It is time to ballots. Sunday 23rd and Monday 24th June over 100 Italian municipalities will return to vote for the second round of municipal elections. Three key challenges are keeping everyone in suspense: Bari, Florence and Perugia where the centre-left and centre-right are playing for victory at the last vote.
The key challenges: Florence, Bari and Perugia
If it were a football match, the centre-left would have won the first round 10 to 5. But there are still three large cities to be assigned and in two of these the centre-left is ahead.
Let's start with Florence. For the centre-left there is the councilor for education Sara Funaro, right arm of the outgoing mayor Dario Nardella, supported by the Pd, the Italian Left + Europe, Action, Green Europe, the Labor Movement, Volt and the Center Movement. In the first round Funaro obtained 43,2% of the votes compared to 32,9% for the former director of the Uffizi Eike Dieter Schmidt, supported by the entire united center-right. In the run-off, therefore, the Democratic candidate is the favorite not only because of the advantage of over ten points that separates her from Schmitt, but also because the wide field seems to have managed to find the square. The lawyer Lorenzo Masi, who in the first round was the mayoral candidate of the M5s (3,35%), said that for his party "there are no doubts: the right field can only be built with the Democrats and in the run-off we will convincingly support the candidacy of Sara Funaro”. The real game, however, is played on the fate of the votes of Stephanie Saccardi – IV candidate who got 7,29% and who has already said she will vote for Sara Funaro unlike the party which leaves hers free – and the votes obtained by Cecilia Del Re (6,21%), Dem councilor for urban planning of Nardella, candidate with her list of defectors from the “Firenze Democratica” PD. Uncertainty about who to vote for is expressed by the Radical Left with Dmitrij Palagi, who took 5,45%. Eike Schmidt, on the other hand, in addition to the alliance announced with RiBella Firenze (0,57% in the first round) hopes to also convince the 100.000 Florentines who did not go to vote.
The second key challenge will be a Bari where the Democratic Party candidate heir to the outgoing mayor Antonio Decaro, Vito Leccese (48,2% of the votes two weeks ago), he will face in the run-off Fabio Romito of the centre-right (29,1%). Also in this case, the center-left seems to have managed to overcome the disagreements that began with the judicial storm that hit Puglia in recent months. There won't be an official connection but Leccese can now count on the support of Michele Laforgia, the challenger who was supported by Grillini and the left and who won 20% in the first round. The two have signed a protocol on legality and foresee future collaboration. In the duel with Romito therefore Leccese was the favourite.
The most uncertain battle will therefore be that of Perugia where Vittoria Ferdinandi (centre-left with 49,01%) and Margherita Scoccia (centre-right with 48,29%) are separated by 598 votes, with the third strength being the civic Perugia Merita (which obtained 1,4% of the votes ) who decided not to take sides.
The other cities on the ballot
Let's recap. In the first round the centre-left managed to prevail in Bergamo, Pavia, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Prato, Livorno, Cesena, Pesaro, Sassari and Cagliari, while the centre-right won in Biella, Ferrara, Forlì, Ascoli, Pescara and Avellino.
If the centre-left is ahead in Bari and Florence, the centre-right is ahead in Potenza, Campobasso, Lecce, Caltanissetta and Vercelli, all called to the run-off.
Specifically, a Campobasso the challenge is between the centre-right mayoral candidate Aldo De Benedittis (48,3%), initially seen as the winner in the first round, but then forced into a run-off due to a counting error on the split vote, and that of the centre-left Marialuisa Forte (31,89, XNUMX%).
A Potenza, competing for the mayor's seat will be Francesco Fanelli (Lega), who obtained 40,6% of the votes in the first round, and Vincenzo Telesca (centre-left), with 32,4%. In view of the runoff, the civic citizen Pino Ruta (who came third in the first round with almost 20 percent of the votes) will support the progressives.
Second round also a Lecce where after a recount, it will go to the second round between Adriana Poli Bortone, candidate of the centre-right, stuck at 49,95%, and the outgoing mayor Carlo Salvemini, re-candidate for the centre-left, who obtained 46,73%.
A CaltanissettaInstead, Walter Calogero Tesauro (centre-right at 34,42%) and Annalisa Maria Petitto (30,82%) will go to the ballot and Vercelli the candidates Roberto Scheda (centre-right 37,8%) and Gabriele Bagnasco (centre-left 25,6%) have decided to run alone. The same will happen to Verbania between Giandomenico Albertella and Riccardo Brezza.
And again: a Cremona the centre-right is ahead by 400 votes with Alessandro Portesani over Andrea Virgilio of the centre-left, while in Urbino the challenge will be between Maurizio Gambini (47,96%) and Federico Scaramucci (44,73%). Also in Vibo Valentia the center-right is ahead, while in Avellino the candidate of Pd and M5S, Antonio Gengaro in the first round obtained a 5 point advantage over the civic Laura Nargi who in the second round will also be supported by the Forzisti who finished third with 21%. Finally there is Rovigo, where the candidate of the M5S will challenge that of the center-right (+Action). The latter managed to come close to victory in the first round with 49% of the votes.
