Sunday 20 and Monday 21 May, in 118 Italian Municipalities, just over 4 million citizens will be called to the polls to choose, by ballot, one of the two mayoral candidates who obtained the highest number of votes in the first round. The polling stations will be open on Sunday between 8 and 22 and on Monday between 7 and 15, after which the counting will begin.
The first round has already provided some indications on the current political sentiment of the Italians, with the Pdl visibly limping, the League trying to spend the night in some way and the Pd always supporting the wrong candidate, but ultimately shows a good hold, in addition to the boom of the 5-star Movement.
Further information will be provided this second round, in particular in the 19 provincial capitals still at stake, among which, in terms of size and strategic importance, Genoa, L'Aquila, Parma and Palermo stand out.
GENOA– Here the situation seems to be rather delineated. The candidate of left Marco Doria, supported by Sel and emerged victorious from the primaries of the Democratic Party, set up by the leaders of the party with the usual self-harm, obtained, in fact, a very large majority (48,5%) already in the first round and should therefore not fear the desperate appeal of Enrico Musso of the Third Pole, which stood at 14,8%.
It will be important, however, considering Doria's victory as a fact, to evaluate its extent, while waiting to understand if and how the results of the centre-left primaries, not only in Genoa, could change some balance within the coalition. A large abstention could in fact delegitimize his success, as well as too narrow an edge over his opponent.
THE EAGLE– The challenge, in the capital of Abruzzo, should instead be tighter. The mayor Cialente of the Pd, which had to deal with the earthquake and the first reconstructions, with all that this may entail politically, has closed the first round with 40% of the preferences and will have to contend with Giorgio De Matteis, supported by the UDC, who obtained 29,1% of the votes, but which will in all probability be able to count on the 8,2% that in the first round went to the PDL candidate Properzi.
PALERMO- That of the Democratic Party, in the Sicilian capital, has all the epitome of the perfect suicide. The primaries established that between the candidate chosen by the party leaders, Rita Borsellino, and the one wanted by her Sicilian soul, Fabrizio Ferrandelli, were the latter to win, with a lot of poison tail regarding alleged fraud.
At that point Leoluca Orlando, who had supported Borsellino, decided, to use an expression with vaguely mournful references, to take the field, with Italia dei valori, obtaining 47% in the first round. The almost thirty percentage points that distance him from Ferrandelli are an enormous margin of safety, to which is added the support of a large part of the PDL which, for its part, given the collapse of its own credibility brought about by the Cammarata management, has shown, by nominating Massimo Costa, of not even wanting to try.
After De Magistris in Naples, the IDV is therefore starting to have its own mayor in another of the large cities of Southern Italy.
PARMA– Here too the centre-right, overwhelmed by the scandals and arrests of the Vignali administration, had very few chances, but the real news is another, the fact, that is, that to oppose the candidate of the centre-left Bernazzoli, who closed the first round with 39,5% of the preferences, and grillino Federico Pizzarotti, who totaled 19,5% of the votesie that he has avoided, following in practice the boss's diktat, any face-to-face on the programs with his rival.
According to some polls, Pizzarotti, who has also received the support of the PDL, could even win, in the second round, giving Beppe Grillo's movement the first mayor in a provincial capital.
