In the Senate by-elections for the Monza constituency, only 19,23% of those entitled to vote voted.
Monza elections: Galliani versus Cappato
Of these, 51,46% chose the centre-right candidate Adrian Galliani, very close to the late Silvio Berlusconi: suffice it to say that Galliani is the CEO of the Monza football team.
The centre-left opposition had rallied behind the candidacy of Marco Cappato, historic radical leader known for his battles in favor of civil rights and in particular for the right to die with dignity, i.e. for euthanasia and the possibility of refusing aggressive treatment.
Although it was supported by the Democratic Party, the 5 Star Movement, Action, Possible, More Europe, Italian Radicals, the Greens and the Italian Left, Libdem, Socialists and Volt, the proposal Cappato stopped at 39,53%. The rest went to smaller groups, none of which exceeded 2 percent.
It is not strange that Brianza elects a centre-right candidate: we are in Berlusconi's land, and Galliani has the profile that Berlusconi voters like most, that is, a politician who is not such, and who presents himself to the electorate only on the basis of of his loyalty to the big boss and his footballing connotation (after all, in a party called "Forza Italia"...).
The collapse of turnout
What is strange, if anything, is that so few people voted for him: after all, in the 2022 political elections, the turnout in the same electoral district was 75%.
In this context of semi-deserted polls, however, it is even more strange that Cappato did not win. I'll explain.
Cappato's was a strong candidacy, with clearly outlined ideas and a history of battles shared, according to polls, by a clear majority of Italians. I am referring, of course, to the battles for euthanasia: suffice it to say that the 2022 referendums on justice (guiltily proposed by the radicals together with Salvini) failed because the Constitutional Court had decoupled them from those on euthanasia and the legalization of cannabis (meritoriously proposed by the radicals, obviously without Salvini).
All analyzes agree on the fact that, if the Court had admitted those two referendums, people would have gone to vote en masse, also giving rise to referendums on justice.
So, in essence: a generally conservative, elderly and fearful of the new electorate was not willing to follow the right on justice, while it was willing to follow the radicals on euthanasia.
At a time when the national government is firmly in the hands of the right, and given that the by-elections are not perceived as important, one would have expected that, if the voters really wanted to stay at home, they would have done so in order not to vote for Galliani, who brought no new ideas and in any case would have simply supported the current majority.
That is, one might have expected that especially right-wing voters would stay at home, either to protest against the government if they were not satisfied with its actions, or because they were happy with the way things were going and therefore more difficult to mobilize for a "minor" election. ”.
In practice, mainly left-wing voters should have gone to vote, choosing Cappato and his proposal. And instead everyone was at home, right and left.
The abstentionism of the left
At this point, I'm there two possible explanations: either the proportion between right-wing and left-wing voters in Monza and its surroundings is so unbalanced that the left cannot win whoever it proposes, or the left-wing and undecided voters lie when they protest that they would willingly go to vote if there were a credible political proposal.
This time it doesn't seem to me that the fault of the electoral result lies with Zingaretti, Enrico Letta, Elly Schlein or more generally with the leaders of the Democratic Party, their internal feuds, their difficulties in taking the political initiative.
Rather, it seems to me that there is a responsibility of those who, even though they don't want the right, still don't go to vote, even if they propose something that they verbally recognize themselves with.
We have already heard abundantly the j'accuse the managers, who are unable to capture popular votes because they speak in an incomprehensible way and propose things that are only of interest to minorities.
Now it would be nice to understand what the so-called "people of the left" really want, because after these results it doesn't seem so clearly clear.
