Three out of five mayors in the largest cities directly elected in the first round. According to the first projections of the 2021 municipal elections, this is what happened in Milan with Beppe Sala, in Bologna (even more clearly) with Matteo Lepore and in Naples with Gaetano Manfredi. In all three cases these are clear affirmations of the centre-left, which already ruled in Milan and Bologna, and in return reconquered the capital of Campania after the De Magistris phase. In Bologna and Naples, therefore, the Pd-5 Star alliance worked, while Sala won practically alone, confirming the success of five years ago when, however, he needed a runoff. The former Expo coach is firmly above 50%, Lepore does even better at around 60%, while Manfredi has even doubled the votes of his centre-right opponent Catello Maresca.
Attention therefore remains on Rome and Turin, where we will certainly go to the second round, with the clash between the candidates of the centre-right and the centre-left: Roberto Gualtieri and Enrico Michetti they start more or less equally in the capital (roughly between 26 and 30%), while in Turin the candidate of the Democratic Party Lo Russo seems to have a slight advantage over his rival Damilano. In both cases, the 5 Star Movement was a flop, which expressed the outgoing mayors: in Rome, Virginia Raggi risks being overtaken even by the independent candidate Carlo Calenda (both between 15 and 19% theoretical), who gets a good result. The center-right therefore risks "zero", which in the ballots - should the Pd-5 Star axis be confirmed - is a slightly disadvantaged side, even if it retains the government of Calabria: Occhiuto, De Magistris's flop, wins.
The negative figure of participation in the vote should be noted: abstention is on the rise, with the risk that these administrations could represent a new negative record for participation in the vote starting from the big cities. In Milan, for example, the turnout stopped at 47%, the officially lowest figure ever.
