The right’s assault on Italy’s red heart will have to wait. The center-left won this Monday in its historic bastion of Emilia Romagna and has recovered the region of Umbria, which it lost five years ago. In total, some four million voters were called to the polls in regional elections whose results were important both for the majority that supports the Government of Giorgia Meloni, and for the opposition.
The news in Emilia Romagna would have been a victory for the right, as happened five years ago in Umbria where in 2019 the League candidate swept, achieving a victory that greatly hurt the progressive camp that had governed the region for 70 years. But the victory of the center-left candidate Michele De Pascale had been taken for granted for days in Emilia Romagna, one of the richest regions in Europe and the third Italian region by GDP per capita.
It was more difficult for Tesei who wanted to repeat the feat of 2019, revalidating his mandate with the support of the entire center-right, now that Matteo Salvini’s League has gone from being the majority shareholder it was five years ago to a minority and rebellious partner of the coalition. On the opposite front, the secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, did her best to accompany her candidate in an electoral campaign in which she visited several towns, theaters, companies… The center-left, after the recent defeat in the region of Liguria, where he lost by a handful of votes, appeared this time united in a coalition that ranged from the Green-Left Alliance to the party of former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Italia Viva, and the Movement 5 Stars, the so-called “wide field” that is far from being established at the national level.
“We have come to accompany a very good candidate, Stefania Proietti, who has already demonstrated as mayor of Assisi that she knows how to be close to the needs of the people and give concrete answers,” said Schlein in the last days of the campaign. This closeness is what the Democratic Party is pursuing to once again have a presence in the territories, after the defeat in the general elections of September 2022 that handed the country over to the center-right led by Meloni’s ultra party.
In Emilia Romagna, with the polls showing the center-left ahead by 10 points, Meloni was not seen much in the electoral campaign. Winning in the red heart of Italy would have meant obtaining a definitive consecration and demonstrating through deeds that what has become an obsession of the right was fulfilled: ending the cultural hegemony of the left also in its traditional bastions. For the company, they chose a candidate, Elena Ugolini, who had been Secretary of State for Education in the technocratic Government of Mario Monti, between 2011 and 2013, and who ran as the leader of a “civic candidacy.”
But De Pascale, 39 years old, candidate of the Democratic Party, managed to unite the entire center-left behind his name. Mayor of the city of Ravenna in his second term, he has been the bet to maintain control of a territory that cannot be renounced for the progressive camp.
Although he could trust in an almost assured victory, de Pascale toured cities and towns in recent weeks, aware that the enemy to defeat was abstention, in a region that, since May 2023, has suffered four floods, with thousands of homes destroyed. and many delays in the disbursement of aid. And, in fact, participation has been much lower than five years ago: only 46.5% of voters have voted against 67.6 in 2019. The figure has been higher in Umbria, where participation did increase. It has exceeded 50%—52.3%—but it has been much lower than in 2019, when it was 64.4%.
“There are three very strong elements of this earth [en esta victoria]: the values, we have been able to interpret them; pride, what this land feels for what it has been able to build; and trust, which has inspired our electoral campaign, which has been honest and never arrogant,” said De Stefano, after the victory. “It is a victory that is also the victory of the cohesion of a coalition. And the cohesion of our party. About what can be done when we are united,” said the secretary of the PD, Schlein. His party has achieved more than 40 percent of the votes in Emilia Romagna.
The center-left can claim victories in two important territories and open a gap in the certainties of a Government that, at the national level, despite judicial setbacks, continues to apply its agenda with absolute majority blows. Now, with the results already on the table, everyone has material to take stock and prepare for the next election in 2025, when voting will take place in six other regions, including Tuscany, another historic “red bastion” that Meloni intends to conquer.
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