Administrative elections, the new map of the 18 provincial capitals: who wins and who loses while waiting for the ballots

Seven mayors to the centrosinistra in the first round: in Mantova, Prato, Pistoia, Salerno, Andria, Avellino, Enna (but in Salerno Vincenzo De Luca overcame without the symbol of the PD and without the support of the Avs and M5s who fielded their own candidate. No Pd symbol even in Enna in support of the winner Vladimiro Crisafulli). Three to the centre-right (Venice, Reggio Calabria and Crotone). Two chief towns (Fermo and Messina) where civic or other party candidates asserted themselves. This is the picture after the administrative elections of 24 and 25 May in the eighteen provincial capitals on the ballot. In six cities the word will return to the citizens at the ballots on 7 and 8 June: Agrigento, Arezzo, Chieti, Lecco, Macerata and Trani. The starting situation was 8 outgoing centre-left administrations, 5 centre-right and 5 are from more or less politically oriented civic lists. The centre-right maintains Venice (where the most important challenge was being played out) against eve's predictions. And it snatched Reggio Calabria from the centre-left. The reverse happened in Pistoia.

If we broaden our gaze to the 118 municipalities with more than 15,000 inhabitants on the ballot, after the first round the centre-left won 37 municipalities (it had 59) the centre-right 25 (it had 42). It will be the 41 ballots that will again allow a final balance, decreeing - numbers in hand - who has lost and who has gained.

In Lecco the challenge will be between outgoing centre-left mayor Mauro Gattinoni (42.53%) and centre-right candidate Filippo Boscagli who is ahead with 48.65%. In Arezzo Vincenzo Ceccarelli (centre-left) is 11 points behind the centre-right candidate Marcello Comanducci and will weigh the 20.49% of Marco Donati, former Dem MP who came third (with the support of Action and civic lists). By a whisker it will be a runoff in Macerata, where the outgoing centre-right mayor Sandro Parcaroli (who, however, asked for a recount) stopped at 49.96%, missing victory in the first round by a handful of votes (less than a dozen). The centre-left candidate Gianluca Tittarelli is behind with 41.9%.

In Chieti, Giovanni Legnini (former vice-president of the Csm), candidate of the centre-left, is ahead with 47.2% over Cristiano Sicari (27.5%), supported by all the majority forces except the League, which presented its own candidate, Mario Colantonio, who collected 16.6%. Ballot also in Trani, the city governed for two terms by the Dem Amedeo Bottaro. They will contest Marco Galiano (40.7%), supported in the first round by the PD but not by the M5S (whose candidate Vito Branà stopped at 3.5%), and the centre-right candidate Angelo Guarriello, behind the former with 30.3%. In Agrigento, Michele Sodano (Progressive Camp) with 39.1% of the preferences and Dino Alonge supported by Fi-Fdi-Udc and autonomists with 34.7% will compete for the mayoral seat. The scales will be tipped by the third candidate Luigi Gentile, who was supported by the League and DC and obtained 14%

The Vigevano (Pavia) case is worth noting. The centre-left candidate Rossella Buratti, ahead with 34.3%, and Paolo Previde Massara (24.4%), supported by Forza Italia but not by the rest of the centre-right (Fdi-Lega-Nm), who had chosen instead to support Riccardo Ghia, third with 21.45%, will compete in the run-off for the mayoral seat of Vigevano. Votes that will be decisive in the second round, just as the needle of the scales will be Furio Suvilla, candidate supported by General Roberto Vannacci, who recorded an exploit (14.2)%. The League's defeat was heavy. In a city in which the outgoing administration was Carroccio-led (the outgoing mayor Andrea Ceffa, accused in a corruption trial, was suspended from office in November 2024), not only did it fail to send its candidate even to the ballot. But it stopped in the list vote at 9.5%, surpassed by Vigevano Futura (11.6%), which supported Suvilla.