Amministrative 2024, Pd and M5s divided in three out of six regional capitals

On 8 and 9 June, the vote is not only for the European elections. But also for the election of mayors and councils of more than 3,700 municipalities (in Piedmont the regional council is also being renewed) with 29 provincial capitals involved, six of which are regional capitals: Florence, Perugia, Campobasso, Bari, Cagliari and Potenza. And indeed, the spotlight is mainly on the big cities. In three centres (Bari, Florence and Potenza) Pd and M5s are running divided, while in the other three they are allied.

In Bari, where the hypothesis of dissolution for mafia charges is still hovering after the judicial enquiry on the trade vote, five candidates are taking part in the election of the first citizen who will take the place of Antonio Decaro (who is running for the European elections). After 20 years of opposition, the centre-right will try to regain the majority in the city council by focusing on the mayoral candidate Fabio Romito, a young regional councillor (but in the past also a city councillor) supported by no less than 10 lists. The centre-right will try to exploit the split in the progressive front. The investigation by the judiciary, which also involved a regional councillor of the PD (who has resigned), in fact led the M5s to blow up the unitary primaries already scheduled and run with its candidate. So, on the one hand there is Vito Leccese (mayor Decaro's chief of staff - in the past a member of the Greens' parliament and a municipal and provincial councillor, as well as general director of the municipality under Michele Emiliano), chosen by the PD, who will be able to count on seven lists to support him; on the other Michele Laforgia ( a criminal lawyer - his father Pietro Leonida was briefly mayor of the city and a Pds senator in the 1990s), six lists, standard bearer of M5s and Sinistra italiana. There are two outsiders: Sabino Mangano, former municipal councillor of the 5 Star Movement from 2014 to 2019 who leads the Oltre list, which groups four civic movements; and Nicola Sciacovelli, former municipal councillor for 10 years who presents two civic lists.

In Florence, the historic red stronghold, the centre-left has imploded even more resoundingly. And the centre-right candidate Eike Schmidt, former director of the Uffizi and current director of the Neapolitan museum of Capodimonte, supported by a coalition that includes all the centre-right parties and civic lists, is aiming first at the runoff and then at victory. The agreement between the Pd and M5s, which for many months seemed within reach, was blown up at the last moment, despite numerous interlocutions even at the Roman level. The Pentastellati are therefore fielding Lorenzo Masi, an outgoing councillor, while Matteo Renzi has decided to play a free-for-all by betting on Stefania Saccardi, vice-president of the Tuscany Region. Sara Funaro, Dem exponent and outgoing councillor of the Nardella junta, is supported by the PD, Avs, +Europa, Azione and civic lists. But also Dimitrij Palagi, supported by a coalition led by Sinistra Progetto Comune, is running for mayor, as well as the former councillor Cecilia Del Re with Firenze Democratica..

Campo largo also divided in Potenza. The Pd symbol is absent. The mayoral candidates are: the outgoing vice-president of the regional government, Francesco Fanelli (League), lined up at the last moment by the centre-right enlarged to include Azione and Italia Viva (same winning scheme at the April regional elections) and three exponents of the centre-left. They are the outgoing municipal councillors Francesco Giuzio (Basilicata Possibile), Pierluigi Smaldone (Potenza Ritorna with the support of the M5S) and Vincenzo Telesca (supported by several civic lists and by the PD majority, but, due to the split in the party, without the Dem symbol, which will not be present on the ballot). The outsider is Maria Grazia Marino (Forza del Popolo). In 2019, the municipal elections in the Lucanian capital were won in the runoff by Mario Guarente (Lega) over Valerio Tramutoli (Basilicata Possibile) with a difference of only 200 votes (16,248 to 16,048). Within hours of the presentation of the lists, Guarente, yielding to pressure from those who did not believe in his new success, gave up running for his second term. In his place, the Carroccio chose Francesco Fanelli, vice-president of the outgoing Lucanian council, but not elected to the regional council on 21 and 22 April.

In the centre-left camp, Telesca (first elected to the city council in 2014 and then, as the most voted, in 2019) had been working for months on his candidature for mayor. With a long history in the PD, the lawyer from Potenza, who militated in Italia Viva for a while before returning to the PD, was indicated by the Lucania Dem secretary, Giovanni Lettieri, as the candidate on whom the PD had decided to converge. After some fiery phone calls, Lettieri had to take a half step back, specifying that the decision concerned only 'the majority of the PD leadership group'. A formula used to try to curb, without succeeding, the discontent of those in the PD party who were against Telesca's candidacy, starting with Vito Santarsiero, mayor of Potenza from 2004 to 2014, and a member of the party's National Executive, who asked Elly Schlein to intervene because "the choice was neither sanctioned nor approved by any political body",