Roberto Gualtieri will be the new mayor of the capital in an appointment with the polls that provides stability to the Government of Mario Draghi
Rome and Turin return to the hands of the left. After trusting five years ago in the populism of the 5 Star Movement (M5E), the voters of these two Italian cities, the most important that remained to be decided in the second round of the municipal elections held yesterday and today, have chosen the candidates of the progressive Democratic Party (PD). According to the exit polls published by the local media after the closure of the polling stations, Roberto Gualtieri will be the new mayor of Rome, while Stefano Lo Russo will be in the capital of the Piedmont region (north of the country). Both achieve a wide advantage over the candidates of the center right, for whom this appointment with the polls has meant a slowdown in their government aspirations.
In addition to the disaster in Rome and Turin, the conservatives were also defeated in the first round in Milan, Bologna and Naples, where the center-left candidates exceeded the minimum 50% of the votes and thus saved this second round. It is not yet clear what will happen in Trieste, the only regional capital in which the center-right still has a chance to win mayor. The exit polls reflect a tie between the candidates of both blocs, so it will be necessary to advance the scrutiny to verify if the debacle for the conservatives is total.
Beyond what finally happens in Trieste, these municipal elections, in which 12 million inhabitants were called to participate to renew the municipalities of 1,162 localities, yield several conclusions at the national level. The first is the strength of the PD at the territorial level. Despite years of internal struggles, the arrival of a solvent leader like Enrico Letta to this formation seems to have restored the illusion to the voters. The second reading of the elections is the confirmation that the M5E is walking inexorably towards political irrelevance: it has only saved the furniture in the town halls where it ran in coalition with the PD.
The third conclusion of the municipalities is that, although they lead the polls in voting intention at the national level, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini’s League are going to have it much more difficult than they thought to get hold of the reins of the country. A success in this appointment with the polls would have given Meloni artillery to fire from the opposition against the Government of Mario Draghi and thus try to force the calling of early general elections. Although his party is part of the heterogeneous coalition that supports the Executive, Salvini also aspired to the same objective as Meloni. His ambition, however, will have to wait for Draghi to gain peace of mind to move forward with his reformist agenda.
The prime minister will now have an ally in the mayor of Rome. Former MEP and Minister of Economy in the previous Executive, Gualtieri faces one of the most difficult positions for any politician in the country: the mayor of Rome. The Italian capital has been in decline for decades and with deep problems in areas such as garbage management, public transport or infrastructures, not to mention the mafia infiltration of the economy and public contracts, which none of its last councilors has achieved. barely reverse.
«Rome is a confused, disillusioned, sometimes angry city, always on the verge of final defeat. It is a city loved by many, but it does not have a defined identity. She seems to be searching for a soul, an idea, a vocation that can lead her to redemption », writes the historian Augusto D’Angelo in the prologue of the book ‘Slave of Rome? The 150 years of a capital ‘. For this professor at La Sapienza University in Rome, the ruling class of the Eternal City has shown in recent times “a reduced capacity to maintain a high level of national and international projection”, as well as to carry out projects that excite students. citizens and shape “new ideas” about the city. At 55, Gualtieri must now demonstrate whether he is capable of waking up the Italian capital from a comatose state.
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