A head-to-head that kept in suspense until the last sections. Then, for a handful of votes (less than two thousand), and thanks to the Illy law which provides for the majority bonus without a ballot, the new governor of Friuli Venezia Giulia is Debora Serracchiani, MEP of the Democratic Party. He beat Renzo Tondo, outgoing president of the center-right coalition, who had somehow distanced himself from the PDL by presenting himself with his own independent list and always representing a conservative yet secular line (his clear stance in favor of Beppino Englaro during the story of Eluana).
It was not enough to convince the voters, who assigned the Pdl less than 13% compared to the previous elections of 2008, from the 33rd to the 20th, while the Pd, the leading party in the region, fell much less, by 3,1%, from 29,9 to 26,8. Tondo was also penalized by former Trieste councilor of the PDL Franco Bandelli, who presented himself with an autonomous list "Another region", which deprived the centre-right coalition of 2,4% of the votes. He holds the League, at 8,25%.
Apart from Serracchiani's victory, however, detachment from politics and abstention remain the other significant datum of these elections: 554.936 out of 1.099.334 voters went to the polls, only 50,5% compared to 72,3% for politicians of February in a region that has always been loyal to electoral obligations. And probably traumatized by the recent judicial scandals over electoral reimbursements involving a third of outgoing councilors. The M5S also paid the price, whose candidate Saverio Galluccio, supported by Grillo with rallies in the square and suggestive landings from the sea, does not go beyond 19,2%, while the Five Stars do not exceed a meager 13,8%. of votes, a real halving compared to the exploits of policies.
La Serracchiani, 42, labor lawyer, originally from Rome but resident in Udine for many years, thus becomes the symbol of a Democratic Party that succeeds despite the leaden crisis in which its leaders are immersed and the protests from the grassroots last Roman moves. And she claims it herself: “We won – she rejoices at the end of a heart-pounding day – and if there hadn't been Rome it would have been a highway”. According to the Democratic Party, the victory of the centre-left standard bearer, supported by Sel, IDV and some civic lists, "is the demonstration that the Democratic Party and its exponents have the strength, credibility and ability to win and know how to intercept consensus by force topics and ideas” also “in this delicate moment”.
In reality, the strategy of the new governor, whom Bersani and D'Alema hasten to compliment, has been very skilful in pushing to intercept the new that the leaders of the Democratic Party have not demonstrated or wanted to be able to grasp. After a first part of the electoral campaign on the tip of the foil, conducted mutually with grace and respect ("Let's go back to being special", her slogan), she sharpened her weapons. She called Matteo Renzi to support her (“After the February elections, I didn't get any help from Rome”, she says), she brought back the vis polemic when, in 2009, her speech in the name of renewal at the assembly of the Pd earned her notoriety on the web and her candidacy for the European Parliament. A race in which she got more votes than Silvio Berlusconi.
Among the former, it produced fiery declarations against Marini's candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic, it stigmatized the internal snipers who prevented Prodi's election, it demanded more respect for those who work in the area and have real contacts with the grassroots . A territory “left only in the aftermath of the policies. And that we expect to be respected more. I didn't accept being buried under the rubble of Rome – she commented -. In these four days I feared the worst, that the slap would come this far. Our people who didn't want to go and vote were very many. We bombarded her with text messages and phone calls to convince her that Friuli Venezia Giulia is something else”. A direct approach that has proved successful.
