said after the victory. “It is a victory which is also the victory of the cohesion of a coalition. And the cohesion of our party. On what can be done when we are united,” said PD Secretary Schlein. His party won more than 40 percent of the vote in Emilia-Romagna.
The center-left can claim victories in two important territories and open a breach in the certainties of a government which, at the national level, despite legal setbacks, continues to implement its agenda with an absolute majority. Now, with the results already on the table, everyone has material to take stock and prepare for the next elections in 2025, where voting will take place in six other regions, including Tuscany, another historic “red bastion” that Meloni intends to conquer.
