Decaro is already wearing the pink jersey on his debut as president

The reasons for this widespread support amongst the public may lie in the fundamentals of a political and administrative machine that is now well-oiled, in areas where the centre-left has always struggled to gain a foothold outside urban centres. This is also the case in Piedmont, where Alberto Cirio (Fi) came fourth with 60 per cent of the vote, continuing the steady consolidation he has shown in recent years.

The impetus behind the centre-right leaders in the north, however, cannot be attributed to progress on differentiated autonomy. There is currently no such progress.

Admittedly, the Government has begun preliminary discussions with Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria and Veneto (Fedriga, who heads a region with special status, is obviously not interested). However, the content of these agreements – which, incidentally, is identical for all regions – is severely restricted by the ruling of the Constitutional Court declaring the first law implementing regional autonomy to be unconstitutional. At present, the issues at stake are civil protection, the professions and supplementary pensions, as well as a strengthening of existing autonomy in the health sector. But the process is only just beginning, and following parliamentary scrutiny of the preliminary agreements, these should be translated into implementing bills; however, these are unlikely to reach the finish line in the event of early elections in the spring, as the Minister for the Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti, warned a couple of weeks ago.

At the top of the rankings, however, the North dominates but does not have a monopoly. From Calabria, Forza Italia’s deputy secretary Roberto Occhiuto remains the exception in the South, sharing fourth place with Cirio thanks to a 60 per cent share – an improvement of two points on last year and 2.7 points compared with the election result.

As for the rest, from Renato Schifani in Sicily in eighth place alongside Vito Bardi from Basilicata, right through to Roberto Fico (Campania) in tenth place alongside Francesco Acquaroli from the Marche, the South is concentrated in the lower-middle reaches of the table. This year’s ranking concludes with a tie between Francesco Roberti (Molise), who also came last last year, and Francesco Rocca (Lazio). However, below the ‘pass mark’ of 50 per cent approval ratings, we also find Marco Bucci, the former mayor of Genoa and now president of Liguria, Stefania Proietti in Umbria and Alessandra Todde in Sardinia, who has nevertheless improved on last year’s result by 2.5 points.